April 29, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 28: The Supreme Court on Monday summoned law officers of the federal and four provincial governments to assist the court in resolving a dispute involving appointments of 20 additional and assistant advocates general by former chief minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Ijaz-ul-Hassan and Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousaf was dealing with an application filed by Punjab’s law and parliamentary affairs secretary against a Lahore High Court judgment suggesting future guidelines for such appointments.

The provincial government requested the apex court to set aside the LHC verdict for being legally defective because it had been passed by ignoring the duly framed regulations on such appointments.

The LHC had on April 4 ruled that in future the Punjab government should appoint only those people as advocate general who qualified to be appointed as a judge of the high court and that too after consultation with the chief justice of the high court.

The last Punjab government had appointed 20 advocates as additional and assistant advocates general -- M. Ashraf Khan, Tahir Munir Malik, Shafqat Munir Malik, Abdul Hameed Rana, Ihsanul Haq Sajid, Mian Tariq Ahmad, Khadim Hussain Qaiser, Salma Malik, Chaudhry Saleemul Haq, Mohammad Maqsoodul Hassan, Mohammad Abid Raja, Mohammad Saleem Khan Mitha, Nayyar Abbas Rizvi, Rai Tariq Saleem, Amjad Ali Chattha, Shehbaz Ahmed Dhillon, Chaudhry Naeem Masood, Mohammad Mateen Khokhar and Shujaat Ali Khan.

However, one of the appointees, M. Ashraf Khan, challenged the appointments of other advocates in the LHC on the grounds that the Punjab government was not competent to appoint provincial law officers in such a large number without consulting the high court.

The provincial government submitted before the LHC that it had the authority to appoint any number of law officers. But, the high court held that such appointments could not be made without consultation with the chief justice of the high court.

The appeal filed in the Supreme Court on Monday contended that Ashraf Khan’s petition filed in September last year had been heard on March 31 after the Feb 18 elections and the judgment was announced on April 3. The record of the case showed that the incumbent Advocate General of Punjab, Chaudhry Aftab Iqbal, did not contest the case seriously.

Advocate Syed Najamul Hassan Kazmi, representing the provincial government, pleaded for early hearing of the case by the apex court and said the functioning of the entire provincial government had been put to a standstill.

The apex court summoned Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum and advocates general of the four provinces and adjourned the matter for May 7.