LHC wants details of appointment procedure

Petitioner urges new method that can go beyond political consideration

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court sought a detailed reply from the Punjab Advocate General Ahmad Awais about the procedure used to appoint law officers in the province.

Advocate Chaudhary Shoaib Saleem filed a petition in which he challenged the process of appointing government law officers. He also asked for directions to devise a new mechanism which went beyond political consideration.

The petitioner-lawyer argued that law officers had been appointed based on political consideration and they remained loyal to the ruling government rather than the state. He said the government’s lawyers drew salaries from taxpayer’s money, but defended a specific political government.

He said the appointment mechanism of law officers was not regulated by any rules or law and was totally dependent on the pleasure of the executive head of the government, which itself was against the fair exercise of discretionary appointments.

He pleaded that professionalism be introduced in the appointment of law officers if some procedure was adopted for appointments through proper advertisements, written tests or interviews.

Earlier, Additional Advocate General Anwaar Hussain argued that the chief minister of the province enjoyed discretionary powers under Article 140 of the Constitution to make appointments at the Advocate General’s Office. He said the Supreme Court had already decided a similar matter in many judgments, upholding the powers of the executive.

Justice Ayesha A Malik directed the AGP to come up with a comprehensive response on the matter by Nov 22.