Daily Times

As concluded by Mr AK Brohi in his famous treatise on Constitutional Law — Fundamental Law of Pakistan, at page 725, “it is necessary to stress that courage, intellectual honesty, and moral independence ought to be the chief ornaments of the advocate’s personality.”

The present Government, pre-poll and post-poll, has emphasized enough on appointments to be done on merits. In utter disregard of its own manifesto, like every newly elected government’s agenda of praising their blue-eyed individuals, the present Government has also taken steps in blessing their own.

In this hurricane of appointments, transfers and postings, the offices of attorney general and advocate general have also got engulfed.

Few days ago, the Government of Pakistan appointed around 104 law officers to represent the Federal Government before the august Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the Five High Courts. In this regard, a summary (containing a list of potential appointees for the credentials best known to the said Ministry) was forwarded to the Prime Minister by the Federal Ministry of Law, which was then sent to the President after being approved by the Prime Minister. It was further reported that around 88 law officers, already working in the Attorney General’s office, have been de-notified by the President.

These appointments are purely based on the political likings of those sitting in the Government; so are the removals. It is, however, important to first discuss the specifics of the appointments of Law Officers as enunciated in the Constitution and laws. The other debate is how these appointments should, instead, be done; but, till the time, the Central Law Officers Ordinance is in place, these appointments may not be made through a competitive process as may be suggested in this other debate. And, till that time, we might not be able to find those qualities highlighted by Mr Brohi.

As per Article 100 of the Constitution, the President is obligated to appoint an Attorney General of Pakistan, who shall be a person otherwise qualified to be appointed as a Judge of Supreme Court. The qualifications of a person to be appointed as a Judge of Supreme Court are specified in Article 177 of the Constitution. For assistance of the Attorney General, the additional officers are appointed under the Central Law Officers Ordinance, 1970 — an Ordinance, validated under the Validation of Laws Act, 1975 passed in pursuance of Article 270 of the Constitution.

According to specific the provisions of the Ordinance, the President is empowered to appoint one or more Additional Attorney Generals, Deputy Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General (formerly: Standing Counsels as amended by an Amendment Act of 2016) under Section 2 of the Ordinance.

Section 3 goes on to highlight the qualification of these Central Law Officers, which states that the person being appointed as an Additional Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General shall be qualified for appointment of a Judge of Supreme Court and in case of Assistant Attorney General, such person should have been an Advocate of High Court for a period of not less than five years.

Since the Ordinance, instead of specifying the requirement for appointment of Additional & Deputy Attorney Generals, has referred to another qualification as mandated in the Constitution, therefore, the corresponding provision of Constitution has to be read with Section 3 of the Ordinance. Article 177 of the Constitution stipulates the qualification for the Judge of Supreme Court as such person should be the citizen of Pakistan and has either remained a Judge of High Court for at least five years, or standing of an advocate of High Court for not less than fifteen years.

In this hurricane of appointments, transfers and postings, the offices of attorney general and advocate general have also got engulfed

In appointing this entire batch of Central Law Officers, the Ministry might have considered the requisite qualification. However, what is most pertinent in this entire situation is the factum that why did the Government appoints so many law officers by removing all the existing ones. Surely, there would be a number of individuals already working in the Attorney General office who are qualified and experienced enough to be allowed to keep working in the office.

The act of the Government, in appointing an altogether new batch of law officers for the Attorney General’s office, casts a doubt on the intentions of the Government, and then de-notifying the existing law officers, is the best example of abuse of power at the behest of political likeness.

In one of the recent Judgments of august Supreme Court of Pakistan, authored by a judge of great legal acumen Mr Justice Qazi Faez Isa in Civil Appeal No. 1216/2015 relating to the appointment of Chairman PEMRA (PLD 2017 Supreme Court 121), wherein he has discussed in detail the duties of offices of Advocates General and Attorney General and the Government’s responsibility to be represented by these offices only. In wise words of Justice Isa, “[i]n such a scenario the public suffers twice, firstly, they have to pay for incompetent law officers, and secondly, they have to pay again for the services of competent counsel the government engages.”

This Government, whose leaders, from the start of their electoral campaigns have talked about the appointments be done on merit, have slaughtered their very manifesto on the altar of nepotism.

The writer is a Lawyer based in Lahore. He has a degree in Law from Lahore University of Management Sciences. He can be reached at javedahaseeb@gmail.com or Twitter: @haseebajaved

Published in Daily Times, December 14^th 2018.