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The Ministry of Law and Justice on Saturday notified Khalid Jawed Khan as the new Attorney General for Pakistan.
As per the notification issued by the law ministry, President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi has appointed Khalid Jawed Khan as Attorney General for Pakistan “with the rank and status of federal minister with immediate effect.”
Khan has replaced Anwar Mansoor Khan who had resigned from this post on Thursday, for levelling allegations against some members of the Supreme Court bench hearing petitions challenging the filing of presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
While Khan claimed that he had decided to quit on his own in compliance with the demand of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), the law ministry said he was asked to do so. Yesterday he submitted a written apology to the apex court.
Sources in the law ministry said Khan was selected among eight eminent lawyers. Besides Khan, the other lawyers considered for this post were Abid Zuberi, Punjab advocate general Ahmad Jamal Sukhera, Syed Ali Zafar, Kamal Azfar, Naeem Bukhari and Molvi Anwarul Haq.
Khan also served as the attorney general during the interim government prior to the July 2018 General Elections.
Jawed is the son of ND Khan — a senior politician who also served as the law minister during the second government of PPP in the 1990s.
He enrolled as a high court advocate in 1991 and became an advocate of the Supreme Court in 2004. He served as a legal adviser to the attorney general for Pakistan and, in this capacity, advised Benazir Bhutto during her second tenure (1993-1996) as prime minister.
Jawed obtained his LLB degree from London University, bachelor of civil law (BCL) degree from Oxford University, LLM from Harvard University and bar-at-law from Lincoln’s Inn.
Jawed is a senior advocate who has appeared before the Supreme Court in a number of cases and also served as Advocate General for Sindh in 2013 as well as a member of the Privatisation Commission of Pakistan from 1995 to 1996.