Daily Times

Pakistan lost one of its
great treasures on April 11, 2013. Justice Khwaja Muhammad Ahmad Samdani is no more. He returned to his Maker, but what he leaves behind is a legacy of honesty, dignity and an absolute adherence to principles. There are few men living today for whom one can say this with any degree of credibility, but in the case of Justice Samdani it is true in spades; he did not merely posses a strong moral compass, he served as its very definition.

Born in 1932 in Kareem Nagar, Hyderabad Deccan, Justice Samdani’s family opted to move to Pakistan after the partition in 1947. After completing his education and then teaching at Peshawar’s famed Islamia College, he joined the civil service. However, after a few years of serving as a bureaucrat he decided that his calling lay elsewhere and opted for the judicial branch of government. As he did throughout his life, even in those early days, Justice Samdani maintained a spotless reputation. In 1972, he was appointed an additional judge of the Lahore High Court.

During the Bhutto era, when the anti-Ahmedi sentiment was nearing a crescendo, Justice Samdani was asked to lead the Rabwah Tribunal, charged with investigating the violence that took place on May 29, 1974. While the full contents of the tribunal’s report were not shared with the public, Sadia Saeed reports in the book Political Power and Social Theory that Justice Samdani found the Second Constitutional Amendment tantamount to “persecution of a vulnerable minority”. He expounded that while he was in favour of a ‘true Islamic state based on the principles of justice and equality’, due to the impossibility of realising such a state he was ‘in favour of secularism’. Justice Samdani, a student of Sufi’ism himself, was highlighting the impossibility of reconciling Islam’s original message of equality and fairness with the hatred and intolerance some were attempting to inject into it.

Three years after Justice Samdani warned whoever would listen about the dangers of creeping intolerance, General Ziaul Haq seized power in the most infamous coup in Pakistan’s history. Quite unfortunately, Justice Samdani found himself caught in the midst of the dictator’s witch-hunts. Zia’s first instinct, not unlike that of other brutal characters in history who ascend to power through illegal means, was to eliminate any credible opposition. To that end, he had former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto arrested in connection with murder charges. While this trial was in motion, Justice Samdani’s court received a bail application from Mr Bhutto’s lawyers.

The trial was obviously very personal to Zia, as he wanted Bhutto and his political party to be eliminated. He expected that all those in government who wished to survive would readily comply to help realise this objective. After all, who would want to defy the Chief Martial Law Administrator? The very same Zia who, while a brigadier serving as military advisor to Jordan, helped plan the Black September offensive and crushed the Palestinian resistance with characteristic brutality.

Justice Samdani, however, was always ready to embrace hardship, but never ready to compromise. He felt that approving Mr Bhutto’s bail application was the right thing to do and that, to him, was the only consideration. Thus, he approved it. It was his firm belief that regardless of the price he may pay, a judge must dispense justice.

The honourable justice’s clashes with the Martial Law regime were far from over. Justice Samdani records another such incident in his autobiography, Jaizaa (Observations). While serving as Federal Secretary for Law, he came to know that Ziaul Haq had used abusive language against the secretaries. Not one to cower in such circumstances, he returned the favour and confronted army officers in the presence of General Zia. Despite being bullied and pressed to seek an apology from the General, Justice Samdani refused. He had done the right thing and there was no need to apologise nor room for any regret when taking a principled stand. Thus was Khwaja Muhammad Ahmad Samdani.

Justice Samdani resigned his position in 1981 when Zia demanded that the judiciary retake their oath on a document that contained some reprehensible — and unconstitutional — clauses.

I personally came to know the good judge only after he had resigned. When I first met him he was living in a modest apartment near Lahore’s China Chowk. I was a young boy at the time and my father introduced me to him by saying, “This is Justice Samdani, one of Pakistan’s most honest judges.” I can personally vouch for the fact that he lived an absolutely clean and simple life. He might have been elevated to the Supreme Court had he been supportive of a dictator, and would most certainly have made tens of millions had he compromised on his values. But he did not. And in all the interactions I had with this great Pakistani, I never detected an iota of regret for any of it.

In recent years, illness and age hit him hard. His small frame was further diminished as a consequence. But what never diminished, and continues to shine bright even after his departure from this world, is his commitment to justice and truth. Justice Samdani died an honest man. This, perhaps, is the greatest tribute one can pay a man in our unfortunate times. Rest in peace, Judge sahib.

The writer is an inventor and technology entrepreneur involved with businesses in the US and Pakistan