ISLAMABAD Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum, who defended former president Pervez Musharraf in most of the cases since the outbreak of the judicial crisis last year, resigned on Wednesday.

His earlier resignation submitted a few months ago was turned down by former president Pervez Musharraf but this time it has to be accepted because Senator Sardar Latif Khosa of the Pakistan People`s Party has already been appointed the attorney-general.

Malik Qayyum, 63, took over as the chief law officer on Aug 1 last year, replacing Makhdoom Ali Khan who had resigned after losing the government`s case against deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in the Supreme Court.

He was one of the trusted aides to the former president who often discussed important matters with him. Two other top aides of Gen (retd) Musharraf, National Security Council`s Chairman Tariq Aziz and Pakistan Cricket Board`s chief Dr Nasim Ashraf, have also resigned.

The lawyers` organisations had reacted angrily to Malik Qayyum`s appointment as attorney-general.

He was a lead counsel of the government in the presidential reference about the chief justice filed on March 9, 2007.

He represented the government as the attorney-general in cases pertaining to the eligibility of the former president to contest the presidential election in October, proclamation of emergency and sacking of judges of the superior courts.

On Wednesday, Malik Qayyum attended his office for some time, appeared before the Supreme Court in a government case and held a meeting with his deputies to inform them about his decision.

`I will be resigning today,` he told reporters.

`Mr Qayyum has cited personal reasons for resignation,` his associates told Dawn. They said the resignation had been dispatched to the law ministry to be forwarded to the presidency.

Malik Qayyum was appointed a judge of the Lahore High Court on Oct 24, 1988, but he had to quit when in April 2001 the Supreme Court in April 2001 described his conduct as `biased` while deciding an appeal of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto against her conviction in a corruption case.

The PPP had also released the transcript of a phone conversation indicating his collusion with the incumbent government regarding a judgment in a case against Ms Bhutto.

However, he was later elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and he claimed that his victory had washed out all the observations by the superior judiciary against him.

Malik Qayyum was embroiled in a controversy again when the Human Rights Watch released an audio recording containing his voice claiming that the parliamentary elections would be `massively rigged.` He denied the allegation.

He also faced a controversy for retaining control over SCBA`s Rs100 million funds.

Senator Khosa was in the forefront of the lawyers` movement last year and was injured during a demonstration.

He started his career from Dera Ghazi Khan and he was the first president of the Multan High Court Bar Association, president of PPP`s human rights wing, chairman of the party`s election monitoring cell and a member of the Senate committee on foreign affairs.

Under Article 100 of the Constitution, the president appoints a person as the attorney-general who qualifies to become a judge of the Supreme Court. He enjoys the right of audience in all the courts and tribunals and his job is to advise the federal government on all legal matters.