S. M. Zafar: A Legacy Foretold

305 S. M. ZAFAR: A LEGACY FORETOLD By Dr. Parvez Hassan Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Pakistan Sardar Muhammad Iqbal died on 4 May 20081. Syed Mohammad Zafar died, over 15 years later, on 19 October 2023. Between the two of them, bonding remarkably, these giants truly laid, by the 1960s, the architecture for the legal profession in Punjab, if not Pakistan, for the future. These were the eminent watering holes to whom all the young, budding and needy lawyers would make their way. Each came out soon a confident and dedicated member of the legal profession. The vision, charisma, brilliance and generosity of both Sardar Iqbal and S. M. Zafar enabled this army of young professionals to, over time, replicate the lessons of their founding gurus. In fact, the legacy of these giants was easy to foretell. I had the privilege of being a part of this legendary tribe. S.M. Zafar was the first junior (as we were then called) of Sardar Iqbal and I was his last junior as Sardar Iqbal was elevated to the Lahore High Court when I left his chambers for post-graduate legal studies in the United States in 1962. In between the senior most and the most junior, came Raja Anwar, Fazle Ghani Khan, Raja Akram, Saeed Akhtar, Khalil ur Rahman Khan, Aamir Raza Khan and many other leading lights who resonated prominently on the legal horizon for decades. S. M. Zafar, I know, was special in the affections of Sardar Iqbal as would befit a pupil who had attained the enviable level of his ustad. S. M. Zafar had accomplished much to reach this affection. In addition to the excellence of his advocacy in criminal, civil, constitutional and other matters before the Courts of all over Pakistan, and even abroad, he had distinguished himself as a favorite teacher at the Punjab University Law College at Lahore over many decades. S. M. Zafar cast his net wider than the law: he led social and cultural issues and bodies, led the founding and governance of the Human Rights Society of Pakistan. The annual awards of the HRSP became the most covetted prize for human rights activists. I recall that, on S. M. Zafar s invitation, I was associated with the work of the HRSP and had, early in such association, recommended Abdul Sattar Edhi for an annual award. The proposal was not accepted with the contention that charitable work does not equate with a dedicated commitment to human rights. When, many years later, the emerging icon had become a national pride, HRSP decided to confer the Annual Award on Abdul Sattar Edhi. But S. M. Zafar (I called him Shah Sahib) remembered my first proposal for this medal and asked me to join him in presenting this medal to Abdul Sattar Edhi. That photograph of Abdul Sattar Edhi and S. M. Zafar with me on this occasion hangs proudly in my office. S. M. Zafar tried many things in life and he was blessed with so much versatility that whatever he did, he did well. When he took to writing, his books, such as the one in Urdu on his famous cases, were well-received. But his authoritative magnum opus, Understanding Statutes: Canons of Construction is a permanent and rich contribution to the jurisprudence of Pakistan. When published, with the fourth edition of Understanding Statutes, S. M. Zafar asked me, with a few others, to speak at the book launch. He was pleased with my professional critique and mentioned later that I had, among others, well-grasped and noted the importance of an index in a scholarly publication. It was on that occasion that I shared, to his obvious amusement, that he and I were cut by the same master tailor, he the senior most junior and I the junior most junior. Lawyers when admitted as Advocates of the Supreme Court are required to sign a Roll/Register of Members maintained by the Supreme Court. This requirement was not well-known and several lawyers including Dr. Khalid Ranjha, I, and others started appearing in the Supreme Court without signing the Roll/Register of Members. The Chief Justice of Pakistan took a serious view of this lapse and issued show cause notices to each of us for disciplinary action. It was the quality of compassion and brotherly feelings for fellow-lawyers that S. M. Zafar reached out to all of us offering to represent all of us before the Chief Justice and pay for the expenses of those that could not afford the travel to Islamabad. A remarkable gesture that I want to gratefully acknowledge to show the humanity that was S. M. Zafar. The representation was not necessary as Khalid Ranjha and I gate-crashed to meet the Chief Justice during his visit to Lahore and amicably resolved the matter after his scolding that eminent lawyers should lead by example and scrupulously follow all legal requirements . But this did not take away from the generosity of the offer of S. M. Zafar. Another personal acknowledgment: S. M. Zafar represented me successfully before the Lahore High Court when the PML-N sought my disqualification as a PTI candidate (and the first PTI Secretary General) for the National Assembly from Gulberg Lahore on the ground of some error in the filing of my nomination papers. He charged an agreed huge fortune of Rs. 100 as professional fee which was agreed on my condition that he would pay for the tea and refreshments after the case. I must also narrate the incident that brought a lot of cheer in my friendship with S. M. Zafar. Chief Justice Javed Iqbal, Lahore High Court, had hosted a dinner at his house. S. M. Zafar and I were invited guests. I had driven to the house in my Honda Accord and when I left the house after dinner, I found, in the first several minutes of driving, that the interior of the car was different; the gasoline was not as full as I usually like to retain in my cars and I never have a bottle of cologne that had added fragrance in the car. About the same time, in another area of Lahore, S. M. Zafar had a similar reaction of unfamiliarity to the Honda Accord he was driving. He got in touch with Justice Javed Iqbal, as I had by then, and discovered that we both had driven in for dinner in our same colour Honda Accords, parked them, unknowingly, next to each other, with keys intact, and had after dinner, unknowingly, driven the wrong Honda home. It was a good case for me to report the theft of my car by a former Federal Law Minister from the house of the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court. But S. M. Zafar and I felt the incident amusing and a true comedy of errors. When I heard in my office on the late evening of 19 October, 2023 of the passing of S. M. Zafar, I rushed to his house for a warm meeting with Saifee (his wife) Tahira Syed (his sister in law) and Asim (his son). Ali (his son) and Roshanay (his daughter) had gone to Islamabad that morning and were rushing back to Lahore. I told Saifee and Tahira that it was my good fortune to meet Roshanay the previous night at a dinner at the Lahore Fort for the Warden of the Rhodes Trust and I acknowledged abundantly to Roshanay, a day before her father died, of how S. M. Zafar was a mentor and inspiration in my life. I met Ali at the Janaza the following day. I am pleased that so many who benefited from S.M. Zafar s brilliance, company, conversation, legal counselling, wisdom, humour and cheer showed up in hordes to honour his parting at his janaza. I have had a long and fond friendship with Ali and I wish him and his family to continue to bask in the glory of the legacy of the inimitable S. M. Zafar, truly foretold. May his soul rest in peace. 1 See my tribute to him, Sardar Sahib; My Mentor, The Nation, 9 May, 2008; also reprinted in Dr. Parvez Hassan, Resolving Environmental Disputes in Pakistan: The Role of Judicial Commission (Pakistan Law House, 2018), at xvii to xx.