ISLAMABAD: Senior advocate and former president Lahore Bar Association Manzoor Qadir who left for his heavenly abode on Saturday was one of the most dedicated workers of the historic lawyers’ movement. At the peak of the Lawyers’ movement, Manzoor Qadir held an important position as President of Lahore Bar Association in 2008 and was tried to be lured by many to betray the movement but Qadir held his ground to prove that he was a man of character.
Manzoor Qadir had himself told this correspondent that he was offered the slot of a judge of Lahore High Court at least four times during 2008 but he refused the offer. Qadir was on the top of the list of proposed names for the slots of judges of the Lahore High Court and he knew that he was being offered the post to dump the enthusiasm of the lawyers from Lahore in the movement of restoration of judiciary to the position of November 2, 2007. He was offered the slot of a judge in February 2008 and was asked to leave the command of lawyers of Lahore chapter but he refused.
Before the Long March of 2008 he was again offered the post of a judge but he again refused saying he cannot ditch the lawyers’ movement.
In September 2008 he was again offered the slot of a judge before the Supreme Court Bar Association’s election but he again rejected the offer and in December 2008 he was once again offered the same thing but he straightaway rejected the offer saying Lahore’s lawyers have chosen him as their leader and he will never betray them.
Manzoor Qadir was an exceptional speaker and dedicated to the lawyers’ community to the core. His speeches in the bars kept the enthusiasm of lawyers alive till the restoration of judiciary in March 2009. He was instrumental among the lawyers from Lahore and was respected all over the country as every bar association of the country invited him during the movement to listen to his fiery speeches. That was the main reason behind so many
lucrative offers to him which he rejected as an upright person.
Qadir rejected the offers when his friends and colleagues were taking oaths from the Dogar Court and ditching the lawyers’ movement but later it was Qadir who held his head high and the pigmies who fell for the offers had to bite the dust.
After the restoration of judiciary, in his numerous meetings with this correspondent, Manzoor Qadir would often laugh at the lawyers who accepted the offers of becoming judges during the Dogar era because they all were sent home by ex-Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry-led Supreme Court. He would often say that he had developed differences with Aitzaz Ahsan during the lawyers’ movement because before 2008 long march, a meeting was held in Lahore which was attended by around 35 senior lawyers and all except one or two were in favour of holding a sit-in in Islamabad but after the meeting Aitzaz Ahsan, on his own announced that no one will hold sit-in. Manzoor Qadir would say, all is well that ends well.
Qadir was gem of a person and had the ability to remember a person forever who even met him only once. He was a great friend and even greater human being. The vacuum created by his sad demise could never be filled and words run short for describing his personality and writing his obituary. May Allah grant him Janat-ul-Firdus. Ameen!