KARACHI: Justice (retd) Zafar Hussain Mirza passed away in a Karachi hospital on Thursday, hospital sources confirmed to Dawn.com.

The prominent judge was the father of firebrand politician Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and the father-in-law of former speaker of the National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza.

The 88-year-old former justice was undergoing treatment at the Dr. Ziauddin Hospital in Karachi. He is survived by a wife and six children including two sons and four daughters.

Four of his chidlren were born from his first wife, late Ms Afroze Begum, and two from his second wife, Bilquees Begum.

Justice Zafar Hussain Mirza was born on October 9, 1926 in Tando Torho area of Hyderabad. His father, Mirza Ali Nawaz Baig, was a known writer and poet of Sindhi language and had served as a deputy collector during the British rule in South Asia.

Naseer Mirza, broadcaster and the station director of Radio Pakistan Hyderabad Station and a known poet, who is also a close relative of the late justice told Dawn Justice Zafar Hussain Mirza received his LLB degree from Hyderabad Law College in 1953 and started practising as a lawyer.

He became a civil judge in the mid-sixties.

Justice (retd) Zafar Hussain was later appointed as a judge of the Sindh High Court on October 1, 1975 during the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government.

He was also among judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) imposed by General Ziaul-Haq in 1981, thereby abrogating the Constitution of 1973.

He was elevated to the post of judge of the Supreme Court on Aug 4, 1981 during the dictatorship of Gen Ziaul Haq. The justice had retired on October 9,1991.

He had later also served as a Chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission.

During the Musharraf era, Justice (retd) Zafar Hussain Mirza’s name was also proposed for the post of Chief Election Commissioner before the elections of 2002.

He was a co-signatory of a declaration signed by seventeen retired judges of the country demanding that former president Musharraf revoke the State of Emergency that he had imposed on the country in 2007.