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The National Assembly Standing Committee on Defense on Monday unanimously approved the three bills pertaining to tenures of services chiefs and chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

The NA body took up the bills again after some opposition parties suggested that the house business in consideration of the bills should be followed after the amendments were approved on Friday in haste.

Talking to journalists after an in-camera meeting of the committee, Defense Minister Pervez Khattak confirmed that the amendments were unanimously passed.

"I congratulate the entire country and the opposition parties...these bills will now be put up for a vote in the NA on Tuesday (today)," he added.

Responding to a question, Khattak said all political parties are on the same page regarding the matter, adding no one has backtracked.

"All political parties are on the same page and are standing alongside the armed forces," he maintained.

Meanwhile, Minister for Law and Justice Dr Farogh Naseem told journalists after the committee approved the bills that the opposition was looking for making a role for a parliamentary committee [for services chiefs' appointment]".

"But I convinced them legally that the changes they are recommending require a constitutional amendment," he added.

"A parliamentary committee's role will come into play only after a constitutional amendment creates that role... and even the Supreme Court has not asked us to amend the Constitution," he said, adding that the opposition members accepted his arguments with a 'big heart'.

He said the amendments pertaining to the security institutions should not be politicized, adding any "genuine" amendment by any opposition party will be incorporated.

MNA Ramesh Kumar of ruling PTI said that all political parties unanimously approved the bills keeping in view the country's situation and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa's performance.

Both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supported the bill, he added.

The bills were reconsidered by NA committee after the body had earlier approved the amendments in a rushed session on Friday.

The government had laid the three bills in National Assembly on Friday last as per the Supreme Court verdict to remove ambiguity in laws and to provide legal ground to the extension given to Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after the apex court suspended controversial notifications of the government in this regard last year. After being approved by National Assembly, the bills will be approved by Senate Standing Committee on Defense before the bills are passed by the Senate.

The bills would become acts of parliament once signed by the President.

Meanwhile, the federal government has also reached out to the opposition parties including Jamiat Ulema-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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