LAHORE: Justice Asim Hafeez of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday referred the matter of removal of Advocate General of Punjab (AGP) Ahmad Awais to a full bench already seized with the petitions of other law officers and public servants removed by the caretaker government for being appointed on political grounds.

The judge resumed hearing of the petition when a law officer pointed out that a full bench had been formed by the chief justice to hear the petitions questioning the powers of the caretaker government to remove different functionaries besides the law officers.

At this, Justice Hafeez directed the registrar office to fix the petition before the full bench, which is scheduled to resume its hearing on Thursday (today).

The full bench comprises Justice Ali Bagar Najafi, Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and JusticeMuzamil Akhtar Shabbir.

The other day, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told Justice Hafeez that removal of the advocate general was in conformity with its guidelines issued to the caretaker government.

The judge had conditionally restored Awais last week.

On behalf of the caretaker government, Advocate Mansoor Usman Awan argued that the appointment of the advocate general was made by the governor on the advice of the chief minister.

He argued that there had to be a relation of trust between the government and its advocate general. He said AG Awais was closely associated with a political party.

Through a notification issued on Jan 24, the caretaker government had removed AG Awais and assigned a lookafter charge to Additional Advocate General Muhammad Jawad Yaqoob.