Imtiaz Ahmad & Agencies

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Islamabad : Pakistan’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday approved amendments to the Army Act 1952, Pakistan Air Force Act 1953 and Pakistan Navy Ordinance 1961 which will now give the prime minister the power to extend the tenure of any service chief and the president to give his final nod to the extension or reappointment.

The bills amendments were passed with the support of all major political parties, including the opposition PML-N and PPP.

Some opposition lawmakers, including MPs from the rightist Jamaat-e-Islami walked out in protest over the bills. They had earlier announced they would not be supporting the bill on principle.

After the National Assembly’s approval, the bills will now go to the Senate Standing Committee on Defence for approval before they are passed by the Senate. The bills would become acts of parliament once signed by the president.

In November 2019, the Supreme Court had asked the government to legislate on an extension in the COAS’s services within six months, allowing General Qamar Javed Bajwa to stay in office until then.

CRUCIAL BILL ON TERROR INFO PASSED

Islamabad : Pakistan has narrowly passed a bill that will allow the exchange of information and of criminals with countries, to meet a requirement of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). There was stiff resistance from the Opposition, with its leader Khwaja Asif saying that approving the bill would be “surrendering the country’s sovereignty”.

“Please do not rush the bill to meet someone’s deadline. Let us debate the matter,” he said. PPP’s Abdul Qadir Patel claimed that there was a clause in the bill which allowed the government to hand over individuals to countries even without demand.

In a related development, a the director general of Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), Mansoor Siddiqui has said Pakistan hopes to win a “largely compliant” rating from the FATF on implementing a 27-point action plan, which could help the government get more time from the watchdog for ensuring full compliance

Bomb kills 2 soldiers in Balochistan

quetta : A powerful roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying Pakistani security forces, killing two soldiers in the southwestern city of Quetta, a police official said Tuesday.

The bombing wounded 12 people, including security forces, said local police chief Abdul Wali. He said some of the wounded were in critical condition at local hospitals. Hizbul Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

air force jet crashes, 2 pilots killed

Multan : Pakistan’s air force said one if its aircraft crashed during training Tuesday in the eastern Punjab province, killing the two pilots. The FT-7 jet trainer went down in an open area, the air force statement said. It said an investigation had been opened to determine the cause of the crash, which took place near the district of Mianwali, 300km from the city of Lahore.