lawyers-from-pakistan

"I have so much affection for Mustafa, Pakistan and Kashmir were always on his lips"

"It was 1950. I was then studying Journalism in London and was attached to the "Daily Telegraph” I was scanning the news of the morning. Suddenly I found the “copy" containing the list of successful candidates who had passed their Bar-at-Law Examination Mustafa’s name was there. I rang him up at his residence and congratulated him on his success At six in the evening Mustafa came to my flat with lots of eatables and to express his gratitude to me for letting him know his results piping-hot from the newspaper office. Such was the man who is no more in the land of the living."

"We are on the threshold of an era of science and technology. In our encounter with the new age it is the responsibility of the teachers, standing at the confrontation of past with the present, to help evolve a perspective for the future."

"It was Brig. Saheb Dad who was President of the East Pakistan Sports Federation during Martial Law period when Kabir of Mohammedan Sporting Club and a Pakistani International football player was placed under suspension for some reason or other. Mohamedan Sporting Club was to play one of its vital League's match and Kabir's services was needed badly. It was Mustafa Bhai who came forward to the rescue of the club. It was learnt on the eve of the match day that Brig Saheb Dad was having his dinner at a friend's i residence. Mustafa Bhai, as a real lover of sports, did not hesitate to go and waited there outside the house for quite a long time till Brig Saheb Dad came out to leave for his residence. Mustafa Bhai approached him with Kabir's mercy petition and requested him to allow Kabir to play on the following day. To be very frank Brig Saheb Dad felt embarrassed seeing a person of such stature waiting for him outside a house at the dark of night and for such a small matter. He immediately assured that the suspension will be lifted. Kabir played on the following day. These may be small matters but they show one's sincere love and feelings towards sports, and sportsmen."

"Art is not a plaything, nor an ornamantal activity but an expression of life—it gives glimpse of life."

"You know, anybody can write a memoir of their life in so many different ways, right? It can be about my career. It can be about advocacy work. It can be about so many things."

"For any and every wrongfully convicted person, you can assume almost everything went wrong."

"When I decided it was time to get a journalist to look at what I have always held as a wrongful conviction, I did it thinking that reporters can go places most of us can’t. They have ways of tracking down information, getting people to talk, and resources the average person doesn’t."

"And when you've been carrying that around, like, your entire adult life, it feels quite amazing to be able to finally put it down and check it off your list."

"What she did do successfully was blow wide open the idea of a fair criminal justice process. She brought to light questions of religious and ethnic bias, prosecutorial misconduct, police manipulation of witnesses, reasonable doubt, evidential reliability, ineffective assistance of counsel, maximum sentences, juvenile detention, and appellate logjams."

"For decades, Asma bravely fought for the most disadvantaged people in Pakistan, often at great personal risk. She championed the cause of women, children, bonded labourers, religious minorities, journalists, the disappeared, and so many others. She confronted injustice wherever she saw it. Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International."

"One of Asma Jahangir’s most determined struggles has been against the unlawful and cruel practice of enforced disappearances. It was an issue she addressed in her last public speech just three days before her death at the “Pashtun Long March” in Islamabad. Over recent months, there has been a sharp increase in the number of enforced disappearances across Pakistan, stretching beyond conflict zones deep into the heart of its main cities. Asma Jahangir’s human rights work went far beyond Pakistan. She served as a UN Special Rapporteur three times – on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, on freedom of religion or belief, and, most recently, on Iran."

"A decade later, long after democratic rule was restored, she was still denouncing the power of Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishments and the façade of civilian control. In a lecture at Oxford University in 2017, she charged that “the military controls the country through the deep state”, while “the politicians are playing at democracy, hanging onto the cliff with their claws. And then the boot comes.”"

"Asma Jahangir was a giant of a woman who spent her entire life fighting injustice, be it based on politics, socioeconomic differences, religion, or gender. She has left behind a still-fractured country that needs her now more than ever."

"For her relentless campaigning against laws that discriminate against women and for continuously speaking truth to power, Jahangir was threatened, assaulted in public and placed under house arrest. Besides her work in Pakistan, Asma Jahangir has promoted human rights internationally through her long service with the United Nations. She died of a heart attack at the age of 66 but remains a great source of inspiration for human rights defenders beyond Pakistani borders."

"Allama Iqbal"

"Principles"

"Ijaz Hussain Batalvi"

"Hamid Khan excused himself from accepting the chairmanship in the prevailing political situation and hoped that the president and Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa would ensure the rule of law and supremacy of the constitution in the country."

"Muhammad Ali Jinnah"

"Hamid Khan declared that the lawyers' movement against the 26th Amendment had commenced and would ultimately overturn the amendment and emphasized that their struggle was gaining momentum. The Supreme Court, asserting that certain individuals within the judiciary were supporting the establishment. The Chief Justice's acceptance of the position has greatly disappointed us and 26th Amendment was passed without proper parliamentary awareness."

"Imran Khan"

"Independent"

"It's a matter of regret, he said, that the PTI founder and his former foreign minister were not allowed to hire lawyers of their choices. A great deal of injustice was being done to them, he deplored. There is an appalling situation of human rights in the country and steps should be taken to prevent the violation of fundamental rights."

"By allowing the announcement of the decision by the military courts, the Supreme Court has let us down. He stated that the lawyers did not consider military courts as legitimate and did not accept their decisions, the decision to allow military trial verdicts was a stain on the Supreme Court. The military courts were only meant for trying military personnel and taking civilians’ trials to military courts was unconstitutional and so-called constitutional bench was a product of the 26th Amendment."

"It appears that either he did not know or did not care to note that the provisions of the constitution of 1956 were similar to those of the Indian constitution of 1950 which has been a success despite the greater complexities of the Indian union with dozens of ethnicities and languages and hundreds of dialects. What right had he to give his verdict on parliamentary democracy without even having tried it."

"The late Ijaz Husain Batalvi was a multi-dimensional personality — a short story writer, critic, poet, essayist, broadcaster, barrister and a teacher at Law College, Lahore. His literary career was spread over a span of half a century but surprisingly, he never published his work in a book form during his lifetime. Intizar Husain, in his article ‘Lazzat ki talash mein’, once asked him why it was so and the humble Ijaz sahib replied, ‘Mein koi sikkaband adeeb nahi hoon. Apni koi adbi haseeyat manwani maqsood nahin hai. Tabiyat idhar aaye likh liya, nahi aayee na likha. Asal mein main aik weekend writer hoon.’ (‘I am not some sort of stamp approved Litterateur. My objective is not to get an approval of my literary standing as such. When the feeling comes I write, if it doesn’t come I don’t write. Actually, I consider myself a weekend writer’.)"

"Ijaz Hussain Baralvi was a famous lawyer and author. He practiced law in Lahore and was well known in literary and political circles. He wrote an essay which was also delivered as an address to a conference in 1974. This Urdu essay is translated into English by Mohammad Akmal Makhdum. Pakistan has suffered imposition of martial laws repeatedly since its birth as a nation. First martial law was declared in 1958 that lasted 10 years. Subsequent martial laws saw political and democratic institutions destroyed, elected leaders murdered and civil liberties trampled upon. Rule of law and freedoms of assembly and expression were suppressed and courts of law oppressed. Political corruption increased and state civil services were corrupted. Social and collective mental impact are discussed in some detail with a wider view of history."

"Mr. Batalvi agree with Mr. Muahaam Ali Jinnah Qauid-e-Azam who beautifully elucidated in his quotation, "Islam established democracy, peace and justice to safeguard the rights of the oppressed" ."

"A well-known heckler would waive his hand vigorously in every class with cries of 'Sarr Sarr. Important Swal 'Yes, my boy' Mr Batalvi would yield. "Sarr, if my next door neighbour's sister is named Yasmin and I called my house Yasmin Cottage, can her brother take me to court and sue me for damages"?"

"He did not deliver a lecture; he gave a performance. He viewed the teacher as the "principal actor in a one-act play." During one of his remarkable lectures on torts, Aftab Gul and I spontaneously responded with wah wah."

"When I first arrived in London in 1953, my friend, Ijaz Hussain Batalvi whom I hadn’t seen for some years, had become a dandified Londoner. He had had all the required dinners at Lincoln’s Inn and was about to enter the Bar. He was now living, in what Roger Fry, called"

"Maybe we now live in interesting times when they don’t make great men any more. I am also reminded of another memorable personality, Ijaz Hussain Batalvi. He was not just an ordinary barrister but one who had practiced in England as well as Pakistan. Being at the helm of his career during the 1970s, he became a prosecution lawyer against Z A Bhutto in the Kasuri murder case which resulted in his social boycott by fellow writers. Many amongst the legal community may not be aware of the fact that he was also a fiction writer. The community of intellectuals did not like the fact that he had represented the government."

"Here in Pakistan, there is a need to appoint a police man with every person to moniter him as everybody is compromised to indulge in corruption."

"In a case of bail which Mr Ijaz Hussain Batalvi was opposing, a very eminent attorney, while persuading the court to agree that the persons seeking bail would not abscond if allowed bail nor would interfere with the prosecution, vehemently urged."

"Mr. Batalvi never compromised on principles and always raised voice for the rights of the bar members."

"It is easy to bear a person with empty stomach but it's very difficult to bear an empty mind person."

"At the time of independence, Punjab had inherited 19 jails, whereas 21 more prisons had been commissioned after 1947. It was also at this Attock Fort that the trial of various officers of the country’s armed forces was held in 1973 and then in 1985."

"My boy, he may not take you to court but would certainly take out your front teeth, with the blessings of the entire neighbourhood." Mr Batalvi bought a new blue colour Ford Cortina. On Aftab Gul's daring (so I still claim), I climbed on its roof to perform the 'twist' amidst loud clapping."

"Police officer would not listen, the Control Office would not control, the Government Houses would not listen, Sir, in these circumstances the Great Killing went on and it is undisputed that this would never have happened if the police and the military had taken strong measures on Friday, the 16th, when the trouble began. It would have been nipped in the bud that very day, and, therefore, the conclusion is inevitable that although the police may not be responsible for the origin of disturbances, they are directly responsible for the great loss of human life, and if an impartial enquiry is held and these officers can be spotted, my opinion is that they deserve to be hanged, drawn and quartered publicly, on charges of murder and abetment of murder…’"

"It seemed …that some modern Nadir Shah had come upon Calcutta and had given up the city to rapine, plunder and pillage. Sir, each time I tried to get in touch with police officers, I was told that I was to contact the Control Room."

"Sir, during the dark days or nights of the Great Killing, I watched events from the ‘point of view of a member of the Opposition. The news that came to me trickling down from various sources was unfavourable to the Ministers in power. I was very deeply impressed with the fact that during the whole of these disturbances the machinery of Government had completely broken down in this city. Sit, I pondered deeply over the situation, and if I have risen to say a few words on these motions I wish to tell my comrades in the Assembly what | feel very strongly and which T think ought to be raised before the people of Bengal, if Bengal is to be saved at all from utter extermination. There have been Hindu-Muslim quarrels in the past all over India. In many of these quarrels, when cases had been started, I had the privilege of defending the Muslim accused almost all over the country. But, Sir, 1 have never in the whole course of my life seen anything like the purcly fiendish fury with which both Hindus and Muslims have murdered not merely men or women but even small children. 1 do not know to satisfy what impulse—human or devilish—which seems to have possessed the Bengalees for those fateful days and nights that my countrymen indulged."

"Those who have divided our golden country into two parts - they are the enemies of the country."

"Sir, 1 will not take much time of the House, but 1 will refer to a few instances which have been an eye-opener to me. have felt that the greatest disturbances did not rise in a moment out of the moon but seem to be the result of a well-planned action —may be on one side of nay be on both sides. To not know—God alone knows. “The future alone will disclose what is the truth ."

"East Bengal and West Bengal share the same culture, the same history, and the same heritage. We cannot be kept apart."

"I have reached the final stage of my life. I have no more desires. If I can begin the work of removing this false wall between the two Bengals, I will consider myself blessed."

"Sir, on Friday morning 1 received telephone messages from various parts of the city from both Hindus and Muslims that troubles had broken out. I thought it was one of those unfortunate affairs which have shown to the world that although the Bengalees or Indians generally are amongst the most intellectual races of the world, they do not know the virtue of toleration. But, then the situation worsened gradually. I advised those who were telephoning to me, to seek police protection. It was then I came to know that the police were being appealed to and in some cases the police said that they had received no orders. Wonder of wonders! What are the police here for, what are they being paid for, if they do not know that whenever there is a’ disturbance of the public peace and tranquillity, their first duty is to jump into the situation, if necessary, and to defend public peace and tranquillity with their lives ?"

"“Hindus will be wiped out in a Pakistani nuclear attack. Pakistan will also be destroyed but 58 Muslim countries will remain:” Pakistani politician Ahmad Raza Kasuri. A similar sentiment has been shared by ‘liberal’ Pakistani commentator Hassan Nisar."

"Faced with insoluble social, political, and economic crises that threatened the very existence of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sought to compensate by adopting a strict version of the Sharia as the country’s legal system.... By mid-September, Islamabad was arguing that Islamization offered the only chance of holding Pakistan together as it slid toward political and social collapse amid technical bankruptcy and increasing political assertiveness by the local Islamist parties. Relying on their powerful militias and allied Kashmiri terrorist organizations, the Islamist parties flexed political muscle Nawaz Sharif could no longer confront. By the end of the month the Pakistani government was hanging by a thread, and the crisis was exacerbated by economic disaster and a collapsing social order that brought the country to the verge of a civil war. The Islamist members of the army and ISI high command warned Nawaz Sharif that the only alternative to chaos was to implement “Talibanization”—the transformation of Pakistan from a formally secular pseudo-democracy into a declared extremist Islamic theocracy.... Sharif orchestrated a profound purge of the entire military and ISI high command, throwing out the Westernized elite and replacing them with Islamists who are ardent supporters of bellicosity toward India, active aid for the war by proxy in Kashmir, and assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan and other Islamist jihads.... Washington cannot offer Islamabad anything that would be worth provoking a major confrontation with the Pakistani Islamists. Even if Sharif gave an order to apprehend bin Laden, his order would not be carried out by the Pakistani security services because they are riddled with, even actually controlled by, militant Islamists. For them bin Laden is a hero, not a villain. These Islamists are also the new army and ISI elite Sharif just empowered. The Pakistani security establishment knows that any cooperation with Washington will place it in a “state of war” with the local Islamist militias, the Arab “Afghans,” and the Kashmiri terrorist organizations they sponsor. With the Afghan Taliban providing safe haven to these groups, they can easily destabilize Pakistan and drag it into a fratricidal civil war the Islamists are sure to win."

"As Guardian journalist Jon Boone wrote in 2013, “Sharif tried to turn Pakistan into an Islamic caliphate ruled by sharia.”"