A Life Fully Blessed

A LIFE FULLY BLESSED* A LIFE FULLY BLESSED* Dr. Parvez Hassan** Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Pakistan Chair Emeritus, World Commission on Environmental Law (IUCN) President, Pakistan Environmental Law Association (PELA) Receiving, in 2021, the Government College University Lifetime Achievement Award and, tonight, the SDPI Living Legend Award 2023, is most humbling. These are blessings that would shine any lifetime. I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank you SDPI, its Board of Directors, and its leadership, Shafqat Kakakhel and Abid Suleri, for this honour. And, I am grateful to all who have joined to honour me and my family this happy evening and, particularly, the speakers who spoke so engagingly about my efforts in life. A big thank you to all of you, Omar Hassan, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Professor Nicholas A. Robinson, Syed Babar Ali, Razak Dawood, Nasreen Kasuri, Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Javed Jabbar, Shahid Kardar, Shahid Malik, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Ali Kuli Khan Khattak, Farid Ahsanuddin, Adil Najam, Moeed Yusuf, Ishrat Hussain, and Tariq Banuri.1 Achievement and Legend Awards usually require the telling of life stories. Here is mine, compressing eight decades of opportunities grasped in about 20 minutes, that I gratefully share at this elegant and well-attended event organized by SDPI. Rooted by birth in Bahawalnagar, over 82 years ago in 1941, when my father served Bahawalpur State before we moved to Lahore on the establishment of One Unit in 1958, my education spanned St. Mary's Convent, Multan, St. Anthony's High School, Lahore, Sadiq Public School, Bahawalpur, Government College, Lahore, Punjab University Law College, Lahore, Yale Law School and Harvard Law School before, on return to Pakistan, I started my own law practice and law firm in Lahore in 1969. I had also by then represented Pakistan, at the age of 9, at the 7th World Boy Scout Jamboree in Austria in 1951, and at about 13, at the 8th World Boy Scout Jamboree at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, in Canada in 1955. My Masters of Law at Yale and Doctorate of Law at Harvard had also enabled career-forming associations with three of the leading U.S. law firms in Washington D.C. and Wall Street, New York.2 The landscape for law practice in Lahore at that time in the early 1970s, particularly, was led by a few legal giants, Sardar Muhammad Iqbal3 and S. M. Zafar,4 being foremost amongst them. But lawyering was singly powered by individuals and fed general practice combining, generally, all fields, criminal, civil, constitutional, tax and revenue, and crowdingly clustered around the courts. When I set up my law offices in WAPDA House, Lahore, and held out a specialization for company/corporate law and transactional work, outside the traditional turf of litigation, I was ridiculed as erring outside the mainstream who, well-wishers wished, would return as a prodigal colleague. I professionalised law practice through a law firm that, pioneeringly, paid regular salaries to associates (I introduced this description of younger colleagues who were then called "juniors"), structured regular counselling through appointments and meetings at my office and with meticulous regard to punctuality, and meeting the agreed time lines of professional commitments. A dedicated commitment to professional ethics, conflict of interest, integrity, transparency, and subordinating financial opportunities to sometimes, unpopular legal opinions, all pointed to a new trend of lawyering in Pakistan. I could mention many other firsts that I introduced but I happily acknowledge that this new approach was received well and I soon, actually very early, noticed a national recognition and acceptance by the corporate sector and the superior courts of Pakistan. Recognition and articles about my success in the print as well as in the electronic media facilitated more and greater opportunities. I acknowledge, among others, an eight-column almost whole page article on "Where Eagles Dare" on my pioneering law practice in The News5 by one of the speakers this evening, and a 1-hour interview by Naeem Bokhari on his popular TV Program Bilatakaluf6 as particularly encouraging. Even while I was busy developing my law practice, the only bread line that I have had in life, I decided something that I think gave an additional focus and insight in my life. And, that decision, redirected me to the award and blessings that I gratefully receive today. The decision on Day 1 of my professional life when meeting my personal and family living expenses was a challenge, was this: I would open my door to any person from anywhere in Pakistan, known and unknown, and provide free extended legal support for all their legal work if it was a charitable project and the sponsors would not take a paisa home out of the project. This pro bono work extended to environmental causes, charities, hospitals, schools for differently-abled persons and educational institutions. It became the basis of my foundational and governance support to LUMS, Shaukat Khanum Hospital, The Citizens Foundation, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Child Care Foundation, Beacon house National University, Namal University, LEAD Pakistan, Pakistan Forum for Environmental Journalists, South Asia Foundation-Pakistan, and for my serving on the governing bodies of many colleges and Universities and non-profit organizations including Government College University, Aitchison College, National College of Arts, Lahore Conservation Society, Family Planning Association of Pakistan, Lahore Literary Festival,WWF-Pakistan, and the National Society for Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped Children. My pro bono association with the environment has been the love of my life. It started with the opportunity provided by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific ("ESCAP") to undertake the pioneering Status of Environmental Protection Legislation in the ESCAP Region (1978). This study followed visits including to Australia, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The next major opportunity to provide global leadership to the efforts in the development of environmental law came as Chairman, World Commission on Environmental Law, IUCN, from 1990-1996, and as a Board member of, LEAD International, and Chairman, LEAD Pakistan. Joining the Board of the Jordan-based Foundation for the Future on the recommendation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra O'Connor, a Board member, and my work and travel in the BMENA (Broader Middle East and North Africa) Region was a special opportunity for supporting civil society organizations in Pakistan and that Region. At home, I have been privileged to head the Pakistan Environmental Law Association. The association with the environment, starting in 1977, led to my attendance of all the major environmental summits and initiatives, including the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio, 1992 (the "Earth Summit"), Rio+10 (2002), Rio+20 (2012), and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg (2002). I was also privileged to launch, with Maurice Strong, Mikhail Gorbachev and Steven Rockefeller, the Earth Charter at the Peace Palace at The Hague in 2000 and be a part of the Earth Charter+10 celebratory events at The Hague in 2010.7 The flagship of my career will always be the IUCN Draft Covenant on Environment and Development, a proposed global treaty on sustainable development, that I led in developing and drafting over 5-6 years with environmentalists and leaders from the East and the West, the North and the South and which I presented for a launch at the United Nations Congress on Public International Law in the U.N. General Assembly in 1995.8 The proposal of President Emmanuel Macron of France for the Global Pact of the Environment, under consideration by the U.N. today, acknowledges the IUCN Draft Covenant as an important development. It was a privilege to be invited to Paris, France, for the first Group of Experts meeting of the Global Pact for the Environment in 2017. An equally valuable opportunity, in the field of regional capacity building in international environmental law, was my initiation and development, in the 1990s, of the Asia Pacific Centre of Environmental Law ("APCEL") in Singapore which I continue to co-chair with my distinguished friend, Ambassador Tommy Koh. APCEL provided a core syllabus and reading materials for the introduction of environmental law in the region.9 The APCEL alumni have already contributed to environmental rule of law and justice on their return to their countries. The noteworthy examples are of Mr. Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Supreme Court of Pakistan, and Mr. Justice Jawad Hassan, Lahore High Court. It was humbling to be tributed as an honoree at the APCEL+20 Anniversary Celebrations at the National University of Singapore, in Singapore, in 2016.10 In Pakistan, I introduced the environment in the legal education of the country through the Dr. Parvez Hassan Environmental Law Centre established by me at the Punjab University Law College in appreciation of it providing me a legal education and the professional skills that enabled this establishment.11 Recognition for my global work in the environment came in my inclusion by the United Nations as an Eminent Person in the Asia Pacific Environment Persons Forum held in Tokyo, Japan, in 2001 which led to the Asia Pacific Forum of Environment and Development (APFED) and in whose work I actively participated in the following decade. I was also included in the U.N. Regional Roundtable of Eminent Persons for Central and South Asia held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in the same year. The association with APFED, (2001-2010), and its Chairman, Ryutaro Hashimoto, former Prime Minister of Japan, and Ms. Yorika Kawaguchi, former Foreign Minister of Japan, led to several personal friendships including with some of its members, Emil Salim (Indonesia), Reza Maknoon (Iran), and Cielito Habito (Philippines). Its work involved extensive travel (about 20 visits) in the ESCAP Region including to Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Mongolia, Palau, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Iran, Australia and the Philippines. Also welcome was the invitation, as one of the few non-Judges, to address the UNEP Global Judges Symposium on Sustainable Development and the Role of Law held with the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. It was at this plenary event, attended by most of the Chief Justices of the world, that I paid a personal tribute to the leadership of environmental causes in the South Asian Region by Mr. Justice Saleem Akhtar, who had authored the ground-breaking environmental law Shehla Zia judgment for the Supreme Court of Pakistan.12 I also participated in the World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability in 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and its earlier preparatory meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the same year. These recognitions were typical of the numerous opportunities to speak, chair and keynote at important environmental law conferences in over forty (40) countries all over the world,13 and to be on the editorial boards of prestigious international law journals.14 Typical opportunities were keynote addresses on (1) Human Rights and the Environment: A South Asian Perspective,15 at the 13th Informal Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Seminar on Human Rights in 2014 hosted by the Foreign Ministries including of Denmark, France, Sweden, Philippines and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), in Copenhagen, Denmark, and on (2) Elements of Good Environmental Governance,16 at the Asia Pacific Forum on Environmental Governance and Sustainable Development held at the United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2001. I also made lead presentations on (1) Good Environmental Governance: Some Trends in the South Asian Region,17 at the 3rd Unitar-Yale Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., U.S.A., in 2014, and on (2) A Glass Half Full: Toward a Global Treaty on the Environment,18 at the Opening Session of the Third International Environmental Law Conference, Oslo, Norway, in 2022. For my efforts for the developing countries, I was privileged to present a keynote address, The Role of the Developing Countries in the Development of International Environmental Law, at the World Congress on Environmental Law in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.19 Another earlier, and memorable, opportunity was to present, as a lead panelist, my paper on Moving Toward an Islamic Financial Regime in Pakistan,20 at the Harvard Law School's Second Worldwide Alumni Congress in Paris, France, in 2001. My work has, gratefully, been acknowledged in several international awards and citations by the United Nations and other bodies: Global 500 Roll of Honor by the United Nations Environment Program conferred in Stockholm, Sweden (1991). Honorary Membership of IUCN conferred at the IUCN - The World Conservation Congress in Amman, Jordan (2000). Elizabeth Haub Prize (1998) awarded in Brussels (2000). "A Tribute to Parvez Hassan" at the 7th International Conference on Environmental Law in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2003. Wolfgang Burhenne Award at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain (2008). But, before tonight, my most cherished award has been the recent Lifetime Achievement Award (2021) from Government College University, Lahore. This is the College from where, following four (4) career-building years, 1955-59, I graduated with a B.A. in 1959 to start my legal education at the Punjab University Law College, Lahore. The smell of success is always sweet but it is sweetest when it comes from an alma mater that has played a formative role in your life. In Pakistan, after being the first to introduce the environment in the country as early as in 1977, to initial ridicule and opposition, I was associated with the drafting of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance, 1983 and the later Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997. My journey through judicial activism was jump-started by my success in the internationally-acclaimed Shehla Zia case that I argued before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It was, pioneeringly, held inthis case by the Supreme Court, in 1994, that the right to the environment, although not specifically included in the Constitution, is included in the fundamental rights to life and dignity covered in Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution.21 This opened the door, and wide open, and spawned public interest litigation on environmental causes all over the country. There are other remarkable jurisprudential developments post-Shehla Zia: The Supreme Court and the Lahore and Islamabad High Courts have, first on my suggestion, used Commissions in resolving complex environmental disputes before them and, invariably, appointed me as Chair of such Commissions.22 These Commissions have included: 1. By the Supreme Court of Pakistan Water Quality, 1994 Lahore Canal Widening, 2011 Environmental Commission for Air and Water, 2018 Power Crushers Commission, 2021 2. By the Lahore High Court Air Pollution, 1991 Solid Waste Management, 2003 Clean Air, 2003 Climate Change, 2015 Houbara Bustard, 2017 Smog, 2017 Child Care, 2017 Black Buck, 2018 3. By the Islamabad High Court Islamabad Environment, 2015 This work has resonated in and outside Pakistan and is covered in my book, Resolving Environmental Disputes in Pakistan: The Role of Judicial Commissions (Pakistan Law House, 2018), with a gracious introductory Preface by the then Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah. The deference and respect shown to me by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the High Courts of Pakistan has been most heartening. The directions in the Order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, on 11 October 2018, in Suo Motu Case No. 3 of 2003, are typical: we appoint Dr. Parvez Hassan, learned ASC, as the Environmental Commission initially for a period of one year (this has been extended to date) to take all measures to accomplish the objectives of the Commission report throughout Pakistan. The Federal Government, all Provincial Governments and related Departments including the Administration of Islamabad Capital Territory shall render full support and assistance to the Commission to implement the report. The Commission shall have the power to issue directions for implementation of its recommendations . The Commission shall have its office at Lahore. In case, the Environmental Commissioner so requires, he may request the Chief Secretary, Punjab for provisions of appropriate office and staff to facilitate the working of the Commission. If the Commissioner commences work in other provinces he will be authorized to move appropriate applications before the respective Chief Secretaries who would provide suitable offices and adequate staff to facilitate the Environmental Commission work for implementation of the report which has been endorsed by this Court. A more recent Order of 25 May 2023 of the Supreme Court in the same case affirmed appreciation of the Commission: 3. The Chairman of the Commission also apprised us that a series of meetings were held with brick kiln owners in Lahore to review the Issues relating to conversion to zigzag technology. On the initiative of the Chairman, the State Bank of Pakistan ("SBP") has included the upgradation and conversion of brick kilns to zigzag technology in its Refinance facility for Modernization of SMEs. Circular No.9 dated 23.07.2019 and Circular No. 7 dated 06.05.2010 have already been issued in this regard. 4. It appears that the Commission has provided an important platform for interprovincial coordination on environmental issues between the Federation and the Provinces after the Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment. It is in the national interest to continue it as it has provided a forum for discussion of problems and their possible solutions in each of the Provinces which benefit other provinces. The most salutary effect of the work of the Commission is the establishment of understating, cooperation and opening lines of communication between all provincial environmental administrators and other stakeholders which would go a long way in agreeing on a uniform policy and its implementation on the national level. 5. Dr. Parvez Hassan has stated that on the initiative of this Court he had agreed to head the Commission and has done so to the best of his ability for the past many years. However, he feels that it is time to handover the baton to senior State functionaries at the Secretary level by rotation who may continue the work that the Commission has initiated and carried forth. 6. Having heard the learned Chairman of the Commission we are of the view that he has been the main driving force behind the Commission and has rendered valuable services for a national cause on pro bono basis. He is not only a senior Lawyer of this Court but an environmentalist of international repute enjoying international stature and in that capacity has personal rapport with and access to international expertise and the leading experts on environmental issues. Further, he has developed a good working relationship with all stakeholders whether they be from private or public sector and has been able to cut through red tape which could hamper effective working of the Commission. His continued association with the Commission, in our view is of utmost importance and his resignation from his position may adversely affect the progress of the Commission which considering the importance of the subject and issues that are being addressed by the Commission would have a negative impact on the gains made so far. We have therefore requested Dr. Parvez Hassan to continue as Chairman of the Commission so that maximum progress in the minimum possible time is made. He has kindly acceded to our request and will continue as its Chairman. The comments on the work of the Islamabad Environmental Commission by the then Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court, Mr. Athar Minallah, typical of the High Courts on Commissions appointed by them, were also felicitous: In this context it would be beneficial to refer to the report of a Commission which was constituted by this Court exclusively to investigate and make recommendations regarding environmental degradation and failure of regulatory framework in the Islamabad Capital Territory. This Court had constituted the Commission for examining the consequences flowing from failure on the part of the Authority to enforce the regulatory framework in the context of environmental degradation in the Islamabad Capital Territory . this Court had constituted the Commission chaired by a distinguished environmental law expert, namely, Dr. Pervez Hassan. The Terms of Reference were explicitly confined to environmental issues relating to the Islamabad Capital Territory. After extensive deliberations the Commission submitted its detailed report, dated 19-10-2015. The report has been made an integral part of this judgment as Annexure A. This report is unique and exceptional because it was unanimously adopted by all the members of the Commission, which included the highest officials of the Federal Government, the Capital Development Authority, members of the Parliament, experts in the environmental field and civil society organizations. The unanimity in adopting the report is of great significance. It was indeed the first public document of this nature which had forthrightly and openly acknowledged the failures which have led to serious environmental degradation. The composition of the Commission and the unanimous recommendations adopted by all its members, including representatives of the Federal Government and the Capital Development Authority, is of great significance. This report further reaffirmed the need for adopting the preventive principle. Perusal of the report explicitly shows that the Commission was by and large satisfied with the existing legal and regulatory frame work for the purposes of protecting the environment in the Islamabad Capital Territory. However, it has been openly accepted and acknowledged that "the challenge has been that these laws and regulations are not properly implemented and enforced by the Federal Government, CDA, PEPA and ICT".23 Inspite of a busy life, I found time to regularly write Opeds for many newspapers and opinion-makers such as Outlook and Mazhar Ali Khan's Viewpoint and for law journals in and outside Pakistan. In addition, I never declined an invitation to address, all over Pakistan, schools, colleges and fora such as Rotary Clubs to disseminate my message on environment and sustainable development. I add that I also found time to teach international law and, later, environmental law and corporate regulation at (1) the Civil Services Academy, Lahore, (2) Islamabad University, through a weekly commute from Lahore, and (3) the first law courses at LUMS which led to the establishment of the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law (SAHSOL) named after my father.24 The association with the Civil Services Academy, particularly, impacted on my future friendships with the many diplomats and ambassadors whom I had taught as young Foreign Service probationers at the Academy. International Environmental Law conferencing came to Pakistan in a big way in 2012 when the Supreme Court of Pakistan organized the South Asian Conference on Environmental Justice at Bhurban. For me, it was a dream come true to see the acknowledgement of my role in introducing the environment to Pakistan by the superior judiciary in inviting me to be the lead speaker with my paper on Environmental Jurisprudence from Pakistan: Some Lessons for the SAARC Region.25 The other occasion was when the Lahore High Court hosted the Asia Pacific Judicial Colloquium on Climate Change in Lahore in 2018. It was a pleasure for me to invite all the participants, including many foreign friends, whose hospitality I had enjoyed on visits to their countries, to dinner at my house as the kick-off event for the Colloquium. My paper, Judicial Commissions and Climate Justice in Pakistan,26 was well-received at the Colloquium and, again, acknowledged for my leadership in environmental matters in Pakistan. But the opportunity, over the last decades, that provided immeasurable personal pride was to speak at the Seminar on Dispensation of Justice in South Punjab, held in Bahawalpur in 2019, with the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court and other Judges of the Lahore High Court, to a large audience of lawyers and the public. I had returned to my roots in Bahawalpur and I shared the great contributions of my father, Shaikh Ahmad Hassan, and my grandfather, Dr. Omar Bakhsh, to the development of Bahawalpur and to my privilege to represent Bahawalpur and Pakistan at the 7th World Boy Scout Jamboree, Austria, 1951, and at the 8th World Boy Scout Jamboree, Canada, 1955. This formed the background to my remarks on my involvement in environmental protection in Pakistan and the strategy of including the journalists and the judiciary in its success.27 The pro bono work has been an extremely rewarding experience for me personally. Even though the high level of the professional fee of a lawyer is usually a matter of curiosity and speculation, I ended up spending at least 40%, sometimes even 50%, of my professional time all my professional life, on pro bono work. My parents, Razia and Shaikh Ahmad Hassan, would be proud of this. My family was also proud for my dedicated commitment to human rights, rule of law, and to serve Pakistan through political associations with the Tehrik-e-Istiqlal and the Tehrik-e-Insaaf. In the MRD movement against Ziaul Haq in 1983, I led, on the secondment of the imprisoned Abid Hassan Manto and Syed Afzal Haider, the All Pakistan Lawyers National Co-ordination Committee. I also readily joined the protest against the Musharraf-appointed PCO Judges in 2007 and was the first, perhaps the only lawyer, who returned substantial professional fees, already received, for not appearing before a truncated judiciary. I again faced police brutality and arrest in the Lawyers Movement in 2007-2008 and highlighted this movement during my global travels including in my paper, The Role of Lawyers in Protecting the Rule of Law in Pakistan,28 at the Human Rights Panel, chaired by the legendary U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg, at the World Justice Forum, sponsored by the American Bar Association, in Vienna in 2008. It would be fair, amidst all these stories of success, to also acknowledge, failures. The biggest of these was the failure of my marriage with Nighat, my children's mother. I recently dedicated my Environmental Law Book to her for her valuable support to me. I also failed in politics in leading, as its first Secretary General, the Tehrik-e- Insaaf to its- no seat won - failure in the general elections in 1997. My leadership in the IUCN - the most respected environmental organization in the world - was acknowledged to a request that I offer myself, which I did unsuccessfully, for its Presidency at the IUNC World Congresses in Montreal in 1996 and Bangkok in 2004. But all lives are a mix of challenges, successes and failures. One should not be deterred by failures particularly if they are off-set by some successes. Much of what I have shared tonight with you has been available on You Tube and other soft media channels.29 Many have seen these but I am particularly happy when young lawyers find my experiences and messages motivational and helpful in their life. It has been a blessed life with so much bounty to be grateful for, the most precious my family, my children, Yasmeen, Omar, Fatima and my grandchildren, Zeeshan, Zaki and Natasha. As many as could are here to join my gratitude to you. Harvard-law educated, Yasmeen, rose to an international standing as leading her international non-profit organization, Equality Now, to the International Gender Equality Prize of Euros 300,000 awarded by the Government of Finland in 2019, the second awardee after the inaugural winner, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in 2017. Yasmeen was also announced, I recall recently, as the 50 Leading over-50 Women of the World (exact title not available at this time) by Forbes Magazine. My son, Omar, is a sought-after RISD-trained architect in Lahore and now the Dean of the Razia Hassan School of Architecture, named after my mother, at BNU.30 And, my daughter in law, Fatima, has a busy professional life, including helping the Nishat Group in designing its outlets in Pakistan and the Gulf. And, I have immense hope and plenty of prayers for the happy, healthy and successful futures of my three grand-children, Zeeshan, Zaki and Natasha. Inspired by the life-changing impact of Adlai Stevenson's eulogy of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962, I have tried to always light candles rather than curse the darkness. To sum up a life fully blessed, if I have to pick some words that have provided a compass for my life, these would be vision, integrity, honesty, trust and respect, gratitude, (as acknowledged in my book, Stories of Gratitude), hard work, thoroughness, punctuality, fairness, ability to enjoy the success of others, merit-based decisions, conservation, tax obligations, physical fitness, charity and giving back to society, all reinforced by a pathological abhorrence of the VIP culture in Pakistan. In the end, it is with much joy and happiness that I dedicate the SDPI Living Legend Award 2023 to all of you and others who believed in me and gave me an opportunity to give back to society. As my distinguished younger colleague, Ali Zafar, recently wrote to felicitate me on the SDPI Award: I have had the privilege of knowing you, working with you and learning from you for the past many decades. We all have to follow your ability to give (one example of which are the donations to universities and the cause of education). May Allah keep you safe in his blessings. Here, I also add the most moving tribute to my life by an intellectual benefactor: Please accept my congratulations on receiving the SDPI- Living Legend Award 2023. It is a tribute richly deserved and fully merited, though, if truth be told, it is you who honor the Institute by accepting the award. Your manifold contributions, both national and international, to many many deserving and worthwhile causes; the long and illustrious career at the Bar; and what to me is perhaps the most wonderful and lasting of your legacies, the founding of the Law School at LUMS, attest to the life of a titan. It has been my honor and pleasure to have met and known you. May Allah grant you many more years of continuing contributions, in health and happiness. Giving back, then, is my over-arching message today, possibly a swan song, and, I hope, my legacy for this distinguished gathering. May Allah bless this message and us all. Thank you.