The Ministry of Defence on Friday officially notified Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir as the country’s first chief of defence forces (CDF), a day after President Asif Ali Zardari approved the appointment on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The CDF position, created under the 27th Constitutional Amendment, will replace the now-abolished office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) chairman, which formally ended on November 27. It would be a dual-hatted position combined with the office of the army chief.
A day earlier, a press release from the presidency said the president signed off on the army chief’s appointment along with a two-year extension in the tenure of Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu.
The president extended his best wishes to both military commanders for their upcoming terms.
PM Shehbaz had conveyed his best wishes to Field Marshal Munir.
“Under the leadership of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, our brave armed forces inflicted a humiliating defeat on the enemy,” the statement quoted the prime minister as saying.
The move came after earlier in the day, PM Shehbaz sent a summary to President Zardari recommending the appointment of the army chief.
The new arrangement consolidates operational, administrative and strategic authority in a single office established through amendments to Article 243 of the Constitution under the 27th Amendment.
The revised Article 243 provides that the president, acting on the prime minister’s advice, shall appoint the chief of the army staff, who will concurrently serve as the chief of defence forces.
Five-year tenure reset
To translate the constitutional overhaul into the military’s legal framework, the government amended the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) of 1952 in the wake of the 27th Amendment.
Sub-section (i) of PAA’s Article 8A now states that “for the first appointment of the chief of the army staff concurrently the chief of the defence forces […], the tenure under this section shall commence from the date of notification of the said office”.
It explains that upon the issuance of the notification for the first COAS-plus-CDF, the “existing tenure of the incumbent chief of the army staff shall be deemed to have recommenced from the date of such notification”.
Under sub-section (iii) of Article 8A, the “terms and conditions” of the COAS concurrently with the CDF shall be determined by the president on the prime minister’s advice.
Field Marshal Munir was appointed army chief on Nov 29, 2022, becoming the 17th army chief to assume the command of the Pakistan Army.
In November 2024, the government brought changes to the PAA, extending the tenure for all three services chiefs from three to five years, keeping the CJCSC’s tenure unchanged at three years. The same amendments allowed the services chiefs to be reappointed and/or their tenures to be extended for up to five years, instead of up to three years.
Therefore, in line with the restructuring under the 27th Amendment, the recent PAA changes allow the president, on the prime minister’s advice, to reappoint the COAS-plus-CDF for another five years, or extend his tenure by up to five years, creating legal space for him to retain his position till December 2035.
More to follow
