A news report in Express Tribune quoted a PML-N lawyer as alleging that the federal government had engaged in this manoeuvre to gain PML-N’s full support in the army chief tenure legislation. He also claimed that Ahsan Iqbal’s arrest was also part of this move.
On Tuesday, the PTI government had filed a review petition against the Supreme Court decision that set aside the extension notification in the tenure of Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa. According to special assistant to Prime Minister on Information & Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan, the government believed that there were several legal gaps in the verdict.
The report stated that the government had filed the review petition after such a delay because it was trying to approach opposition parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party, regarding the legislation matter. The government approached these parties through intermediaries.
According to the report, Nawaz Sharif was open to supporting the government legislation to fix the army chief’s tenure but did not want to give legal cover to the reappointment/extension of an army chief.
Moreover, a senior lawyer within the PML-N stated that majority of the party leaders believed that giving support to the government on this issue could harm the party’s longstanding narrative.