Justice Ramday’s son speaks about family ordeal
October 16, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Mustafa, son of Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, says the Pervez Musharraf government had decided to arrest him on a trumped up charge of tax evasion by his family law firm, after his father had given the landmark judgment on July 20, 2007, knocking down the reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
“On the directions of Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz, the Federal Board of Revenue launched an intrusive investigation to dig out any tax evasion and concealment by our law company, Ramdays’ Advocates, but they failed to find any wrong involving even a rupee.
The purpose was to arrest me and teach us a lesson for the verdict that the Ramday bench had delivered.”
Mustafa Ramday told The News from Lahore this financial year his firm was going to pay some Rs 10 million as income tax, which is of course much higher than many rich people and politicians pay. Mustafa Ramdaysaid that after hearing some government mouthpieces hurling unfounded allegations of getting heavy fees from the Punjab government by (now deceased) Raza Farooq, his widow and 10-year-old son were shocked. The young son and his mother wept over the baseless accusations.
Raza Farooq was the son of deceased Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq, the twice attorney general of Pakistan, and brother of Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday. He was married to the Justice Ramday’s daughter. He had also served as advocate general of the Punjab and died a sudden death some six months back. He had to leave this top position as a result of a court judgment of which Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday was a part.
“Before becoming advocate general, Raza Farooq had received just about Rs 1.2 million from the Punjab government as fee for different cases over a period of some two years,” Mustafa Ramday said.
He said that the Ramdays’ Advocates received only Rs 2.5 million as fee from the Punjab government, including the Bank of Punjab, over the past two and a half years, which was peanut compared to what other lawyers pocketed. “This aptly belies the charge against the Ramdays’ Advocates.”
Mustafa Ramday said there were several cases of the Punjab government that his firm fought without charging any fee. He said the provincial chief secretary would testify this fact. “Besides, our firm has received letters from the Punjab government to the effect.”
He said that he had fought Pakistan’s case in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the matchbox and won it against Egypt. He said he did not get not a single penny as fee, and even paid the hotel rent and travel expenses from his own pocket. He said the commerce ministry’s record would authenticate this fact.
“The main disciplines of our firm, which has 40-member staff in Islamabad and Lahore offices, include civil law, commercial and corporate litigation. It has just a dozen multinationals, including telecommunication companies, oil firms, banks etc as its clients. We don’t take any individual or walk-in client. My father has strictly stopped us from doing so since long,” Mustafa Ramday, who has been practicing law for the last 11 years, said.
However, he said the firm did plead the cases of a few individuals, who knew them since long and have personal relations with them. “But we charge no fee in such cases because they are taken only due to personal relations with these individuals.”
Mustafa Ramday said his father-in-law, Chaudhry Ahmad Saeed of the Servis Industries, had repeatedly asked him to take the cases of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) when he was its chairman for four years, but “I refused”.
The advocate said Ahmad Saeed once told him that he has also talked to President Pervez Musharraf in this connection and the general readily supported the idea. “But we preferred not to take any PIA case.”
He said that the legal profession was in his family since long. Supreme Court Chief Justice Yaqoob Ali Khan, whom General Ziaul Haq had thrown out to install Justice Anwaarul Haq in his place, was his material grandfather. Justice Yawar Ali, who was recently inducted in the Lahore High Court as additional judge, is the son of Justice Yaqoob Ali Khan.
Justice Mohammad Sadiq was Mustafa’s paternal grandfather. He retired as senior judge of the West Pakistan High Court. He had four sons, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, (deceased) Chaudhry Mohammad Farooq, Chaudhry Asadur Rehman and another. Mustafa Ramday said that Asadur Rehman was associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) since 1985 and has always contested elections on its ticket. He was federal minister in the Nawaz Sharif government in the Nineties.
“On the directions of Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz, the Federal Board of Revenue launched an intrusive investigation to dig out any tax evasion and concealment by our law company, Ramdays’ Advocates, but they failed to find any wrong involving even a rupee.
The purpose was to arrest me and teach us a lesson for the verdict that the Ramday bench had delivered.”
Mustafa Ramday told The News from Lahore this financial year his firm was going to pay some Rs 10 million as income tax, which is of course much higher than many rich people and politicians pay. Mustafa Ramdaysaid that after hearing some government mouthpieces hurling unfounded allegations of getting heavy fees from the Punjab government by (now deceased) Raza Farooq, his widow and 10-year-old son were shocked. The young son and his mother wept over the baseless accusations.
Raza Farooq was the son of deceased Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq, the twice attorney general of Pakistan, and brother of Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday. He was married to the Justice Ramday’s daughter. He had also served as advocate general of the Punjab and died a sudden death some six months back. He had to leave this top position as a result of a court judgment of which Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday was a part.
“Before becoming advocate general, Raza Farooq had received just about Rs 1.2 million from the Punjab government as fee for different cases over a period of some two years,” Mustafa Ramday said.
He said that the Ramdays’ Advocates received only Rs 2.5 million as fee from the Punjab government, including the Bank of Punjab, over the past two and a half years, which was peanut compared to what other lawyers pocketed. “This aptly belies the charge against the Ramdays’ Advocates.”
Mustafa Ramday said there were several cases of the Punjab government that his firm fought without charging any fee. He said the provincial chief secretary would testify this fact. “Besides, our firm has received letters from the Punjab government to the effect.”
He said that he had fought Pakistan’s case in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the matchbox and won it against Egypt. He said he did not get not a single penny as fee, and even paid the hotel rent and travel expenses from his own pocket. He said the commerce ministry’s record would authenticate this fact.
“The main disciplines of our firm, which has 40-member staff in Islamabad and Lahore offices, include civil law, commercial and corporate litigation. It has just a dozen multinationals, including telecommunication companies, oil firms, banks etc as its clients. We don’t take any individual or walk-in client. My father has strictly stopped us from doing so since long,” Mustafa Ramday, who has been practicing law for the last 11 years, said.
However, he said the firm did plead the cases of a few individuals, who knew them since long and have personal relations with them. “But we charge no fee in such cases because they are taken only due to personal relations with these individuals.”
Mustafa Ramday said his father-in-law, Chaudhry Ahmad Saeed of the Servis Industries, had repeatedly asked him to take the cases of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) when he was its chairman for four years, but “I refused”.
The advocate said Ahmad Saeed once told him that he has also talked to President Pervez Musharraf in this connection and the general readily supported the idea. “But we preferred not to take any PIA case.”
He said that the legal profession was in his family since long. Supreme Court Chief Justice Yaqoob Ali Khan, whom General Ziaul Haq had thrown out to install Justice Anwaarul Haq in his place, was his material grandfather. Justice Yawar Ali, who was recently inducted in the Lahore High Court as additional judge, is the son of Justice Yaqoob Ali Khan.
Justice Mohammad Sadiq was Mustafa’s paternal grandfather. He retired as senior judge of the West Pakistan High Court. He had four sons, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, (deceased) Chaudhry Mohammad Farooq, Chaudhry Asadur Rehman and another. Mustafa Ramday said that Asadur Rehman was associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) since 1985 and has always contested elections on its ticket. He was federal minister in the Nawaz Sharif government in the Nineties.
