Barrister Chaudhry
Aitzaz Ahsan
(born September 27, 1941) is a Barrister-at-Law by
profession, Senior Advocate Supreme Court, a former President
of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, and a key
leader of the Lawyers' Movement. He is also a
writer, human rights activist, politician, former
Federal Minister for Law and Justice, Interior, Narcotics Control
(1988-1990) and Education. Elected to the Senate of Pakistan in
1994, he eventually succeeded as the leader of the House and the
leader of the Opposition between the years 1996 and 1999.
He has been the president of the Pakistani Supreme Court Bar
Association for the 2007-2008 term. Aitzaz Ahsan has been under
arrest periodically in 2007 for his involvement in the effort to
restore Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of Pakistan after former Pakistan
General Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution and
subsequently removed Chief Justice Chaudhry from the
bench. He was also selected as the top 5th intellectual
in the world by the reputed Foreign Policy Magazine.
In the wake of 9 March events in Pakistan, barrister
Aitzaz Ahsan has become a sign of resistance to anti-democratic
moves. His eloquent speeches and his command over Pakistani law
make him one of the most recognizable politicians of today. Aitzaz
Ahsan is also an active member of Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP). Ahsan has been mentioned as a possible leader
for the PPP in the wake of the December 27 assassination of PPP
leader Benazir Bhutto. He is married and a father of two daughters
and a son, Ali Ahsan.
Aitzaz Ahsan was born
in Murree, Rawalpindi District, Punjab in 1945
during British rule. He comes from a family background
steeped in politics, he is a third generation member of
the legislative assembly. He received his early education
from Aitcheson Collegeand the Government College, Lahore.
Later he studied law at Downing College in
the Cambridge University, UK, and was called to the bar at
Gray’s inn 1967.
Upon his return from Cambridge, Aitzaz Ahsan appeared for and
stood first in Pakistan's prestigious Central Superior
Services (CSS) examination. Objecting to the rule of
General Ayub Khan, however, he refused to join government
service during the time of military rule. This act of youthful
defiance made him the first, and perhaps only, individual to top
the CSS exam yet decline government service. One other instance is
Mr. Mumtaz Javed Shabir who presently is working as Head
Structures division at prestigious National Engineering Services
Pakistan, NESPAK.
Political
career
Aitzaz Ahsan started his political career in the 1970s. When
Chaudhry Anwar Samma, a member of Provincial
Assembly for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from
Gujrat, was murdered in March 1975, Aitzaz Ahsan was elected,
unopposed to the Punjab Assembly and inducted in the
provincial cabinet. He was given the portfolio of information,
planning and development.
During the PNA demonstrations against the alleged rigging of
elections by the PPP government in 1977, the police opened fire on
a lawyers rally in Lahore. Aitzaz, who was a provincial minister
in the Punjab Cabinet at the time, resigned in protest. He was
subsequently also expelled from the People's Party for this act of
insubordination.
After General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's coup, Aitzaz became an
active leader of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy
(MRD), and rejoined the PPP during the martial law period. During
this period he was jailed several times as a political prisoner
without trial for active participation in the MRD movement.
In 1988, Aitzaz Ahsan was elected to the
National Assembly from Lahore as a People's Party candidate. He
won reelection in 1990, but lost in 1993. In 1994 he was elected
to the Senate of Pakistan. He was reelected to
the National Assembly of Pakistan as a Peoples Party
candidate in the 2002 General Elections, when he won from two
seats - his traditional seat in Lahore, as well as from Tehsil
Yazman , District Bahawalpur in Southern Punjab
As
a lawyer
A Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and
senior partner of the firm Aitzaz Ahsan &
Associates Ahsan is a well respected Pakistani lawyer,
consistently given the highest rank by Chambers and Partners
ranking of legal professionals [5].
He also made legal history of by having defended two Prime
Ministers in the court of law. Having previously fought cases in
defence of Benazir Bhutto in 2001 he took up a case in
defence of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
During his most recent tenure as a member of the National
Assembly of Pakistan he was a member of the Standing
Committee on Interior and the Standing Committee on Public
Accounts.
Chief
Justice case
Main article: Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
(suspension)
Recently Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and his team comprising of Shahid
Saeed, Gohar Khan and Nadeem Ahmed successfully represented Chief
Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's
case in the Supreme Court of Pakistan [PLD 2007 SC 578]. They were
pitted against a team comprising of 16 senior lawyers representing
the Federation in this misadventure. The hearing was being
conducted by a full court headed by Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman
Ramday, and the 13-member panel reinstated the Chief Justice
declaring his suspension byPervez Musharraf regime
"illegal."
Human rights activist
He is also a human rights activist and a founder and
vice-president of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. He
has been incarcerated under arbitrary detention laws many times by
military and authoritarian regimes. During one such prolonged
detention, he wrote The Indus Saga. Aitzaz Ahsan has been selected
in the world's top 2008 intellectuals.
During
and after Emergency
Main article: 2007 Pakistani
state of emergency
Aitzaz Ahsan was arrested soon after the declaration of
emergency/martial law. At the time he and his team [Shahid Saeed,
Gohar Khan and Nadeem Ahmed] were arguing against the eligibility
of General Musharraf to contest the 2007 Presidential Elections
before a full bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. There have
also rumours that he is being kept in solitary confinement and
being tortured. Recently, 33 US Senators wrote to President
Musharraf to release Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan immediately, as he is
widely respected all around the world. He withdrew his papers of
nomination to run for the National Parliament, this in deference
to National Lawyers' Convention decision to boycott elections
under Mr. Musharraf. It has lifted his stature by putting the
lawyers cause above his own.
Barrister Ahsan is succinct in his resolute to restore democracy
and pre-emergency judiciary in Pakistan with peaceful resistance.
He was rearrested during his three days reprieve for celebrating
religious holiday; when he decided to offer prayers with Mr.
Iftikhar Chaudhry and was heading to Islamabad. He has served
detention in his house for 90 days and has declared his detention
as illegal. It is reported (Nawaiwaqt Jan 19, 2008), with a dour
determination he refused to abandon restoration of judiciary
movement and was reticent to negotiate when approached by Attorney
General. His role in PPP after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto
will be pivotal since he commands the respect of representatives
of Punjab, the nations lawyers; elected President of Supreme Court
Bar Association by an overwhelming majority, and public at large.
Aitzaz Ahsan, has been awarded the Asian Human Rights Defender
Award by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
along with Munir A Malik (past President SCBA)(Dawn Jan 23, 2008).
The annual Award for Distinction in International Law and Affairs
will be presented to Aitzaz Ahsan in asbentia as more than 5,000
lawyers gather for the annual meeting of the New York State Bar
Association (NYSBA). Freed for two days, Mr. Ahsan was rearrested
for 30 days on February 2, 2008 before he was to board a flight to
Sindh to offer his condolences to Benazir Bhutto's husband (Dawn
February 2, 2008).
Literary
contribution
He has also authored the book The Indus Saga and the
Making of Pakistan and its Urdu translation, Sindh
Sagar Aur Qyam-e-Pakistan which presents the cultural history of
Pakistan.
He has also co-authored the book Divided by
Democracy with Lord Meghnad Desai of the London School of
Economics
Honors
Aitzaz Ahsan has been admitted to an
Honorary Fellowship at Downing College, one of the
constituent colleges of the University Of Cambridge. The US
magazine Foreign Policy named Ahsan as one of the top 100 public
intellectuals in the world in May 2008.
Senator
Mian Raza Rabbani
Senator Mian Raza Rabbani is considered to be one of the very few
politicians who has retained a high level of credibility in the
eyes of public as well as all the political parties. He is one
politician who does not have any scandals associated with him,
financial, moral, or socio political. Refreshingly, he does not
come from a feudal background, but has earned his credibility as a
competent lawyer and then as a principled based political leader.
He is an honest, committed and a credible political leader of
Pakistan.
Mian Raza Rabbani
was born in Lahore on 23 July, 1953. After his early education at
the Habib Public School Karachi, he joined the University of
Karachi wherefrom he got his B.A. degree in 1976. Thereafter, he
opted for education in Law and Jurisprudence and got the LLB from
the same University in 1981 when he was in jail.
Mian Raza Rabbani is a political activist who has always stood for
democracy, democratic norms and the cause of Human Rights. He was
an active critic of the Martial Law Regime and hence was
imprisoned under preventive detention laws for an accumulative
period of more than thirty months from 1977 to 1993. He has led a
very active political life and has been a staunch supporter of
late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the Pakistan Peoples Party.
During his student life, Mian Raza Rabbani pioneered the National
Organization of the Progressive Students and was its founder
Chairman from 1971 to 1974. He has been information Secretary of
the Pakistan Peoples Party District East Karachi, Deputy General
Secretary of the PPP Karachi division, member Sindh Executive
Committee PPP, President Peoples Lawyers Forum Sindh and
eventually joined the central committee of the PPP. He performed
the duties of deputy general secretary and acting general
secretary.
Mian Raza Rabbani has been in many important positions. Some of
these include, advisor to the Chief Minister Sindh for
Cooperatives from 1989 till 1990. He has been a Law Minister and
the Minister for Interprovincial Relations. He led a number of
Youth delegations to various international events and is a
recipient of the Services of Human Rights Award of the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights, Pakistan in 1986.
Mian Raza Rabbani was elected as member of the Senate of Pakistan
in March, 1994 for a six-year term. He was a member of the Senate
Standing Committees on Foreign Affairs, Kashmir Affairs and
Northern Areas and Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
He was the leader of the Opposition and
later Leader of the House of the Senate of Pakistan. He resigned
in March 2009 from three positions as a protect for reasons he
said were communicated by him to his party. These positions were
Minister of State, Leader of the House in the Senate and his
position in the Central Committee of PPP. It is speculated that
the protest was against several decisions by his party which were
not on merit and principles of democracy.
Mian Raza Rabbani currently is the
chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security
and the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on
Constitutional Reform (PCCR).
LFO,
A Fraud on the Constitution
He is the author of
a book, LFO, A Fraud on the Constitution. Download complete copy
of book in Microsoft Word format here.
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