ISLAMABAD: Former law minister Farogh Naseem has said that Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa had no desire for extension in tenure.

“The army chief is a very brilliant person and he said that he had no such desire for extension but the way people asked him and as the security situation of Pakistan demanded (he had accepted the extension order),” Farogh Naseem said while talking to Geo News anchor Shahzeb Khanzada on Wednesday.

He said it was the federal government’s wish to grant the extension amid the impelling security issues facing the country.

To a query, the counsel of Qamar Javed Bajwa said the COAS was a professional soldier and he did not require any assurance and neither was he given any.

“Neither army chief nor Imran Khan was angry over the court proceedings. They consider it as a legal procedure,” he said.

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Farogh Naseem said one thing that the media did not run was that the Supreme Court was playing the role of a guardian in the case and had asked to look in-depth into the matter to resolve the issue.

“A consultative process is underway with the government’s legal team which includes Shahzad Akbar and others including cabinet members. The main thing is that how we help the SC,” he said.

Barrister Farogh Naseem said we had an old army act of 1952 and most of the things in the act had been inherited from the British colonial era in the subcontinent. It contained some obsolete things and terms which have difficult interpretation, he added.

“Few new amendments have been made in the army rules and regulations (ARR). Then the 18^th Amendment has completely changed the Article 243 of the constitution and all these things have been taken up for the first time in the Supreme Court,” he said.

He said the extension this time was made the same way as it had been happening in the past as well.

The top court had pursued the matter very minutely and we encourage its legal guidance in this regard, he added.