Loss of a great man

As I was leaving The Arts Council, Karachi, on December 1, I received a call, which left me cold. The call came from Dr. Naeem to inform me that my very dear friend of 50 years, Justice Shafi Mohammadi had passed away. Dr Naeem is his younger son. I had lost a brother, in every sense of the word.

As reality sank in, my journey with this great man flashed in my mind. We had been friends since the 1970s when we both came to Karachi. Both of us had taken up teaching as the main profession.

Shafi Mohammadi came to Karachi after leaving Alipur as the headmaster of a middle school in the early 1970s. Justice Shafi Mohammadi started teaching at Shah Latif School of Sindhi Muslim Housing Society; and during this time he also passed the bar exam. After school, he gave tuitions of Physics, Chemistry, English and Maths.

Both of us started Saraiki social, cultural and literary activities. Two Saraiki organisations came into being — Anjuman Ittehad Saraiki Bradari and Pakistan Saraiki Sangat. The head of the Sangat was Shafi Mohammadi and the head of the Bradari (community) was Elahi Bakhsh Jarwar. Shafi Mohammadi emerged as the central figure. When martial law was imposed by General Zia-ul Haq, Mohammad Shafi Mohammadi quit teaching, and started practicing law. I also left my full-time teaching job and decided to adopt part-time journalism as a profession and joined the daily Nawa-e-Waqt.

Shafi Mohammadi became a regular part of the Pakistan People’s Party. He went to jail many times under General Zia’s martial law. He was respected by former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as well as by his daughter, former PM Benazir Bhutto.

The year was 1979, when the Supreme Court had rejected Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s appeal, Shafi Mohammadi decided to try his luck one last time. He decided to approach the Provincial Shariat Court headed by Justice Abdul Qadir Sheikh. This Shariat bench included Justice Zafar Hussain Mirza and Justice Dr I Mahmood. I was responsible for providing the books describing the martyrdom of Hazrat Ali as a historical example and a case study.

Shafi Mohammadi prepared his Sharia petition based on these historical testimonies and submitted it to the Sharia court. The Sharia bench, while accepting the petition for hearing, asked him who his lawyer was. Before Shafi Mohammadi could answer, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada stood up, to inform the court that he would be representing him. We were satisfied that we would succeed in getting the Shariat Court to overturn Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s death sentence and acquit him honourably by providing evidence to Pirzada.

The next day, the Shariat Court was packed. It was the courtroom of the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court. The Chobdar loudly announced the arrival of the judges of the Provincial Shariat Court by hitting the ground with a stick. Shafi Mohammadi was sitting next to Abdul Hafeez Pirzada. I was also sitting behind the back seat in the common man’s seating area. Justice Abdul Qadir Sheikh, Justice Zafar Hussain Mirza and Justice Dr I Mahmood took their seats. Pirzada’s name was called, along with the case number. A dead silence fell upon the court. Abdul Hafeez Pirzada stood up and just said one sentence. “My Lord, I withdraw this petition.”

This bombshell left Shafi Mohammadi speechless. He looked at Pirzada bewildered, as he asked what he had done. Pirzada got offended and told him that the Supreme Court would give relief in the revision. It was much later that we learnt that General Zia and Pirzada’s wives were consanguineous sisters. It was also found that the leadership of the PPP, including Abdul Hafeez Pirzada had met with General Zia to save his own skin. The Shariat Court disposed of Shafi Mohammadi’s petition by dismissing it. I walked out of the court with him, dejected. In the evening, BBC said that the last attempt to save Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had also failed.

Shafi Mohammadi decided to try his luck for the last time on April 2. He prepared a fresh petition and filed it in the Provincial Shariat Court. It did not help, the judges were adamant to save their own jobs.

We went out to the inner right side of the main building. Siddique Kharal, U Niamat Maulvi, Hussain Shah Rashidi, Rukhsana Zuberi and a few other lawyers were standing there. Everyone was silent. Siddique Kharl’s voice broke the silence. He said one sentence which sent chills down our spines, “dead body is coming tomorrow”. It seemed that the world collapsed around us.

Someone told us to tell Begum Ashraf Abbasi to talk to Pirzada. Begum Ashraf Abbasi kept calling Pirzada’s number from morning till night, but to no avail, he picked up the phone at 2 am, and he said to her, “darling, tomorrow you will hear good news”, and he hung up.  At that very moment the leader of the people, former PM Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was being hanged.

It is not easy to cover half a century of relationship with Shafi Mohammadi in one article. Shafi Mohammadi kept giving tuitions to make both ends meet.  He used to travel by bicycle in cities like Karachi till his registration in Sindh High Court Bar. We have not only heard about great people, we have seen them. Mr. Justice Mohammad Shafi Mohammadi was a great man. A very great man.