ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: The Supreme Court has asked the federal government to look into disparity in emoluments paid to provincial law officers and judges of the subordinate judiciary and make them uniform.

The direction came during the hearing of an appeal by the law secretary of Punjab against the Lahore High Court (LHC) order on the appointment of additional and assistant advocates general in Punjab, a hotly debated controversy in the province these days.

In March this year the LHC had bound the Punjab government to consult the high court’s chief justice before appointing a provincial advocate general since such office requires a person who is qualified to be appointed as judge of a high court.

The LHC ruling came in response to a petition by Advocate Ashraf Khan who had challenged the appointment of 19 additional advocates general and assistant advocates general by the Punjab government and said the appointments had violated the relevant rules of the Law Department Manual of 1938. The high court verdict has already been suspended by the apex court in July this year.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar asked Attorney General Sardar Mohammad Latif Khosa to look into the matter when the law officers from Balochistan and the frontier highlighted the discrepancy by stating that officers from Balochistan was getting Rs35,000 as salary when his counterpart from Sindh was paid Rs100,000 while over Rs325,000 in Punjab. Similarly, a session judge in Punjab is paid Rs175,000 while the salary for post in Balochistan and NWFP is Rs50,000.

However, the attorney general said due to economic crisis such decisions was being delayed.On the main controversy regarding appointments of additional and assistant advocates general, the bench adjourned the hearing till Jan 5 when the law officers of three provinces other than Punjab sought more time to present their view point.

Advocate Syed Najamul Hassan Kazmi represented the Punjab government before the Supreme Court and argued that the governor was bound to act on the advice of the chief minister before appointing provincial law officers and these matters should be decided in accordance with the law and the Constitution instead on the basis of politics.

In the petition, the Punjab government contended that at no point of time, the petition of Ashraf Khan was admitted for regular hearing nor any written statement was requisitioned in the case. Besides, the Punjab government was not impleaded in the case.

Moreover, the petition before the high court was moved in September, 2007 while the decision was announced only seven days before the members of the Punjab Assembly were scheduled to take oath after being elected in the elections while the outgoing advocate general did not contest the case seriously.