AGP Munir A Malik decides to resign
09 January, 2014
ISLAMABAD: After retirement of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Munir A Mailk has also decided to tender his resignation.
On the other hand, it is learnt that the federal government is considering the names of Salman Butt, Akram Sheikh and Aushtar Ausaf for the post of new AGP.
Sources confirmed that it was expected that Munir A Malik would tender resignation by Friday and that he had already conveyed a message about his decision to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday.
They said that Munir A Malik is resigning due to personal reasons and he had already told this to his close fellows.
It is to be noted that after taking charge, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had appointed Munir A Malik as AGP on the recommendation of former CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice (r) Khalilur Rehman Ramday and Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif. But after Chaudhry's retirement, Munir A Malik himself wants to leave this job due to domestic issues.
Sources said the main purpose of Munir A Malik's appointment was to defend the government before the former CJP.
Meanwhile, it is also learnt that relationship between the Law Ministry and AGP office is not cordial as senior officials of the ministry wanted to replace incumbent AGP because they believe that Munir A Malik did not defend the government's stance before the Supreme Court in different cases during the former CJP's era.
Sources said that senior officials of the ministry had already started campaigning regarding replacement of AGP.
Sources added that senior PML-N lawyers had already been active to appoint new AGP, who could defend the government in the court aggressively.
It is to be noted that the PML-N lawyers' wing was already unhappy with the AGP over the appointment of law officers because Munir A Malik had ignored PML-N lawyers and appointed active members of lawyers' movement as law officers in first phase. Later on, after facing internal criticism for not obliging to its own party lawyers, the federal government on September 20 appointed dozens of PML-N lawyers as law officers.
Similarly, a large number of active members of the lawyers' movement who are not associated with the PML-N have also been appointed additional and deputy attorneys general because AGP Munir A Malik appointed competent and experienced lawyers in his legal team.
It is worth mentioning that after taking charge, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had given Munir A Malik full authority to do so. Senior lawyers also believe that Munir A Malik is performing very well and federal government should continue him for the job of AGP.
They say that the AGP had also opposed the stance of Military Intelligence (MI) in Abida Malik case and endorsed that police could arrest any serving army officer.
A senior law officer, who is associated with the PML-N, has also admitted that there was a cold war between the Law ministry and AGP office, but he said that an AGP like Munir A Malik "is born in centuries".
Sources said that after the AGP's resignation, the government would also remove several law officers, who are not affiliated to the PML-N but were appointed by the incumbent AGP.
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