LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah will take up today (Thursday) a petition challenging appointment process for government’s law officers and to formulate a mechanism for the purpose beyond political consideration.

Two lawyers Chaudhry Shoaib Saleem and Nisar Sekhu filed the petition in the wake of a recent incident outside an Islamabad accountability court wherein an additional advocate general affiliated to the PML-N had slapped a police officer.

The petitioners said conduct of the now sacked law officer, Khawar Ikram Bhatti, was an example of political affiliations of the law officers. They said appointment mechanism of the law officers was not regulated by any rules or law and is totally dependent on the pleasure of the executive head of the government, which itself was against the fair exercise of discretionary appointments.

The lawyers argue that mostly, the law officers are appointed from political wings of parties and no open announcements are made before their appointments. They said the law officers having political support and backing are selected for various posts in the office of Advocate General of Punjab and they remain involved in political activities for their vested interest instead of performing their duties professionally.

The petitioners plead that professionalism could be introduced in the law officers if some procedure is adopted for the appointments at the advocate general office through proper advertisements, written tests or interviews.

They ask the court to order the Punjab secretary law and advocate general office to devise a policy with public announcements for appointing law officers. They further ask the court to restrain the law officers through an order from taking part in activities of political parties to maintain sanctity of the constitutional office of the advocate general.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2017