The fineprint of Tuesday’s order of the Pakistan Supreme Court, suspending the extension to the Army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, reinforces the position of the judiciary as the fourth factor in the country’s power-play ~ after the military, the executive and, to a relatively lesser extent, the legislature. The trend has been manifest since the Musharraf era. So when the Chief Justice, Asif Sayeed Khosa, observes that the “entire process was upside down”, it is a severe indictment of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s governance.

That stout message must resonate in the echo chambers of the Prime Minister’s office in Islamabad, if not the GHQ in Rawalpindi as well. Notably, the Bench has been remarkably explicit on the fact that two primary certitudes had been accorded the short shrift when the extension was granted in August. First, the President, however titular his position may be in the present scheme of things, was not consulted by Mr Khan. Nor for that matter was the cabinet taken into confidence.

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It is hard not to wonder if the Prime Minister had announced a unilateral decision on the extension in the context of what he calls the “regional security environment”. Well might the suspension of extension stoke tension within the military. The apex judiciary’s verdict comes barely three days before Gen Bajwa’s scheduled retirement on 29 November. The Chief Justice has underlined the semantic jugglery that is inherent in the government’s notification of 19 August.

While the government’s notification mentioned an “extension”, the order from the Prime Minister’s office said the “Army chief has been reappointed”. The extension was, therefore, projected as a reappointment. The Chief Justice has on Tuesday exposed the somewhat contrived double-think ~ “As per rules, there is no authority of extending an Army chief’s tenure or effecting his reappointment. The government can only suspend his retirement, and the Army chief has not retired yet.”

In the net, the government of the proposed ‘Naya Pakistan’ has been stumped fair and square, if not guilty of planting its leg before the wicket. There is no explanation yet on the 48-hour gap between the PM’s announcement and the cabinet meeting on 21 August. Even within the cabinet, the extension was not wholly approved. As the Chief Justice observed: “Only 11 members of the cabinet gave approval of the summary for the extension of the Army chief’s tenure. We cannot say that the majority gave the approval.”

Which statement lends credence to the dominant impression that it was Mr Khan’s unilateral decision. Constitutionally, it shall not be easy to defend the initiative, however forbidding the “regional security environment”. Most particularly in view of the Supreme Court’s punchline ~ “We cannot say that the majorty gave the approval. In a democracy, decisions are made through the opinion of the majority.” Indeed, a refresher course in democracy for the likes of Imran Khan.