ISLAMABAD: Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan, who intends to resign soon after hearing concludes on the presidential reference regarding interpretation of the defection clause under Article 63-A of the Constitution, may stay in the coveted post for a day or two more.

An informed source told Dawn that the AGP met Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday and the latter asked him to hold his horses and stay for a while in his office.

“Life always aborts our plans and opts for its own timing,” the AGP had obser­ved in his speech at the April 4 farewell full court reference on the retirement of Justice Maqbool Baqar.

The speech was made a day after National Assem­bly’s Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri prorogued the session without vote on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The development gave rise to rumours that the AGP’s resignation is round the corner.

But the AGP himself laid the matter to rest by saying in his address at the full court reference that he had decided to resign immediately after the conclusion of hearing on the presidential reference.

The attorney general exp­lained that given the recent events on the political chessboard, immediate resignat­ion on his part would be like­­­­n­ed to the proverbial jumping of rats from a sinking ship. “I won’t be able to live with this legacy,” he said.

“Whether one agrees or disagrees with the course and journey of a vessel, one must not jump the ship and leave it in stormy waters, particularly when one has enjoyed the cruise,” the AGP had observed in his speech.

Khalid Jawed peppered the concluding part of his speech with a metaphorical reference to Titanic: “So I remain on the Titanic and bid your lordship (Justice Baqar) farewell from its deck.”

The AGP had told a group of reporters earlier this year that he had decided to resign soon after the retirement of Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed in February.

He had told a five-judge Supreme Court bench hearing the dissolution case this week that “this will be my last case” as the government’s law officer and that “I won’t like to be indicted by history”.

He had suggested before the court hearing the deputy speaker’s ruling and dissolution case that the court, instead of “indulging in judicial activism”, should exercise judicial statesmanship and honour the decision of the government.

During the April 7 suo motu hearing on the deputy speaker’s ruling, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel observed that the court wanted the assistance of the AGP not only in this case but also in the pending presidential reference.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2022