ISLAMABAD: Additional Attorney General Karim Khan Agha has been appointed as the prosecutor general of National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

According to a notification, the appointment was made after consultations between President Asif Ali Zardari and NAB Chairman Admiral (retd) Faseeh Bokhari.

The office was lying vacant since December when the-then prosecutor general, Irfan Qadir, resigned on the orders of SupremeCourt.

The appointment is seen by several experts as yet another attempt on the part of the government to delay its review petitionpending before the apex court against the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance in which Mr Agha was also appearing.

According to the National Accountability Ordinance, the president in consultation with the NAB chairman may appoint any person who is qualified to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court as the NAB’s prosecutor general.

Mr Agha is a barrister with almost 25 years of legal experience and is an advocate of the SC. He has served as a United Nations Prosecutor in the Netherlands and Africa after he did his LLM in the International Criminal Law.

He has served as additional judge of the Sindh High Court and then as additional attorney general of Pakistan for almost two years.

He represented the federal government and assisted the apex court in some notable cases such as the petitions against the18th Amendment, the missing persons’ cases and loan write-off cases.

He is regarded as a credible and highly competent lawyer whose appointment has been well received by the legal community but termed a loss to the attorney general’s office.