Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he has flatly rejected a proposal from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on the appointment of a successor to Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Gen Bajwa, 61, who is on a three-year extension, is set to retire on November 29.
Gen Bajwa was initially appointed in 2016, but after three years of tenure, the then government of Mr Khan in 2019 extended his service for another three years. In September, Mr Khan had said that Gen Bajwa should be given another extension until a new government is elected, while reiterating calls for early elections.
Talking to vloggers on Saturday, which was his first such meeting, Shehbaz Sharif said Mr Khan had offered talks with the government a month ago through a mutual businessman friend to resolve two issues, one of which was the appointment of the next army chief and the second was holding early elections, the Express Tribune newspaper reported on Sunday.
“Imran Khan suggested that we give him three names and he gives three names for the post of army chief and then we decide on the appointment of the new chief from those six names,” Mr Sharif said.
“If there is a common name in both the lists, then we will agree,” he said, adding, however: “I flatly refused Imran Khan’s offer by saying ‘thank you’.”
Shehbaz Sharif said he had sent a message that the appointment of the army chief was a constitutional duty that the prime minister would have to perform.
“I have offered to discuss the Charter of Democracy and Charter of Economy with Imran Khan,” he said.
“Imran Khan is currently targeting the Army leadership only to fulfill his personal desires,” said Mr Sharif, adding that the former prime minister is “now spewing poison against those who nurtured him. No one is safe from his mischief.”
The appointment of the Pakistan Army chief is the sole prerogative of the prime minister and it is perhaps the only time that his verdict is accepted by the powerful army without any ifs and buts.
The upcoming appointment is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
When Imran Khan was in power, the opposition accused him of trying to bring in an army chief of his choice, who would support his alleged agenda of victimising opposition leaders.
Since he lost power in April this year, the equation has changed and now Imran Khan is saying that the coalition government wants to install an army head of its choice to protect the looted wealth and steal general elections.
Whatever the political meaning of the rival rhetoric, the fact is that an army chief is seldom a silent spectator of the political games in the country.
The powerful army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 75-plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy.
Last week, Imran Khan had admitted that he offered an extension in the tenure of Army chief Bajwa in March amid the opposition’s attempt to topple his government.
Imran Khan’s remarks came after Pakistan’s ISI chief Lt Gen Nadeem Najum revealed at an unprecedented press conference on Thursday last that the army chief was given a “lucrative offer” for an indefinite extension in his tenure in March.
