Azam Ali, An Ahmadi Moslem
Chapter 15 – OPINIONS OF OTHERS
Good Name
Father served as a Judge getting promotions for nearly 29 years till 1959. He was appointed from time to time in many places in Punjab including Karnal, Zeera, Gujrat, Chakwal, Lahore, Campbellpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Jhelum, Lyallpur, Multan and Sahiwal. The local audience requested and loved his Friday sermons. He left lasting impressions on people wherever he was. What I saw and what I heard about Abba Ji is far too much to write down here.
Abba Ji’s reciting of the Holy Qor-aan Chapter 26 verses 70 to 90 mostly in Isha Prayer still echoes in my ears. I believe he selected, memorized and recited what the Almighty God has eternalized as one of the prayers of Prophet Abraham, p.o.h. whom He set up as an Excellent Exemplar (060:005). The following words reflect what he wanted for himself and his progeny. Wuj-ul-lee-lay-saa-na-sid-qin-fil-aa-khay-ree-n سُوۡرَةُ الشُّعَرَاء – Ch: 026, Verses 085 And set me up for a good name among those who come later. 026:085
Mr. Justice Rashid A Kiyani of the Punjab High Court
Mr. Justice Kiyani had told my father that an honest Judge like him could visit him whenever in town without ever requesting an appointment. In those days phones were not so easily available to call others to extend to them the courtesy of announcing one’s arrival.
Father was a Senior Civil Judge when he visited the Justice Kiyani and took me with him. The policeman at Judge’s residence took Father’s name in. The Judge called us in right away. He welcomed us where he sat — in the front garden. It was the first time I ever saw a High Court Judge. He was pulling weeds out of his flowerbed, dressed in a shabby lion-cloth that barely covered the lower half of his body down to knees like the millions of Gandhi’s photos.
Father introduced me as his college-bound son. The Judge asked me what I planned for my life career. On learning of my interest in law, the highly respected Justice Kiyani in his well-known cryptic humor remarked something like: “Then all your life you will be pulling weeds out from the overgrown fields of law as you see me do.” He explained that joining Service meant spending a lifetime in looking at case files, picking on faults to improve others’ lives, and uprooting bad things like the weeds he was pulling out.
The Justice never knew how right he was because I was admitted to the bar in 1957 after his retirement. I never joined the Service. And whether like those in judicial Service or not, a lawyer’s job is to perpetually pinpoint issues / weeds in the overgrown thicket of messy facts in cases that reach courts, and forever keep pulling them out and settling them one by one.
Mr. Justice Sheikh Bashir Ahmad
My father took me several times to visit Sh. Bashir Ahmad, then an Advocate. Once during our visit, the Sheikh suddenly said Let’s tussle on tea. He explained it meant Let us have tea. Turned out they always exchanged new words and ways they had learnt to express things. (See also Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem – Chapter 11 – Knowledge).
Another time the Sheikh told me, “Your father has been my friend since our younger days. He was greater in intelligence, higher in intellect, and more hardworking than me. Yet he chose Govt Service with a fixed small salary. I chose unlimited daily bread.” My father retorted, “Come on you Sheikh! don’t encourage my son; he already is against joining the Service.”
Another time when I was still in college, he asked how I was improving my English and what new fiction I had read. Father protested that the emphasis should be on the books of grammar and not on those of fiction which to his dismay I already read a lot. The Sheikh — with his deliberate bright twinkle and a wink in a May-I-submit or Objection-sir manner – asked whether grammar books were memorized prior to the writers like Shakespeare wrote fiction or those rules were carved out from such literature after its entrenchment in the academia.
Father first asked the Sheikh why he was ruining his son (meaning me) who already ran away from grammar books and was engrossed in reading English novels. He then insisted that forming a firm foundation in grammar rules was imperative to learn a foreign language. I can’t say that Father ever changed his view that grammar was essential to learn a language, but I kept reading English stories, poems, essays and lots and lots of law books and court judgments.
Later the Sheikh was elevated as a High Court Judge and then served as a Judge of the Pakistan Supreme Court. I was a junior Attorney when I appeared in his Court and the-hearing of our case started. I requested time as my senior counsel was in another Court. Justice Sheikh ordered me to state the facts before the senior counsel arrived to argue. It was a settlement Writ, and its casefile was stacked high with 7-or-8 Folders, each folder 1-to-2 inches thick with 100’s of pages. I stated facts, pinpointed the Folder and page #’s, court clerk rummaged through records and confirmed each fact I stated. The case was decided in our favor before the senior arrived. The Judge told him about the outcome — with a comment that clearly hinted that I had emulated my father’s ways of mastering facts no matter how big and messy a casefile had been.
Cousin’s opinion
Ch Maqsood A Bajwa (formerly a Superintendent of Police in Pakistan) was my father’s first cousin. They knew each other well. Their professional postings made them live in different places in Pakistan but when in Kirto he heard Aba Ji’s Kootbas (Friday sermons) in the Mosque.
After retiring he settled in Canada and visited his son Dr Khalid Bajwa. They came to the mosque in Willingboro, NJ, where for years I delivered Kootbas. He heard me for the first time ever and after the prayer said that my sermon had triggered his memory of Abba Ji. Later he reminisced how my father prayed for the sick whose families approached him, urged people to improve their lives continually, and canvassed for education as high as possible.
Mr. Justice Malik Abdul Hamid
Mr. Justice Malik Abdul Hamid commented in a case before him about the honesty and integrity of my father. And then I believe during one of my marriage ceremonies, he repeated his opinion that it was a great family heritage I should be proud of and hoped that I throughout my life and my future family would continue with it.
Mr. Justice Malik Abdul Hameed, my wife’s brother Dibi Khanzada, and nephew Jamshed Buttar who grew up to be a Brigadier in the Pakistan Army with me on my Wedding Feast
Sir Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan Judge of International Court of Justice at the Hague
My Father had several well-wishers and based upon his keen sense of justice who held him in high esteem was also Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan.
Sometime in 1964-65 Sir Zafarullah Khan visited the Fazal Mosque in London. After prayers he talked to the people around him. He had given me a good Letter of Recommendation since I was studying for a master’s (LLM) degree from London University. Seeing me there he said that he would tell all a story about my father based upon his personal knowledge.
Sir Zafarullah Khan said that some of his relatives had a dispute regarding their property rights. He recommended them to seek voluntarily arbitration from my father who at that time had retired from Judicial Service. He chuckled about how my father resolved controversies. The impartiality of my Father to reach a just conclusion had led him to ask probing questions about the real controversy and required both contesting sides to reveal more than they liked. After just one hearing they quickly agreed to withdraw their dispute from Father’s arbitration and settled the matter among themselves without going to court.
Sir Zafarullah Khan concluded that some people think that a judge’s job is easy but doing it the right way is not a cup of tea for everyone particularly for a thorough judge like Chaudhry Azam Ali who left no stone unturned in doing his job fully and properly. He added that a Judge needs to proceed in a strictly impartial manner without favoring either side and that always disillusioned those who came expecting a favorable outcome due to prior relationships.
Sir Zafarullah Khan then pointedly looked at me and said, “Though the details he (my father) asked were not necessary.” Right away I asked, “Is that your opinion as a Judge or a lawyer’s argument for his disillusioned relatives?” He did not reply. Most people feel proud of the achievements of a close relative even if they made no contribution to his success. I am no exception in admitting that this story about my father made me feel proud and stand tall.
Syed Ihtijaj Ali Zuberi Additional Settlement Commissioner
In 1948, Syed Ihtijaj Ali Zuberi was a young son of Syed Ibtihaj Ali Zuberi who came to Campbellpur as refugees from India. The senior Mr. Zuberi was admired for his poetry. My father liked to hear the poem about the benefits of beard of a pious Moslem who after an ablution (woodzoo) for Prayers had water drip from it so that the angels rushed in to take bath.
Zuberi’s became family friends. The son, Mr. Zuberi, got a job in the Settlement Department settling refugees in Pakistan. He was allotted a house as a refugee under the Settlement Law. He had personally seen how his family was driven out of home and hearth and become refugees. His sympathetic attitude gained him popularity among immigrants. He was intelligent, articulate, honest, young, energetic, hardworking and got promotions fast to the top.
By the 1970’s Mr. Zuberi was the Additional Settlement Commissioner when he told me in Lahore of what had occurred in Campbellpur in 1948 and bore fruits years later.
In 1948, Mr. Zuberi, on settling down, had invited some friends for dinner at his house. On his offering or my father’s asking a tour of the house began. The house allotted to Mr. Zuberi had in it some left-over preowned household articles like cots, chairs, tables, sheets and utensils that their previous owners abandoned when leaving for India. My Father asked him if an inventory of the articles had been made and paid for. Mr. Zuberi said he was appalled by that seemed preposterous as none of millions of refugees settled all over Pakistan had to do.
Mr. Zuberi then was at the bottom ladder of the Settlement Dept. Father was the highest official as the Deputy Custodian. He obeyed the order, and the next day submitted a complete inventory of everything. My Father ordered an appraisal of the fair market value of all articles by another Settlement official, and later ordered Mr. Zuberi to deposit that value in the Govt treasury. Mr. Zuberi carried out the order but in anger kept the receipt safe as a sad souvenir.
In 1970, Mr. Zuberi was the Additional Settlement Commissioner and near the top of the Settlement Department. A complaint was filed against him that twenty (20) years earlier he had unlawfully acquired evacuee property. The investigation ended by recording that at a time when everyone just grabbed the abandoned and unclaimed property without ever paying a single penny for it, perhaps Mr. Zuberi was the only honest officer who had … (a) Made an inventory of all pots, pan, cots and chairs of the evacuee property he got; (b) Paid full price as appraised independently and ordered by the Department Head; and (c) Set a rare example of honesty that was documented and proved by a Govt-Receipt
Mr. Zuberi said it was then that he realized the full impact of what my father had done years ago on which he had initially felt so furious. He gratefully acknowledged my father’s farsightedness and anticipatory preventive measure structured so long ago.
Lasting Impressions
Ch Iqbal Ahmad (formerly a Brigadier in Pakistan Army) attended the Friday Prayer in Willingboro Mosque where that day I gave the sermon. We met after prayers nearly thirty-five years since we had last met. He had met my father as a relative for years from 1945 to 1980 and heard his public speeches and private talks. He said hearing me in Willingboro so many decades later refreshed his recollections and impressions of my father how he talked and spoke in public.
Ch Naeem A Bajwa (Managing Director of Shahnawaz Ltd, Pakistan) attended the Friday prayer in Philadelphia Mosque where that day I gave the sermon. After prayers we met some forty years since we had last met. He said that the voice on the loudspeaker reminded him of my father’s sound, style and speeches of sermons in Sahiwal Mosque in 1957 and that was before he entered the mosque and saw me deliver the sermon. The memory and impression formed on his young mind over 45 years ago had remained alive and fresh.
Between 1995 and 2003 and in the USA, I kept hearing the echoes of brilliant impressions and recollections about my father from the likes of many Attorneys in Lahore, a Station Master in Lyallpur, holiday makers in Washington DC, congregation members in Wilmington, NJ, an Attorney in Lyallpur, vendor in Lahore, and several Ahmadi dignitaries including at least three National Amirs in the USA.
It is an understatement to say that I am mighty grateful to the Almighty God that He gave me life as a son of such a wonderful father.
