IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Original Jurisdiction) 
 
 
 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, CJ 
Mr. Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel 
Mr. Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah 
 
 
 
Constitution Petition No. 39 of 2019 
(Against Extension of Tenure of Chief of Army Staff) 
 
 
 
The Jurists Foundation through its Chairman 
 
 
…Petitioner 
 
 
 
 
 
versus 
 
Federal Government through Secretary Ministry of Defence, 
etc.  
…Respondents 
 
 
For the petitioner: 
Nemo. 
 
 
For the respondents: 
Mr. Anwar Mansoor Khan, Attorney-
General for Pakistan 
Mian Asghar Ali, Deputy Attorney-
General for Pakistan  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Date of hearing: 
26.11.2019 
 
ORDER 
 
 
 
Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, CJ.:  The 
Court-Associate 
has 
produced before us a handwritten application statedly submitted 
by the petitioner seeking permission to withdraw this petition. The 
petitioner has failed to appear in person nor anybody else has 
appeared on his behalf. The application received does not carry 
any date and the same is not accompanied by any affidavit. There 
is nothing before us to accept or to presume that the said 
application has actually been submitted by the petitioner himself 
or that he has submitted the same voluntarily. Be that as it may 
Constitution Petition No. 39 of 2019 
2
the petition in hand invokes Article 184(3) of the Constitution and 
the subject matter of the petition involves a question of public 
importance with reference to enforcement of fundamental rights 
and, thus, the individual capacity of the petitioner pales into 
insignificance even if he decides not to pursue the present petition. 
The application attributed to the petitioner is, therefore, not 
entertained.  
 
2. 
The learned Attorney-General for Pakistan is in attendance 
on his own and he has presented before us photocopies of many 
documents leading to an order passed by the President approving 
the summary sent to him by the Prime Minister along with his 
advice for extension/re-appointment of General Qamar Javed 
Bajwa, Chief of the Army Staff for a fresh term of three years in 
that office after expiry of his first term in that office. With the 
assistance of the learned Attorney-General for Pakistan we have 
gone through the said documents and have ex facie noticed the 
following things: 
 
i) 
A summary had initially been moved by the Ministry of 
Defence for extension of the term of office of the Chief of 
the Army Staff and subsequently he was appointed as 
Chief of the Army Staff for a second term of three years 
after completion of his first term in that office but the 
learned Attorney-General for Pakistan has not been able to 
refer to any provision in any legal instrument regarding 
extension in service of a Chief of the Army Staff upon 
completion of his first term in that office or for his re-
appointment to that office after completion of his first 
term. 
 
ii) 
In the case in hand the Prime Minister had himself passed 
an order appointing the current Chief of the Army Staff for 
a second term in that office on 19.08.2019 whereas under 
Article 243 of the Constitution it is the President who is 
the appointing authority for that office. Apparently that 
mistake came to notice straightaway and on the same day, 
i.e. 19.08.2019 a summary was moved from the Prime 
Minister’s office to the President for extension/re-
appointment of the incumbent Chief of the Army Staff and 
on that very day, i.e. 19.08.2019 the President was 
pleased to approve the summary in that regard and, 
hence, the advice of the Prime Minister was apparently 
accepted and acted upon. It appears that even that 
process was found to be flawed and on that very day it 
was realized that the Prime Minister or the President could 
not take the above mentioned actions without the 
Constitution Petition No. 39 of 2019 
3
approval of the Cabinet and, thus, on the next day, i.e. 
20.08.2019 a summary was moved in the relevant regard 
for approval of the Cabinet and on 21.08.2019 the Cabinet 
was said to have approved the said proposal through 
circulation. The opinion of the Cabinet recorded in this 
regard, photocopies whereof have been produced before 
us, shows that there are 25 members of the Cabinet and 
out of those 25 members only 11 had agreed to the 
proposal which shows that the majority of the Cabinet had 
not approved the said proposal. Yet another peculiar 
aspect is that after the purported or so-called approval of 
the Cabinet regarding extension/re-appointment of the 
incumbent Chief of the Army Staff the matter was never 
sent to the Prime Minister or the President again for the 
purposes of a fresh advice or a fresh order of the Prime 
Minister and the President respectively.  
 
iii) 
After our repeated queries the learned Attorney-General 
for Pakistan has referred to Regulation No. 255 of the 
Army Regulations (Rules) according to which a retirement 
of an Army officer can temporarily be suspended or 
limited. By placing reliance upon the said Regulation the 
learned Attorney-General for Pakistan has maintained 
that the Federal Government has the requisite authority to 
re-appoint or extend the services of an incumbent Chief of 
the Army Staff  prior to his retirement if the exigencies of 
the service so require or the public interest so demands. A 
bare perusal of Regulation No. 255, however, prima facie 
shows that the said provision can be invoked after an 
officer has already retired from service and that is why the 
said Regulation speaks of suspension of retirement or 
limiting of retirement. Suspending a retirement or limiting 
a retirement before the retirement has actually taken 
effect may amount to putting the cart before the horse. 
The learned Attorney-General for Pakistan has, however, 
very candidly submitted before us that in the entire body 
of laws pertaining to the Pakistan Army there is no 
express provision available regarding re-appointment or 
extension in the service of a Chief of the Army Staff.  
 
iv) 
The 
stated 
purpose 
for 
the 
proposed 
re-
appointment/extension in the term of office of the 
incumbent Chief of the Army Staff is “regional security 
environment”. The said words are quite vague and if at all 
there is any regional security threat then it is the gallant 
armed forces of the country as an institution which are to 
meet the said threat and an individual’s role in that regard 
may be minimal. If the said reason is held to be correct 
and valid then every person serving in the armed forces 
would claim re-appointment/extension in his service on 
the basis of the said reason.  
 
3. 
The points noted above call for a detailed examination of the 
matter of extension/re-appointment of General Qamar Javed 
Bajwa, Chief of the Army Staff and, therefore, he is hereby made a 
respondent to this petition and the office is directed to carry out 
the necessary addition in the memorandum of this petition. Let 
notice of this petition be issued to all the respondents for 
Constitution Petition No. 39 of 2019 
4
tomorrow, i.e. 27.11.2019, as requested by the learned Attorney-
General for Pakistan. In the meanwhile the operation of the 
impugned 
order/Notification 
in 
respect 
of 
extension/re-
appointment of General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of the Army 
Staff for another term in the said office shall remain suspended.  
 
 
Chief Justice 
 
Judge 
 
Judge 
Islamabad 
26.11.2019 
Not approved for reporting.  
Arif