ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government on Saturday appointed senior Supreme Court advocate Ashtar Ausaf Ali as the country’s new attorney general.
The attorney general is the government’s primary lawyer in the Supreme Court and is responsible for advising it on legal matters.
The office was vacated by Khalid Jawed Khan who resigned following the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan via a vote of no-confidence on April 10.
Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar confirmed Ali’s appointment to Arab News.
“It’s true,” he said in a text message.
Ali had served as special assistant to the prime minister on law and justice in 2015-16 and was Pakistan’s attorney general during the tenure of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif — the brother of the current Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif — in 2016-18.
In 1998-99 and 2012-13 he was advocate general of Punjab and the province’s prosecutor general in 2011-12.
He had also served as adviser to the PM on human rights in 1999.
