Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, six out of the eight judges of Islamabad High Court wrote a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council members complaining about interference of Pakistan army’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence [ISI] in judicial affairs.

The piece below which was published in Eurasia Review on December 1, 2019 addresses this very issue and is hence being republished [in original].

The cavalier manner in which the Government of Pakistan (GoP) proceeded to grant army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa a three-year service extension was rightly struck down by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan causing immense embarrassment to the government as well as the army.

The SC verdict has given detractors a handy stick to pommel Prime Minister Imran Khan and the PTI. But even though being no fan of his, I still feel that all the hue and cry being raised is unwarranted and that Khan and his advisors are unnecessarily being hauled over coals for having followed precedent rather than going by the law, just like governments in the past had been doing.

By stating in its order that “The learned Attorney-General (AG) has taken pains to explain that the answers to these questions (on grant of extension to the army chief) are based on practice being followed in the Pakistan Army but the said practice has not been codified under the law,” even the Supreme Court of Pakistan too has tacitly accepted that while what Khan did is illegal, but it isn’t something earth-shattering!

Yet, by advising the government to “Put your house in order” and giving it six months to promulgate legislation for service extension, CJP has minced no words in conveying that the judiciary would not accept any fait........

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