ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday approved the appointment of Advocate Ashtar Ausaf Ali as Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP).

This will be his second stint as the country’s top law officer — he had served as the AGP during the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government.

The post had been lying vacant since the resignation of Khalid Javed Khan last month.

A summary for the appointment had been forwarded to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on May 7. After the prime minister’s approval, the summary was forwarded to President Alvi, who approved it.

The AGP’s appointment is made under Article 100 of the Constitution, whose Section 1 states: “The president shall appoint a person, being a person qualified to be a judge of the Supreme Court, to be the Attorney General for Pakistan.”

Under the Constitution, the president is bound to act upon the advice of the prime minister.

After the change of government and subsequent resignation of the country’s top law officer Khalid Jawed Khan, the new government led by coalition parties, mainly the PML-N, had started headhunting for a new attorney general last month.

Those considered for the top post included Mr Ali, former law minister Zahid Hamid and senior lawyer Salman Akram Raja.

Mr Ali, who earlier served as AGP from 2016 to 2018 after serving as law adviser to former premier Nawaz Sharif, is considered very close to the Sharif family.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2022