Renowned lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada passes away

KARACHI: Renowned senior lawyer and constitutional expert Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada passed away on Friday after a prolonged illness. He was 94.

Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada was born on June 12, 1923 in Burhanpur (British India). He was an elder statesman of Pakistan, a leading historian of the Pakistan Movement, and an eminent lawyer who was widely regarded as one of Pakistan's leading constitutional experts.

Mr. Pirzada started his political career by working for Mohammad Ali Jinnah as an assistant in Bombay in 1941, and it was at Jinnah's behest that he chose the legal profession. Mr. Pirzada graduated from the University of Bombay in 1945 and obtained his Barrister-at-Law degree from Lincoln’s Inn in the United Kingdom. He started his career as a law professional in Bombay and later settled in Karachi.

Mr. Pirzada held a variety of high-level positions in the Pakistan government, including foreign minister of Pakistan (twice), Attorney General of Pakistan (three times), and served as a senior adviser to former President Musharraf.

He had also led the Pakistani delegation a number of times to the UN General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council, the Law of Sea Conference, as well as addressed the UN Security Council many times on issues related to Islamic countries. He had successfully argued at the International Court of Justice,  been appointed by the UN General Assembly to the International Law Commission, served as a judge at the ICJ, and been elected Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Mr. Pirzada was awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest civil award, in 1998, and had received high civil awards from Jordan, Syria, France, South Korea and Germany. Mr. Pirzada has published several books on the Pakistan Movement and aspects of constitutional law in Pakistan.

He was also a highly-controversial figure amongst the political and legal fraternity for his legal assistance to military governments of General Ayub, General Zia and General Musharraf in making unconstitutional amendments in the Constitution to legitimize their rule. He was also elected as President of the Sindh High Court Bar Association in the mid 60s. However, his portrait was removed from the SHCBA office during the 2007 lawyers movement on a resolution of the lawyers general body for supporting the military regime and for making unconstitutional amendments during the military governments. He is survived by two widows, two sons and three daughters.