ADDRESS

ADDRESS <!--[if gte mso 10]> ADDRESS By Mr. Yahya Bakhtiar, Attorney-General for Pakistan Hon'ble Chief Justice, Hon'ble Judges of the Supreme Court, President of the High Court Bar Associations, Advocates-General, and Members of the Bar! We have assembled here this morning to bid farewell to Mr. Justice Javid Iqbal on the eve of his retirement as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Mr. Justice Javid Iqbal has also held the high office of the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, and Judge of that Court to which he was appointed in 1971. Justice Javid Iqbal had been an eminent lawyer and was elected President of the High Court Bar Association Lahore in 1968. He has not only been an eminent judge and a prominent lawyer but fire first love has been 'philosophy' and 'literature'. Being the son of the great poet philosopher, Allama Iqbal, he inherited his deep interest in philosophy and scholarship from his world renowned father. On the one hand it is a great honour to be the son of such a great and eminent personality and on the other hand it must have been a very great burden for him to live upto the high standard of human conduct and scholarship which people would expect from the son of a sage like Allama Iqbal. But Dr. Javid Iqbal has been a Worthy son of a worthy father. He has been striving hard to convey the message of Allama Iqbal to different parts of the world by participating in International Conferences and expounding the philosophy and thoughts of the poet of the East. He had participated in numerous such conferences throughout the world where he represented and interpreted Islam and Islamic thought as envisaged and expounded by Allama Iqbal in clear and forthright terms as a modern, democratic, dynamic and progressive religion of equality, fraternity and brotherhood of man dedicated to the highest standards of morality, humanity and social justice and not the religion as has been presented by the obscurantists. Mr. Justice Javid Iqbal is also author of several books and articles mainly on the Islamic and political thought. He is a very impressive speaker in Urdu as well as in English and he is not confused about the ideology of Pakistan or about the role of Islam in the State of Pakistan, and its political and social order. After his retirement from the Supreme Court God May Give him long years to devote more time to the study of political thought and the teachings and philosophy of Allama Iqbal and expound and explain the same to Muslims and non-Muslims in Pakistan as well as abroad. I have had the pleasure of knowing him, and he had been a friend for over 30 years and I look forward to having more meetings and meaningful discussions with him on subjects of mutual interests which we had not been able to have often while he was a Judge. On behalf of the Government of Pakistan and my own behalf while bidding him farewell from this Hon'ble Court, I wish him long, happy and prosperous years of retirement packed up with vigorous mental activities and pleasure of middle and old age. It is pity how time flies. Justice Aslam Riaz Hussain retired from this Court a few weeks ago and today Justice Javid Iqbal is leaving the Court. ***