Islamabad. Elections may be held in Pakistan, people vote and elect their leaders but only the Pakistan Army has the power there. The Pakistan Army has a history of forming and toppling governments. The Army decides its policies according to its own will, even the number of years to remain on the job, and gets it passed by the government after heavy opposition. The current Army Chief of Pakistan did the same. He made changes in the Army Act and increased his tenure from 3 to 5 years. Along with this, the age limit of 64 years for appointment, re-appointment, and extension under section 80C of the Army Act was also abolished.

The current Army Chief Asim Munir was to retire in 2025. Now he will retire in 2027 and after that, since the upper age limit is over, he can extend his tenure as much as he wants. This has become the biggest hurdle for Imran Khan's release. Foreign affairs expert Sushant Sareen believes that there is enmity between General Asim Munir and Imran Khan and now it will be very difficult for Imran Khan to get out of jail. Not only this, but due to the extension of the tenure of the Pakistani Army Chief, those Pakistani Army officers who would have become the Chief after General Munir retired in 2025 will not be able to do so now. After this decision, there will definitely be resentment within the army.

Amendment in Pakistan Army Act 1952
The Pakistan government amended the Pakistan Army Act 1952 on Monday. The special thing is that despite strong opposition from the opposition, the government got this amendment passed from both the houses. Earlier also, the tenure of former Army Chief General Bajwa was extended and Imran Khan himself as Prime Minister wanted to give another extension so that the path of General Munir to become the Chief is closed but this could not happen. But it is difficult to say that Asim Munir will not take an extension even after 2027. He can remain in the post of Chief of Pakistan Army for a long time by taking an extension. As long as General Asim Munir remains the Army Chief, Imran Khan will not let him go out because the enmity between the two is such.

General Munir and Imran's enmity
There is no new thing about the tussle and bitterness between the army, the government, and the court. There has been a dispute between Army Chief General Asim Munir and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan for the last several years or saying they are enemies of each other. This came to the fore when Imran Khan removed Asim Munir from the post of DG ISI in 2019. This was no less than a humiliation for Asim Munir because he was removed before the completion of his tenure. The reason behind this was that he had presented evidence of corruption against Imran Khan's wife. In return, many corruption allegations against General Asim Munir from Imran Khan's side also came to the fore during Imran Khan's government. In which there is an allegation of extorting Rs 90 crore from a businessman while being the core commander of Gujranwala. This businessman himself had told this to Imran Khan by writing a letter. The bitterness of the army versus Imran Khan came to the fore when Imran Khan, who was made the Prime Minister of Pakistan, was removed from the throne. To defeat Imran himself in the elections, the army had arranged for Nawaz Sharif's entry into Pakistan.

While the cases against Imran Khan were
being filed one after the other and the punishments were being given to them, the cases against Nawaz Sharif started being dropped. Imran would get bail in one of the cases and would be put in jail again in the next. Even the PTI symbol was frozen. Not only this, but many types of audio and video of Imran Khan were released. Despite doing all this, Imran Khan's popularity was increasing instead of decreasing. After ousting Imran Khan from power in April 2022, Imran Khan intensified his attacks against the army. He even alleged that two attempts were made to kill him. So on 9 May 2023, Imran's supporters barged in from the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi to the house of the Lahore Corps Commander and even vandalized it. Due to this, the army got so angry that the case was heard in a military court. It is clear from this bitterness that it will not be easy to say when Imran Khan will be able to come out of jail.