Makhdoom Ali Khan

Makhdoom Ali Khan (مخدوم علی خان; born 9 January 1954), is a practising Senior Advocate Supreme Court.

Makhdoom Ali Khan is a former Attorney General of Pakistan, former chairman Pakistan Bar Council, former member of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, former board member of the Federal Judicial Academy of Pakistan and a former board member of the Sindh Judicial Academy.

He is a serving Member on the Governing Board of the British Pakistan Law Council, an Officer of the Board of the Forum for International Conciliation and Arbitration (FICACIC), a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre, a member of the Advisory Board of the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), a former member of the court of the London Court of International Arbitration and a member of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute's (ICSID) Chairman's Panel of Arbitrators.

He has consistently been ranked amongst the top three litigators in Pakistan over the last three decades both by reputation and in international rankings in legal publications and amongst the top two litigators in the Sindh High Court in Karachi.

He appeared successfully as counsel for the Munir Hussain Bhatti in Munir Hussain Bhatti v Federation of Pakistan in both the petition under article 184(3) of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973 (reported as PLD 2011 SC 407) and the review petition filed by the government (reported as PLD 2011 SC 752).

He was admitted to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he completed his BA in law (first class) in 1977 and then went on to do an LLM (maritime and public international law) at the London School of Economics and political science in 1978.

He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1979 where he was a Hardwicke Scholar and topped in constitutional law and law of international trade.

After a short stint teaching constitutional law and public international law at Keele University in the United Kingdom he returned to Karachi, Pakistan, and joined the offices of Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada (former Attorney General Pakistan and current Ambassador at Large), who was Attorney General at the time, and worked there for two years.

He was also an examiner and lecturer at S.M. Law College till 1986.

During his early years at Fazle Ghani Khan and Co. Advocates he wrote columns for Dawn, Herald, Newsline and the now defunct Viewpoint magazine as well as travelling to and writing reports on judicial independence in Malayasia and the situation in Myanmar for the International Commission of Jurists along with speaking at many international law seminars.

Khan rose to the forefront of the profession at a remarkably young age which is evidenced by the fact that all the top litigators in Pakistan are at least a decade senior to him and was an Advocate Supreme Court in 1989 at the age of 35.

It was in this year that he was given the honour normally only bestowed upon the senior most litigators in the country to appear as amicus curiae by then Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court Ajmal Mian (who later became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and finally the Chief Justice of Pakistan) in a suo moto reference on the subject of inhuman jail conditions in Karachi along with later Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court Sabihuddin Ahmad.

Makhdoom Ali Khan appeared for Akbar Bugti when the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan was dismissed and became the first lawyer in the country to successfully argue and secure the restoration of a dissolved legislature.

Later he appeared for President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and President Farooq Leghari in the Supreme Court in dissolution cases.

In 1999 he argued a constitutional petition successfully against the Government of Pakistan on behalf of Jang Group before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

He came to the notice of the Pakistan Government after he successfully negotiated with the military regime and the newly constituted National Accountability Bureau for the release of his incarcerated client Sultan Lakhani.

He also argued a number of high-profile commercial cases.

He and Abdul Hafiz Pirzada were counsel for National Power and the Hub Power Company – before the High Courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan – when the Nawaz Sharif and later the Pervez Musharraf governments reneged on the contracts executed between the Federation of Pakistan and these companies.

Khan was also retained by these corporations to represent them with Johnny Veeder QC and Toby Landau QC before an ICC tribunal.

During his term as Attorney General he represented the Government of Pakistan successfully with Jan Paulsson, Johnny Veeder QC and Christopher Greenwood QC in the SGS, Bayinder and Impregilo cases before ICSID arbitral tribunals.

A directive was also issued by President Pervez Musharraf at around this time that no Bilateral Investment Treaty by any Government department or ministry was to be signed unless Mr. Khan was consulted.

He also tirelessly advocated the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law for Pakistan.

He then joined the chambers of his father Fazle Ghani Khan (Retd. Justice of High Court of West Pakistan and Member Balochistan Law Reform Commission) where he practised law till he was appointed Attorney General for Pakistan in September 2001 making him the second youngest Attorney General in the history of Pakistan.

He was also invited by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to sign the roll of Senior Advocates of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2001 making him the second youngest lawyer to do so in the history of Pakistan.

He authored the Recognition and Enforcement (Arbitration Agreements and Foreign Arbitral Awards) Ordinance, 2005, which incorporated the New York Convention in the municipal laws of Pakistan and the Arbitration (International Investment Disputes) Ordinance, 2007 to implement the International Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of other States.

As Attorney General he successfully represented the GoP to overturn through a review petition the judgement of the Supreme Court which had declared bank interest to be unIslamic.

Since his return to private practice in 2007 he is globally regarded as the preeminent commercial, taxation and constitutional litigator, arbitrator and arbitration lawyer in Pakistan.

Khan attended University of Karachi (MA international relations – first with distinction in international law) and S. M. Law College (LL.B – first class) in Karachi.

Mr. Khan has maintained the same ranking in the Chambers Asia Pacific 2013 rankings for Dispute Resolution in Pakistan and also for Arbitration in its Asia-wide rankings.

The Chambers Asia Pacific 2013 rankings refer to him as "the best litigator in Pakistan" and "extremely intelligent and very talented. He argues exceptionally well in court, coming up with a game plan and executing it brilliantly."