LAHORE, May 3: The Punjab Advocate General’s office on Friday witnessed termination of 20 law officers followed by appointment of 19 fresh additional advocates general and assistant advocates general.

The hiring and firing at advocate general’s office was already in sight after the caretaker government took charge in the province and appointed Shahid Karim as Advocate General to fill the post vacated by Ashtar Ausaf soon after completion of the five-year term of the elected provincial government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

This is to mention here that the Lahore High Court (LHC) was moved against the possible termination of the law officers and new Advocate General Shahid Karim had undertook that he would act in accordance with the law and shall pay due regard to other members of his team who were his colleagues in the profession and his friends too.

Two assistant advocates general Rabbiya Bajwa and Kaleem Ilyas had resigned after the formation of caretaker government in the province, citing their inability to represent the interim set-up.

The termination and fresh appointment of the law officers only a week before the general election surprised many in the legal fraternity and judicial circles.

The newly-appointed law officers may face the same consequences after the general election because the new government would make appointments of its own choice. Most of the fresh appointees are pro-PPP.

Seven additional advocates general have been terminated from all benches of the LHC -- Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur. They are Sirajul Islam Khan, Khadim Hussain Qaiser, Shahid Mobeen, Nadeem Afzal Lone, Imtiaz Ahmad Kaifi, Razzaq A Mirza and Faisal Rafiq Malik.

The 13 terminated assistant advocates general are Wali Muhammad Khan, Iftikharul Rasheed, Chaudhry Maqsoodul Hassan, Tahir Saeed Sulheri, Waqar Ahmad Chaudhry, Saifur Rehman, Khursheed Satti, Nadeem Akhtar Bhatti, Aurangzeb Khan, Rana Muhammad Hussain, Naveed Khalil Chaudhry, Muhammad Shahzad Khan and Tahir Saeed Ramay.

Six newly-appointed additional advocates general are Hafiz Ansarul Haq, Masood Abid Naqvi, S.M. Khawar Khan, Ijaz Jamal, Zair Sikandar Khan and Mirza Waqas Rauf.

Tehseen Irfan, Amina Bano, Mazhar Ali Ghallu, Abdul Rahim Khan, Akram Khaksar, Tahir Attique Pracha, Syed Naveed Abbas, Zulfiqar Dhodi, Ali Abid Tahir, Badar Munir Malik, Rohail Mustafa, Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad Warraich and Ahmad Nadeem Arshad are the newly-appointed assistant advocates general. Most of the newly-appointed law officers joined duties on Friday.