Late Mr. Justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah

OBITUARY: LATE MR OBITUARY: LATE MR. JUSTICE MUHAMMAD AFZAL ZULLAH Mr. Justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah, former Chief Justice of Pakistan, died at Lahore, on the 23rd of December, 2011, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. A charming and broadly cultivated man, Justice M. Afzal Zullah was revered as a Judge of supreme intellect and lucidity, as well as for being exceptionally fair and for consistently upholding fundamental human rights and the rule of law against the worst excesses of legislative and government action. He was also one of the most elegant advocates at the Bar, at his best in the High Court and Supreme Court, where the regular interchanges with the bench demand an extremely quick mind and clear mastery of points of law. Born on April 19, 1928 to Chaudhry Muhammad Feroze Khan, at Bijnial (Mandra), District Rawalpindi in Punjab (Pakistan), Justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah completed his college education in Political Science and Philosophy in the year 1948 and read for his law degree at Punjab University and completed it with a First Division in 1950. He furthered his academic credentials by completing Post-Graduate courses in Clinical Psychology and Journalism. Enrolled as Pleader in 1950, he started his legal practice at Sahiwal; shifted to Rawalpindi in 1951; was enrolled as an advocate of the High Court in 1952 and established a thriving practice in criminal law and revenue matters. By the time he was enrolled as Advocate Supreme Court in 1961, he had shifted to Lahore and focused his practice on constitutional, civil and criminal matters and frequently represented and advised numerous institutions. He was appointed as a permanent Judge of the West. Pakistan High Court in March 1970 and Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in June, 1979. He became the Chairman of the Shariat Appellate Bench, Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1982. Mr. Justice Zullah remained the Chief Justice of Pakistan from January 1, 1990, to March 1993. Considered to be amongst the pioneers of public interest litigation in Pakistan, he was a man of great judicial capacity. His mind worked without friction. It was saturated with legal principles and he had a remarkably sound judgment in applying them. But it was the moral qualities of the man that drew to him the public esteem in so large measure, and which entered so largely into his judicial character. He was a man of the most absolute integrity. Whether acting in a civil, judicial or academic relation, his integrity was ingrained, and sharply defined. Theoretic morals and the easy, shifting standard of modern honesty found in him neither an admirer nor a follower. He lived, to borrow the words of a quaint writer, by old ethics and classical rules of honour. Away from the law, Justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah's interests included studying religion, philosophy and he took keen interest in contributing towards the uplifting of villages in Pakistan. Upon news of his death, his professional brethren from various parts of the country attended his funeral. The good man whose passing has brought so much grief, has not wholly died; that he still lives in our remembrance of his warm and steady friendships and social virtues and in his legal judgments, exhibiting his vast attainments in the law In these things he still lives, and in these things not only we but succeeding generations shall hold speech with him. May his soul rest in eternal peace, Aameen!