HISTORY will remember Abdul Hafiz Pirzada, who died in London on Tuesday, for two extraordinary achievements: he piloted the 1973 Constitution, and he had the courage to defy Pakistan’s powerful feudal lobby by taxing agricultural income.

He was one of the closest aides of Z.A. Bhutto and was among those who founded the PPP in 1967. A brilliant lawyer, parliamentarian and constitutionalist, Pirzada was involved in some of Pakistan’s most intricate and tough legal battles whose outcome had a profound impact on the relationship between the judiciary and the executive.

Until he retired from politics in the 1980s, Pirzada remained with his party through thick and thin, including those dark days when the military led by Ziaul Haq was out to destroy what then was Pakistan’s largest political party.

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He was among those who defended the ousted prime minister Bhutto when he was tried and finally executed after a verdict that Dorab Patel, one of Pakistan’s most eminent jurists, said amounted to “judicial murder”. Representing Dr Mubashar Hassan, who had challenged the NRO, Pirzada had the satisfaction of seeing the army-backed law struck down by the Supreme Court.

A law graduate and an MSc in political science, Pirzada belonged to one of Sindh’s landowning political families and was the son of Pirzada Abdul Sattar, a Sindh chief minister.

He became a Bhutto acolyte when he entered his chamber and joined politics. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1970, became a federal minister holding several portfolios and played a major role in the framing and passage of the 1973 Constitution, which despite two military interventions has shown resilience.

In June 1977, as finance minister he presented a budget which was a landmark in Pakistan’s history because it was for the first time that agricultural income was taxed. His retirement from politics is often attributed to his inability to get along with Benazir Bhutto. Nevertheless his role as one of the fathers of the 1973 Constitution will be remembered by history.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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