President gives assent to Army, Air Force, Navy amendment bills

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday gave assent to the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2025, Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and Pakistan Navy (Amendment) Bill, 2025.

The president has given his assent to these (amendments) bills on the advice of the prime minister. With the assent of the president, these bills have now formally turned into law as an Act of Parliament.

Earlier, the National Assembly had passed these bills -- Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2025, Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and Pakistan Navy (Amendment) Bill, 2025 — on Thursday while the Senate had passed them on Friday. Under the amended Pakistan Army Act, the Chief of Army Staff will also serve as the Chief of Defence Forces, with a fixed tenure of five years. The 27th Constitutional Amendment had also approved that the rank of Field Marshal would be a lifetime position. The post of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee has been abolished. Another amendment relates to the appointment of commander of the National Strategic Command (NSC), which says, “The Prime Minister may, on the recommendation of the Chief of the Army Staff concurrently the Chief of the Defence Forces, appoint the NSC commander from amongst generals in the Pakistan Army, for a tenure of three years.”

Amendments to the Air Force and Navy laws includes the elimination of the post of CJCSC from their documents.