The Supreme Court on Friday directed the government to present within two weeks its stance in writing that it had no intention to sack Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General (DG) Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez gave the orders after Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, who appeared on notice, told the court that the government had no intention to remove the COAS and ISI DG and they would serve their tenure. He said the petition against any possible move to sack the military and intelligence leadership was based on assumptions and hypothesis. The chief justice observed that the situation should move towards improvement.
“It would be better if the government submits its stance in writing,” the chief justice said, and directed the attorney general to take formal instructions from the government and submit to the court the reply in writing over the issue within a fortnight. “We want to resolve the issues and it would be better in the interest of the country as well as the nation,” the chief justice said. The petition seeking to block any attempts by the government to sack the military and intelligence leadership was filed by lawyer FK Butt a few weeks ago when the brewing tussle between the civilian government and the military leadership over the memo controversy had already led to the sacking of the defence secretary and triggered speculations that the government might take similar action against the army and intelligence chiefs.
SC wants assurance COAS, ISI DG won’t be sacked
