ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government has appointed 104 law officers to represent it in the Supreme Court and five high courts.

Sources in the law ministry told Dawn that Prime Minister Imran Khan had signed the summary for the appointments and President Dr Arif Alvi had also accorded his approval.

The law ministry had forwarded the summary to Prime Minister Khan earlier this month.

These posts were occupied by the law officers appointed by the previous government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Traditionally, every government after assuming power changes the entire legal team of the previous government and appoints their loyal ones to handle cases in the superior judiciary.

Out of the 104 newly appointed law officers, 31 were appointed to represent the federal government in the Supreme Court, Islamabad High Court and Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench.

They are: Additional attorney generals Khurram Saeed and Mohammad Abid Raja, deputy attorney generals Chaudhry Mohammad Hussain, Syed Mohammad Tayyab Shah, Malik Tariq Mehmood Noon, Chaudhry Ishtiaq Mehrban and Khawaja M. Imtiaz, and assistant attorney generals Mohammad Owais Qarni, Mohammad Javed Iqbal, S.M. Raza, Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar, Raja Amir Abbas Hassan, Farah Naz Awan, Raja Saad Sultan, Farrukh Shahzad Dall, Mohammad Aftab Ahmed, Chaudhry Tahir Mehmood, Ahtesham Saleem, Barrister Mohammad Mumtaz Ali, Saqlain Haider Awan, Attiquer Rehman Kiani, Tahir Malik, Hifza Bukhari, Mohammad Nadeem Khan, Maqsood Ali, Kashif Bashir, Nayyar Abbas, Shabbir Mahmood Malik, Zeeshanul Haq, Syed Nazar Hassan and Faisal Mehmood Raja.

Those appointed for Karachi are: additional attorney general Zahid F. Ebrahim, deputy attorney generals Abdul Jabbar Qureshi, Lubna Pervez, Mohammad Nisat Warsi, Kashif Sarwar Paracha and Kafil Ahmed Abbasi, and assistant attorney generals Anwar Kamal, Ishrat Zahid Alvi, Kilji Bilal Aziz, Barrister Hussain Bohra, Mohammad Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar Khatri, Durdana Tanweer, Waseem Akhtar, Mohammad Nadeem Khan, Aminullah Siddiqui, Osman Ali Hadi, Tariq Ali Khan and Gulam Mohiuddin.

The rest were appointed for Multan, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Bahawalpur.

The law officers appointed for Lahore registry of the Supreme Court and Lahore High Court included additional attorney general Chaudhry Ishtiaq Ahmed and deputy attorney generals Rana Abdul Shakoor Khan, Ambreen Moeen, Mian Tariq Shafiq Bhandara, Malik Asrar Ellahi, Aftab Raheem, Mohammad Khalid, Usman Arif, Sarfraz Ali Khan, Malik Asif Ahmed Nissoana, Rizwan Mushtaq, Azmat Hayat Khan Lodhi, Khawar Bashir, Sajid Munawar Qureshi, Mohammad Ali, Agha Shazib Masood, Zarish Fatima, Zahid Sikandar, Zubair Ahmed, Mohammad Matloob, Azeemullah Khan, Shaukat Ali, Faiz Ahmed Gondal, Mohammad Saifullah, Afzal Bashir, Afzaal Azeem, Nasim Riaz, Nadeem Anwar, Mohammad Latif, Mohsin Raza, Syed M. Aslam Rizvi and Zahid Javed Butt.

Meanwhile, President Alvi accepted the resignation tendered by the five law officers appointed by the previous government.

The law officers who resigned are: additional attorney general Salman Talibuddin, deputy attorney generals Rashid Hafeez, Mian Faisal Irfan and Abdul Qadir Leghari, and assistant attorney general Mian Mohammad Javed.

It may be mentioned that President Alvi also de-notified 88 law officers appointed by the PML-N government during its tenure from June 2013 to May 2018.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2018