General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s retirement is now exactly one week away. Understandably, the chatter around his successor is louder than ever. If you’re wondering how the process of the new chief’s appointment is coming along, here are four statments that show where things stand. The key word for now is ‘summary’.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif set airwaves ablaze when he told reporters on Monday that no summary had been received by his ministry from the GHQ yet. With the current chief’s retirement only a week away, this statement raised concerns that the process of nominating the chief hasn’t even officially begun yet.
However, when the speculations and concerns became too loud, the minister himself took the floor of the assembly to explain that the PM has sent a letter to the defence ministry, and the process to appoint the chief will be completed in ‘two to three days’. So things are moving.
Rana Sanaullah told Geo News’ Shahzeb Khanzada late on Monday that the appointment will be made on time, summary or no summary.
However, the statement might not necessarily have been an indication of a disagreement between the government and GHQ, as the minsiter clarified. “Since the PM has asked for a summary and the defence minister has said it will be sent in two to three days, then it will be sent to the PM office by all means.”
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi added another dimension to the debate when he said that the summary must contain the names of ‘eligible’ officers. He made the statement in a talk show on Aaj News with Asma Shirazi on Monday.
If any ‘eligible’ names were omitted from the list, the matter can be sent to court, Abbasi said. However, he did not answer directly when asked if this statement was related to Lt. General Asim Munir, who is set to retire two days before General Bajwa leaves office.
He added that even though the new chief’s appointment is usually made right at the end, it was a ‘big failure’ that the summary had not been moved yer.
Taking to Twitter early on Tuesday, Sheikh Rasheed said that Rana Sana’s ‘summary or no summary’ statement was a matter of alarm.
“Until the issue of the chief’s appointment is resolved, there will be no stability in politics,” he wrote.
Even if ‘khatray ki ghanti’ is attributed to Sheikh Rasheed’s typical flamboyance of language, his statement that all stakeholders are not on the same page might not be an exaggeration. Read together with the statements from PML-N, it is safe to assume that not everything is going smoothly.
How is the whole business of receiving and acting on summaries carried out? The answer is available in article 243 of the constitution, rules of business 1937 as well as the tradition of how things are done.
According to article 243(3) the president appoints the three services chiefs on the advice of the prime minister. The word advice was consultation, until it was changed in the 18th amendment. However, this still means that the president has to act on the PM’s advice.
Rules of business 1973 Schedule V-A says that all appointments of lieutenant general rank and above should be made through consultation between president and prime minister. In practice however, the army chief decides who will be promoted to three-star rank.
The summary sent by GHQ is not just the opinion of the army chief, but also reflects the will of the entire army high command. The possibility that the absence of the summary will be ignored by the PM is slim at best.
Simply signing the summary is not the president’s only option. The president has to give the summary his approval within 10 days, but it can also be sent back if he finds an issue. In such a scenario, the summary will stay in the prime minister’s office for 15 more days.
Thus, the matter of appointment can be delayed for up to 25 days in total, after the summary is first moved.
However, the fact that the president belongs to the PTI has a potential to create a controversy. If PM Shehbaz Sharif, who belongs to the PML-N, decides to move ahead without receiving the army’s proposals and the president decides to return the summary, the whole process would grind to a halt.
There is only one example of a prime minister making such a decision without receiving a summary. In October 1999, the current PM’s elder brother tried to replace General Pervez Musharraf with Ziauddin Butt.
