Services chiefs legislation: Rana Sanaullah admits PML-N acted in 'undue haste'

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah slammed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)  saying that the government’s failure to follow procedural requirements is the reason why legislation on tenure of armed services chiefs became controversial.

"This government's failure to follow the procedural requirement is the reason that the amendments became controversial. It was not our party or anyone else who had a part to play in that," he said.

The PTI government, with the backing of the PML-N and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the two main opposition parties, had legislated on the matter with a near unanimous approval in parliament.

The move was necessitated by the Supreme Court's November 28 orders, in which it had directed the federal government to legislate on the matter within six months.

Sanaullah, while addressing a press conference in Lahore today (Friday) and flanked by other party leaders, recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan's August 19 decision to give the army chief an extension had not been contested by major political parties.

Sanaullah further said that his party should not have been part of the "undue haste" with which the amendments were rushed through the parliament in a single day. He said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif had conveyed the same message to party leaders.

"A lot of people were surprised by the decision of the ruling party to convene an emergency session of the parliament to pass the Army Act amendments. Upon further enquiries, it was conveyed that the amendments had to be passed in a single day," Sanaullah noted.

"Our parliamentary party also became a part of this undue haste. Our party realises that this was a political shortcoming on our part. We should not have become a part of this undue haste, but rather we should have stopped it," the former provincial minister added.

Sanaullah said that PML-N leader Sharif had advised the parliamentary party to not support any undue haste as it would make it seem as if the parliament was 'rubber-stamping' the orders of someone else.

The PML-N leader said that those criticising the party's conduct on the legislation were not the workers of the PML-N.