Khalid M. Ishaq

Khalid Muhammad Ishaq (16 August 1926 – 7 February 2004), Senior Advocate Supreme Court, was an eminent Pakistani jurist and scholar of law, Islamic studies and literature.

Education

Muhammad graduated with a degree in Arabic from D. J. Science College in 1945. He received the first position in MA examinations given by the Bombay University. Later, he did his LLB, his institution being the SC Shahani Law College.

Life and career

Muhammad was born on August 16, 1926 in Shikarpur, Sindh to Mohammed Ishaq and Begum Talat Farrukh Ahmed Ishaq. His maternal grandfather was Maulvi Ziauddin Ahmed who was the first Indian to serve as DIG of Bombay Sind Presidency. His first marriage was to an Italian lady. His second marriage was with Begum Khursheed Ishaq. He has two daughters and two sons. Kahlid Ishaq started legal practice in 1948. Prepared to work diligently he was soon noticed by the people who mattered. In 1958, when he was only 32 years of age, he was appointed Additional Advocate General of the then West Pakistan. Five years later, he was promoted as Advocate General. In 1964, Mr Ishaq decided to step down from that position and establish his own practice. He went on to practice civil law in the High Court of Sindh and the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He became president of the High Court Bar Association in 1965. He died in Karachi in 2004.

Scholarship

Since Islam was his inspiration, his chief interest lay in Persian and Arabic. In 1965, he also became the project director of the Islamic Research Institute. He was a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology Pakistan from 1969 to 1972, and again from 1977 to 1980. He taught at the Sindh University from 1976 to 1977 as a Professor of Seerut-un-Nabi. He also appeared in scores of television programmes which dealt with legal and religious problems.

Mr Ishaq had arguably the largest collection of commentaries on the Quran. His private library until 1999 boasted of 175,000 volumes, making him the proud owner of one of the biggest collection of books in Pakistan. In few back years many institutions had requested him to donate his collection but he simply refused to part with his books.

They were being donated to Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 2005 or probably after his death. Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has dedicated the whole of 1st floor of its library to him as a "Khalid Ishaq Wing" in recognition of the massive donation of books.^[1]

Students and companions

Khalid Ishaq's contribution to the legal profession is nothing short of legendary. Men and women from his chambers are leading jurists in their own right. Among his associates who were elevated to the superior judiciary were Justice Abdul Qadir Sheikh, Justice Amir Raza, Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice Majida Rizvi, the late Justice Nizam Ahmed, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro, Justice Mujeebullah Siddiqui, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Mushtaq Memon.

An equally impressive array of men and women who cite Khalid Ishaq as their mentor, teacher and colleague now lead the fight for an independent judiciary, command the corporate law world, and continue to make an indelible mark on the legal profession. Abdul Hafeez Lakho, Muneer Malik, Shehenshah Hussain, Ahsan Zaheer Rizvi, Khalid Ibrahim, Abdul G. Soomro, Abid Zuberi, Faisal Kamal Alam, Arshad Hussain Khan, Ghulam Sarwar Jenjer, Muhammad Ehsan and Khalid Ishaq's own son, Sohaib Khalid Ishaq, to name a few, are some of the other leading names associated with Khalid Ishaq's law chambers.

An important feature of his life was the weekly sitting of around 20 to 30 eminent people at his home on every Sunday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.These sittings were regularly held without any interruption for almost 40 years and terminated only a few weeks before his death.These sittings were a kind of intellectual forum where the current issues were discussed freely. Among the regular participants were the journalists, Salahuddin, the then editor of weekly Takbir, Major Ibn ul-Hasan, a renowned columnist of that time and Nusrat Mirza, among the educationist were Professor Abd ul-Qadeer Saleem, Molana Amir Usmani and Molan Tasin and among the businessmen were Riaz Shafi, and Saeed Ahmad of Anchor Shipping. Renowned scholar and professor, Dr. Khalida Ghous did her Ph.D. under his supervision.

References