ISLAMABAD: The Constitutional Bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging the extension of the tenure of Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir, state news agency APP said. 

Pakistan’s parliament earlier this month passed bills to extend the terms of the heads of the armed forces to five years from three, a move that has been opposed by rights activists as well as the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of jailed ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The PTI believes extending the term of commanders including the army chief would deal another blow to the embattled Khan and his party, which blames the military for his downfall. The army denies involvement. 

“The petition was dismissed after the petitioner Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi failed to appear before the court and defend his argument in spite of repeated notices,” APP said. “Also, the new legislation fixing the tenure of all three service chiefs paved the way for the dismissal of the petition.”

The office of the army chief is considered to be the most powerful in the country, with the military having ruled Pakistan for almost half of its 75-year history. Even when not directly in power, the army is considered to be the invisible guiding hand in politics and holds considerable sway in internal security, foreign policy, and economic affairs, among other domains. 

The coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has defended the passage of the new bills that extend the tenures of the army, navy and air force chiefs, saying the move would check against services chiefs granting themselves extensions and “formalize” the duration of their service. The government says the bills are aimed at building continuity and avoiding the political turmoil that usually surrounds the appointment of the army chief every three years. 

Rights activists and democracy advocates say the measures by the Sharif-led coalition, which is opposed to Khan and took power after an election in February, could be aimed at shoring up support from powerful military figures.

Under the new law, Gen.l Munir, who took office in November 2022 with a timeline to retire in 2025, will serve until 2027 irrespective of a retirement age of 64 for a general.

Khan, who has been in jail since August last year, has been at odds with generals he blames for his 2022 ousting, after he fell out with then-army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. The military denies it interferes in politics. 

Khan’s party-backed candidates won the most seats in February’s election but fell short of a majority, clearing the way for his opponents led by Sharif to form a government.

Khan’s supporters have since been agitating in parliament and on the streets, alleging that the election was rigged to keep them out of power, which the election commission denies. The PTI says the ruling alliance does not enjoy legitimacy, an accusation the government rejects.

The passage of the new bills on extension in service tenure follows controversial amendments made to the constitution last month, granting lawmakers the authority to nominate the chief justice of Pakistan, who previously used to be automatically appointed according to the principle of seniority.

The amendments allowed the government to bypass the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, and appoint Justice Yahya Afridi as the country’s top judge.

The opposition and the legal fraternity have opposed the amendments, arguing that they are aimed at granting more power to the executive in making judicial appointments and curtailing the independence of the judiciary. The government denies this.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday signed a “landmark” $500 million dollar loan agreement under the ‘Climate and Disaster Resilience Enhancement Program,’ state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. 

Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said last month Pakistan was targeting around $1 billion in a formal request for funding from an IMF facility that helps low and middle income countries mitigate climate risk. The IMF already agreed to a $7 billion bailout for Pakistan in September but has additional funding available via its Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), created in 2022 to provide long-term concessional cash for climate-related spending such as adaptation and transitioning to cleaner energy.

“The signing of the [ADB] agreement underscores Pakistan’s commitment to prioritize climate change initiatives and scaling up disaster risk financing using a risk-layered approach,” Radio Pakistan said, quoting Pakistan’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Ahad Cheema. 

The program is aimed at strengthening Pakistan’s capacity for climate change adaptation and disaster risk management and will address the country’s vulnerabilities to natural disasters and climate impacts.

“The core objective of the program is to enhance institutional frameworks for disaster risk management by improving disaster risk mapping, response coordination, and gender-sensitive public investments,” Radio Pakistan added. 

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who spoke at a number of events at the UN COP29 climate summit last week, used the forum to highlight the need to increase climate finance for vulnerable, developing countries. He said developing countries would need an estimated $6.8 trillion by 2030 to implement less than half of their current nationally determined contributions (NDCs) or national action plans for reducing emissions and adapting to climate impacts defined by the Paris Agreement.

The main task for nearly 200 countries at the COP29 summit, taking place from Nov. 11-22, is to broker a deal that ensures up to trillions of dollars in financing for climate projects worldwide.