The recent appointment of law officers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa turned into a bitter controversy as majority of the lawyers affiliated with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) are aspirants of induction against these posts. While the lawyers affiliated with the party agree with the agenda of “change” given by their chief Imran Khan they do not want change in the traditional mechanism of filling the advocate general’s office with law officers affiliated with the ruling party.

Ever since the PTI won the May 11 general elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the members of Insaf Lawyers Forum (ILF), affiliated with the party, in different cities started putting forward demands that the sitting law officers, including additional advocates general and deputy advocates general, should be replaced forthwith with party members.

Interestingly, several of the lawyers who had no previous affiliation with the PTI also jumped into the bandwagon and started claiming that they were pioneers of the party. In some cities, especially Nowshera, the hometown of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, rival groups emerged, each claiming that they deserved to be appointed against these posts.

The appointment to these posts turned out to be a thorny issue for the provincial law department and it took over two months for the government to get rid of the sitting law officers on Aug 22 and appoint 19 other law officers on Aug 23.

Lawyers belonging to the party in Peshawar, Abbottabad and Swabi have already raised voice against these appointments and termed it violation of merit policy of PTI. The lawyers from Swabi alleged that brother-in-law of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar was appointed in violation of merit and that had no proper affiliation with the party.

Interestingly, background interviews with several lawyers affiliated with the PTI reveal that each one of them considers himself fit for the job and others as incompetent and inexperienced.

Because of the salaries and other perks and privileges attached to these posts a cutthroat competition was going on between these lawyers. According to an official, the salary of additional advocate general is Rs70,000 a month while the perks include official car, official and residential phone, guard, house rent etc. Apart from this, he is also entitled to receiving Rs2,000 per case disposed of and Rs600 for appearance in each of the case. Similarly, the DAG, which is less lucrative compared to AAG, receives fixed salary of Rs70000 along with other perks of a grade-20 government servant.

Another interesting aspect of the matter is that the government instead of first appointing the advocate general, which is a constitutional post and who leads the team of law officers, preferred to recruit the AAGs and DAGs. As the present Advocate General Khalid Khan was appointed during the government of Awami National Party, therefore, he resigned in May after the PTI won the polls. However, the government has asked him to continue till a new advocate general is appointed to the post.

Now the government has decided to appoint a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, Abdul Lateef Yousafzai as advocate general and it is expected that notification in this regard would be issued in next couple of days. Mr Yousafzai has served as first deputy prosecutor general of National Accountability Bureau in the province.

Experts on the subject believe that the government should have first appointed Mr Yousafzai as advocate general and then he should have selected his team of officers. They say that Mr Yousafzai, who himself is a senior advocate, would have selected a team of competent and experienced law officers, which was in the interest of the provincial government.

In past, lawyers belonging to a ruling party were appointed on these posts. When Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government was formed in the province after 2002 general election the law officers appointed mostly belonged to the JUI-F as the law minister and chief minister belonged to that party. Several of those officers were not fit for the job and due to the same reasons on several occasions they were reprimanded by judges in the Peshawar High Court.

The coalition government of ANP and PPP in the province after the 2008 general elections also picked up law officers, most of them belonging to the former party. The present government has now reappointed four of the law officers who had also served under the previous government though several of the new officers belong to PTI. One of the ILF members said that party members should be appointed to these political posts. When asked whether salaries of the law officers were paid from the party fund or from government exchequer, he cited the examples of previous MMA and ANP-led governments.

However, the lawyers affiliated with the other two parties in past had never indulged in addressing press conferences and demanding that they should be appointed like the PTI lawyers did this time criticising their government for not accommodating them. Experts believe that this trend would create more problems for the party as its members would also start demanding their induction in other government departments.