ISLAMABAD, Aug 3: The government has paid Rs10 million to 12 lawyers it had hired to assist Prime minister’s legal adviser Sharifuddin Pirzada and former attorney-general Makhdoom Ahmed Ali Khan in constitutional petitions filed in the Supreme Court by the chief justice and others against the presidential reference.

The information was provided to the National Assembly by Federal Minister for Law Mohammad Wasi Zafar through a written reply to a question of People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Shakeela Khanam Rashid on Friday.

The minister said that Justice (retd) Malik Mohammad Qayyum, who had been made attorney-general, was paid Rs4 million followed by Rs1 million to Ahmad Raza Kasuri.

The other 10 lawyers, who collectively did not speak for even an hour during the whole proceeding, were paid Rs500,000 each. They are Abdul Sattar Chughtai, Shaukat Ali Mehr, Abdul Hamid Rana, Rana Shamim Ahmed, Mian Ihsanul Haq Sajid, Pervaiz Alamgir, Khalid Mehmood Farooqi, Siddiq Mirza, Shabbir Lali and Mohammad Naseer.

However, there was no mention in the minister’s reply whether the government paid any fee to Sharifuddin Pirzada who represented President Pervez Musharraf in the reference.

Meanwhile, six opposition senators on Friday submitted a call-attention notice to the Senate Secretariat expressing their concern over the appointment of Malik Mohammad Qayyum as new attorney-general.

“The attention of the minister for law and justice is invited to the fact that the recently-appointed attorney-general does not fulfil the criteria as required under the Constitution,” says the notice moved by Opposition Leader in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, PPP senators Enver Baig, Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, Farooq Hamid Naek and Dr Babar Awan and PML-N Senator Sadia Abbasi.

Sources said the government was planning to convene the Senate session from August 10.