Azam Ali, Ahmadi Moslem
Chapter 10 – JUDGE
Judged as God says
Father was a Judge. He judged justly. He carried out his obligation according to the law of the land because that was his professional duty to which he was sworn in, and he implemented it as the divine mandate as well. The formation of Pakistan made Moslem Law the law of land and added the following color to the judiciary with which my father was already doing justice.
Wa ezaa ha-kaum toom bai-na un-naa-say un tauh-ko-moo bay il-ud-lay سُوۡرَةُ النِّسَاء Ch: 004, Verse 059 And when you decide among people that you decide with justice. 004:059
Judgment based upon facts
In 1957, I had to study for my law degree away from friends in law school. I stayed with my Father who as a Sessions Judge was to hold a murder case trial in Montgomery Government Rest House. He had to apply Criminal Procedure and Penal Codes which are adversarial laws. I asked an Orderly to call me to attend the court when the verdict was about to be announced.
Father as usual prayed for Divine Guidance in presiding over the trial. It took four days of hearing evidence and closing arguments by prosecution and defense lawyers. I entered the court room just before the verdict was announced. I found his towering voice and total silence in the courtroom. I saw and heard him speak clearly, candidly, concisely and without mincing words.
- Firstly, he talked to the accused defendants who all were in chains, handcuffs and ankle-irons and told them that parts of the file convinced him that they had committed the murder and that was the worst thing a man could do to his fellow beings.
- Next, he addressed the prosecution witnesses who, having been won over by the defense had obviously lied and favored the murderers.
- Next, he passed severe strictures against the prosecutorial misconduct that had bungled up the process, system and justice designed to punish the criminals.
- Next, as if to console the victim family, he informed everyone that the circumstances had rendered him helpless and forced him to entrust the matter to God.
- Then he turned again to the accused defendants saying that they had committed multiple crimes by first murdering human beings and then suborning witnesses against them.
- He warned the accused that one day they still had to account for their crimes to the One from Whom nothing was hidden and Who won’t be a helpless judge like him in this life.
- He was upset because witnesses had perjured and misled the court, and without evidence he was helpless in letting them go. He announced that the crime was not proved.
- Then suddenly, almost abruptly, he ordered the police to immediately remove the chains, handcuffs and leg-irons of the accused because he had no alternative but to acquit them.
- That 10/15-minute talk in court would ring in my ears about the feelings of a judge when I as an Attorney found a fair Judge helplessly surrendered to the rule of law in open court.
- Father’s exemplary conduct as a brilliant man of law shined like a lighthouse that helped me for over half century navigate through the terrible, turbulent waters of litigation.
Solicited God’s help at every step
I learnt on May 10, 1995, when after the Eid-ud-Duha sermon in the Willingboro Mosque (USA) a gentleman came up to me. After commenting on how and what I said in the sermon he asked my name and then my Father’s name. “Was that Chaudhry Azam Ali who was the District and Sessions Judge in Multan in 1950’s?” he asked. Upon my confirmation his face lit up.
He said his name was Chaudhry Nazir Ahmad. Excitedly he told me how he remembered meeting my father. He told of his memory of my father that had stayed in his mind although they had met only once and that too forty-two (42) years earlier in the 1950’s.
- He took the train Chenab Express from Karachi enroute to Rabwah to attend the Annual Convention of Ahmadiyya Community.
- The train-stop in Multan brought in new passengers to the compartment he sat in. The train took nearly 8 hours to reach Rabwah.
- The passengers’ chit-chat soon revealed that the plainly dressed and inconspicuously sitting among them was the Ahmadi District and Sessions Judge of Multan.
- Someone asked my father how he ever was sure that an accused murderer he sentenced to death was guilty and not an innocent person falsely implicated as was quite common.
- Father said that he strictly followed the law, extensively prayed to the Almighty God for divine help to reach the right decision, and in capital sentence cases continually watched the legal proceedings right to the end until the convict was acquitted or executed.
- Father told them that his task was to watch for the final outcome of the case to take judicial notice if there was a last-minute reprieve or clemency granted by the Government, or claim of innocence or confession of guilt expressed by the convict.
- I knew that a death sentence by a Sessions Judge was not the case end. The High Court in further proceedings called Murder Reference evaluated in appeal all issues of fact and law. The Supreme Court Pakistan could next hear a Revision. The President was next in line through a Clemency Petition. It was like several filters Father’s judgment had to pass. I recall Father stating that his decisions were rarely if ever overruled by a Higher Court.
- Father sought guidance from the All-Knowing Allah and made every effort to arrive at a just and fair conclusion. He did his utmost to avoid sending an innocent person to death.
- The chance meeting of the two travelling together for about 8 hours, the hearing from a fellow Ahmadi who used the medium of prayers for Divine Help in doing his worldly job better, and the inspiration he had on hearing of a heavy reliance of a Judge on his prayers for guidance to do justice had cumulatively created a lasting impression on his mind.
- His memory must have remained fresh crystal clear that on seeing his son, me, for the first time in his life, he instantly recalled so vividly the occasion, the incident and the inspiration that had experienced 42 years earlier. Thank God I met Chaudhry Nazir Ahmed of the Rizwan Agency in Karachi who provided me such a vivid account and permitted me to quote him by name as an eyewitness to the episode.
A Righteous Judge
Father intended justice in all cases he decided. He took his spiritual duty as a Moslem Judge. He decided material issues in all cases procedurally, factually and thoroughly, examining all evidence on file. He put into practice what God Almighty had mandated to do justice. DO JUSTICE.
He applied the codified laws that were carried on from the British India to Pakistan after the Partition in August 1947. Then on he felt more at home in resolving controversies by following Moslem law and jurisprudence which clearly distinguishes Fautwaa (what the litigating parties present before a judge) from Tauqwaa (what the righteousness dictates).
He applied the rules to the whole and not just on a part of the evidence before him in every case. He judged criminal cases according to the laws of crimes codified in Penal Codes. He investigated thoroughly and settled all material issues in every case before him.
He adjudicated upon matrimonial cases by going the extra mile to help the spouses to reconcile. Many litigants who wanted a peaceful settlement strove hard to have their cases brought to his court while those who desired divorces did all they could to keep away from there.
He exercised his discretion more leniently in matters involving orphans and widows so much so that any fair-minded person would — and often even the losing side did — confirm that his decisions really were the most equitable and fair in the totality of the circumstances.
He adjudged cases not as in Adversarial System of the American law where the role of judge was that of a referee who watched the Attorneys play the game of representing their clients like the boxers in a rink and blew a judging whistle only when one of them committed a foul.
He condemned in open court if a party in any case before him conveyed to him some lure, temptation, concession, threat or even insult. He sternly disallowed anyone pulling wool over his eyes. He defied all wills, whims or wishes to obstruct a Judge from doing his job.
He practiced the best way he could all that had been laid down in the Holy Qor-aan.
Wa laa yauj-ray-maun-na koom sha-na-aa-no qao-min aa-laa ul-laa tau-day-loo سُوۡرَةُ المَائدة – Ch: 005, Verse 009 And let not the hostility against some people incite you to be unjust. Do justice. It is very close to Righteousness. 005:009
Father was Just in court in every case before him. He was Just in all community affairs he was in. He was Just in any village he visited, city where he was posted, or religious controversy he resolved. He was Just at home among his children. He tried being Just wherever life put him.
One Rule of Universal Application stated in the Holy Qor-aan is a clear-cut.
In-na ul-laa-ha yo-hib-bool mooq-say-tee-n سُوۡرَةُ المَائدة – Ch: 005, Verse 043 Surely Allah loves the Just. 005:043
Whenever I read this Rule of Universal Application (or hear it recited by the likes of Qari Abdul-Baasit or sung by Michael Jackson) what comes in mind is Abba Ji as a Just Judge among others Just Judges who I worked with or came across for over half century.
In Pakistan I appeared before dozens of Supreme Court and High Court Judges, hundreds of other judges and magistrates, and worked with police officers with the highest ranks to the lowest. In USA, I appeared before Federal Courts Judges, argued before State Court of Appeals, sought reliefs from dozens of Immigration Judges and worked with the jail staff of many states.
So even if I say it myself, I am a pretty good judge as to what a Just Judge is or anyone adjudicating upon others’ rights in a judicial system should be. It would be a remiss if I don’t (and have nothing to gain or lose if I do) remember the names of some of the Just Judges.
Some of these Judges appeared as lawyers in my father’s court before being appointed as Judges of High Courts. Some of them were in whose courts my father appeared as a lawyer after his retirement from judgeship. Some I appeared before or argued cases, some several times.
Pakistan Supreme Court Justices Cornelius and Hamood-ur-Rahmaan. West Pakistan Lahore High Court Justices Anwar-ul-Haq, Aslam Riaz Hussain, Ataullah Sajjad, J Orthicon, M Afzal Cheema, Malik Abdul Hameed, Mirza Ghulam Mujaddid, Mushtaq Hussain, Sardar M Iqbal, Shafi-or-Rahman, Sheikh Bashir Ahmad and Sheikh Shaukat Ali. District & Session Judges Ch. Aziz Ahmad Bajwa and Mahr Sher Muhammad Sial. Immigration Judge Charles Honeyman in New York and later in Philadelphia.
