LAHORE, Oct 19 (NNI): Renowned lawyer and former federal law minister S.M. Zafar passed away after a protracted illness on Thursday. He was 93.
S.M. Zafar was the father of known advocate and Senator Barrister Ali Zafar. The late Zafar also remained a senator.
Born on Dec 6, 1930, in Rangoon, Burma, S.M. Zafar was a senior advocate and a former law minister. He was also an accomplished author and penned numerous books. His family hailed from the town of Shakargarh in Punjab.
Following the Japanese occupation of Burma, his family returned to their native village in 1944. He began his career as a lawyer in the 1950s.
He played an important role during the 1958 imposition of martial law in Pakistan and again in forcing amendments to the Constitution of Pakistan of 1962, which at first did not have sufficient protections for basic human rights.
After serving as a judge of the high court and as Pakistan’s Minister for Law and Justice from 1965 to 1969, he retired from the government in 1968 and started his own law practice. He was the father of the known jurist Ali Zafar.
Zafar and a few of his contemporaries founded the Human Rights Society of Pakistan in 1976. He was awarded an honorary PhD degree in law at the University of the Punjab’s 124th convocation.
He retired from active law practice in 2014. He served the nation as a Federal Minister for Law and Justice (1965–69) and a Senator from 2003 to 2012, President High Court Bar Association, Lahore (1975), President of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association (1979), Chairman of Human Right Society of Pakistan, Chairman of Cultural Association of Pakistan and Chancellor of Hamdard University. For some time, he was affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League (Q).
He contributed articles on both national and international matters in local and foreign publications.
Former MNA Marvi Sarmad termed death of S.M. Zafar as loss for the parliament of Pakistan and politics of Pakistan.
Throughout his career, he won noteworthy cases on both the national and international stages and served as a senator from 2003 to 2012.
Besides his legal and political contributions, he held the position of chancellor at Hamdard University from 2004 to 2012.
As an acknowledgement of his services, the government conferred presidential award Nishan-e-Imtiaz on the noted advocate.
Former Pakistani ambassador to US Maleeha Lodhi said that late Zafar was outstanding lawyer and a warm and wonderful human being. NNI
