By Ahmad Jawad





Gen Qamar Bajwa should stay for one more year to ensure integrity & stability of country. An extension is always controversial & is not a institutional action.





Based on my extensive interaction with all three services, I can safely conclude that three year term for a Services Chief is too short if he wants to bring any good long term change.





If we make 4 years as standard duration for all services chief from now onwards, it will help stabilise the country. It will help all three services to improve with more consistency.





Here I give some examples from International scene:





  1. Army/Armed Forces chiefs of Turkey, Germany, Russia and China usually have tenures of four years or more inducing more stability and continuation of policies.
  2. The last Chinese Navy chief Admiral Wu Shengli was even afforded an 11 year tenure(2006-17) which resulted in great advancement. A similar thing was done by the Russians in case of Admiral Gorshkov who was afforded even more time to build a Navy to rival that of the U.S.




Currently we have all outstanding Services Chiefs. Naval Chief Admiral Z M Abbasi, I personally know, is a great leader, true muslim, highest level of integrity & character. Army Chief is vital for current local & regional environment. Air Chief has done well in current crisis. So extending their term by one year as permanent feature will not only serve great national cause, in addition, it will bring consistency & stability within three services.





I consider extending term of all three existing services Chiefs by one year will be most fruitful decision for national cause.