ISLAMABAD: Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has told the Senate that he will resign from his office if it was proved that the military sponsored the Faizabad interchange Islamabad sit-in.

In an in-camera session of the Upper House, the army chief faced a multitude of questions from senators. The question-answer session continued for three hours, according to participants.

Bajwa said that the army did not have any desire to play an extra-constitutional role and that the parliament was supreme. The police operation against the Faizabad sitpin had pushed the situation from bad to worse, causing countrywide protests, he said adding that had the army taken any action against the protesters, the situation would have worsened.

However, he admitted that the army officer [of the Inter-Services Intelligence) should not have signed the agreement between the government and the sit-in organisers, but added that the protest would not have ended without his signature.

The Senate was also briefed by senior military officers on the missing persons and said that some of them pretend to be missing by going into hiding. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Nehal Hashmi later said that the army chief vehemently denied the military role in the sit-ins, including the recent one staged at Faizabad, and offered to step down, if it was proved otherwise.

Bajwa said the parliament should formulate policies on defence and foreign affairs and that the army would follow them, but asked the legislators that the politicians must not give an opportunity to the army (for interference).

A senator said that the army chief stated that there is no room for a presidential system, because not only it weakens a country but also leads to dangerous polarisation. The army is subservient and answerable to the public and the institution had to act according to the law, he said.

The event was part of an ongoing exercise by the Senate to prepare policy guidelines in light of the emerging regional realities and national security paradigm with a special focus on the recent visits of the army chief to Iran and Afghanistan. The forum was informed that these visits were part of the military diplomacy which had been extremely productive.

The army chief clarified that retired military officers giving analysis on TV channels were not spokespersons of the military. Since their inception in 2015, the military courts had managed to decide 274 cases and had awarded 161 death sentences and 56 convicts had been executed during that time - 13 of these before Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad and 43 since its launch.