islamabad pakistan is staring at political turmoil posteid on the back of opposition parties threatening to hit the streets over the ruling sharif familys alleged holding of illegal offshore assets and a growing clamour for the extension of its army chiefs term due to end this yearqueering the pitch further for pm nawaz sharif is the return of firebrand cleric and canadian national of pakistani origin tahir qadri who had held massive sitins against the sharif government at the beginning of his term he is threatening another strike after eid to remove sharif once and for all it is common knowledge that his previous strike was secretly encouraged by powerful elements within the army therefore while the opposition has filed complaint with the election commission seeking sharif s disqualification over panama papers posters banners and billboards featuring army chief general raheel sharif have cropped up across cities like islamabad and karachi requesting him to remain till the complete eradication of militancy and corruption from the country the general had last january said hed retire at the end of his term but the political scenario has changed dramatically since then its quite strange that you make an untimely announcement of retirement and then a campaign for extension takes off this country is being run in a strange way lt gen retd talat masood a defence and political analyst told toiconstitutionally army chiefs get extension at the pms discretion although seniority matters the pm can select anyone from the bunch of recommendations or even supersede the proposed names to bring in someone elsetwo senior generals were superseded when sharif was made army chief similarly during his first tenure as pm nawaz sharif had picked general asif nawaz janjua as the army chief who was then fourth in line and in 1998 hed chosen general musharraf who was number three further back zulfiqar ali bhutto had appointed general ziaul haq bypassing seven senior lieutenant generals zia eventually had bhutto hanged through a military tribunalsyed fasihur rehman an analyst said pm sharif doesnt have a good track record of working relationship with army chiefs hed developed sharp differences with general asif nawaz in early 1990s compelled his successor general jahangir karamat to resign and then moved to oust general musharraf in october 1999 which resulted in a military couptrying to remedy the situation backdoor attempts are on to effect a change in the army act through parliament to extend the chief s term from three to four yearsinsiders believe the pm is in no mood to give an extension to the general considering his tough talk on issues related to foreign policy corruption and accountability i dont think the pm will give extension to general sharif it doesnt set a good precedent if you give extension to one general it deprives several other deserving officers from promotion said masood