Tilting the scales

The ruling party has again storm-trooped its way into capturing many, if not most of the dozen and a half posts of law officer. The timing of the appointments should raise concern since they have come in the last month of the government’s tenure. Stacking up PML-N loyalists in these positions does not forebode well for the future. Apparently, the attorney general was sidelined over these appointments. Neither the law minister nor the federal government bothered to consult him or take him into confidence over who should or should be not named as assistant attorneys general of Rawalpindi/Islamabad and assistant and deputy attorneys general in other cities. If true, this is highly unusual and falls in the dangerous realm of all things unlawful — a familiar enough zone in the country. The attorney general is the head of all law officers and ought to know about the subordinate staff working in a department he effectively controls. As chief legal adviser to the government and primary lawyer in the Supreme Court, the attorney general deserved to be in the loop and the fact that he wasn’t calls for serious introspection and action. There are signs of a tug of war between the law ministry and the attorney general’s office. We hope these fissures can be healed before the interim set-up comes in.

Again we see the PML-N succumbing to expediency, choosing to reward the law officers for making regular appearances before accountability courts to defend and possibly express solidarity with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. If the only benchmark for their appointment is party allegiance and loyalty then it is just not acceptable. The PML-N is dreaming of a bigger prize — that of re-election after the 2018 polls. It would be quite handy to have loyalists as law officers during the tenure of the caretaker government. Like all challenges, it deserves a response. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2018.

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