PESHAWAR: Glowing tributes were paid to former Peshawar High Court chief justice Late Abdul Karim Khan Kundi at a reference arranged at the high court on Thursday.

PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Abdul Lateef Yousafzai, additional attorney general Syed Attique Shah, PHC Bar Association’s president Mohammad Essa Khan and Justice Kundi’s son Afnan Karim Kundi, who is also a senior lawyer, spoke on the occasion and threw light on different aspects of his life.

Justice Abdul Karim Kundi, who remained PHC chief justice from 1993 to 1995, died in February this year and was laid to rest at his ancestral village in Tank district.

“Having been born and grown up in such a far flung and backward area like village Pai in district Tank, it was not something ordinary or easy to rise to such a position.

Reference held to honour former PHC chief justice

From the very childhood he was a smart and brilliant student pursuing all curricular as well as extracurricular activities up to standard,” said Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel.

“The death of late Mr Justice Abdul Karim Kundi has not only deprived Mr Afnan Kundi and other family members, of the love and affection of a dearest relation but also has caused loss of a legendary luminary of this profession,” the chief justice said, adding that Justice Kundi had performed a divine function of administering justice for almost 35 years in various positions, right from bottom ie civil judge up to the rank of chief justice.

The chief justice stated: “Almighty Allah had gifted him with very good legal acumen and talent.

He was a very pains taking person, was having very quick approach and reached deep into the bottom of an issue by just a glimpse.

He was a man of reason and conviction. He had a high degree of skill of expression.”

Other speakers said that Late Justice Kundi had held numerous judicial positions both in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then NWFP) giving him a rare command over a multitude of Pakistani laws and their application by the courts.

They added that ever since joining the West Pakistan Judicial Service in 1960, he had been actively involved in the field of law both at the bar and on the bench.

The speakers said that Justice Kundi had also served in the law and parliamentary affairs division/departments of both the Federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governments and has had first-hand experience of law-making by the legislature.

He was appointed as civil judge in 1960 and became senior civil judge in 1967. Subsequently, he was promoted as additional district and sessions judge and district and sessions judge in 1972 and 1973, respectively.

He was elevated to the high court in 1983 and had also served as senior puisne judge, Federal Shariat Court from 1981 till 1991.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2015

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