Attorney General of Pakistan

The Attorney General for Pakistan is appointed under Article 100 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan appointed under the Central Law Officers Ordinance, 1970. The Attorney General is the chief legal advisor of the government and serves at the pleasure of the President of Pakistan or till his/her resignation.

 

Controversially in Pakistan the Attorney General had the right to private practice. The reasons for this was that in Pakistan an Advocate is institutionally independent, and is not in the ordinary course permitted to be employed.

 

It is customary however that despite this permission to do so, AG’s do not appear on behalf of other clients, with the exception of briefs accepted before assumption of office which are at a stage of litigation where it would be impossible to instruct another Advocate. Sharifuddin Pirzada a former three time Attorney General and Malik Qayyum were conspicuous for their use of this right and accepting private briefs even after assuming office which was viewed by many[citation needed] as unethical and a conflict of interest.

 

It is pertinent to note that the last three Attorneys General before Mr. Malik Mohammad Qayyum did not make use of their right of private practice. The 18th amendment ( passed in April 2010) to the Constitution of Pakistan abolished the Attorney General’s right to private practice.

 

In January 2014, Attorney General Munir A. Malik, Senior Advocate Supreme Court, tendered his resignation from office citing personal reasons. He was succeeded by Salman Aslam Butt an advocate of Supreme Court.

Name of Attorney General	Entered Office	Left Office
Faiyaz Ali	Appointed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah 1947	1956
Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada	May 1968	December 1971
Yahya Bakhtiar	December 1971	July 1977
Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada	July 1977	December 1984
Aziz A Munshi	1985	October 1986
Ali Ahmed Fazeel	October 1986	May 1988
Aziz A Munshi	May 1988	December 1988
Yahya Bakhtiar	December 1988	August 1990
Aziz A Munshi	1990	1993
Qazi Mohammad Jameel	1994	1996
Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq	1997	October 1999
Aziz A Munshi	November 1999	September 2001
Barrister Makhdoom Ali Khan	September 2001	August 2007
Justice (r) Malik Mohammad Qayyum	August 2007	August 2008
Latif Khosa	August 2008	October 2009
Anwar Mansoor Khan	December 2009	April 2010
Justice (r) Maulvi Anwar ul Haq	April 2010	April 2012
Irfan Qadir	April 2012	June 2013
Munir A. Malik	June 2013	January 2014
Salman Aslam Butt	January 2014	Present