LAHORE: Retired Justice Zia Mehmood Mirza passed away after a protracted illness on Monday. He was 92.

He was known for giving the dissenting judgement on the petition of Benazir Bhutto against the then President Farooq Leghari over dissolution of her government in 1996.

Justice Mirza was born in village Mulhal Mughlan in district Chakwal on April 21, 1932. After doing Matric from the Govt High School Jhelum in 1948, he completed his undergraduate studies from Gordon College, Rawalpindi in 1952. He passed LLB from the Punjab University Law College in 1959. After starting his career as a lawyer in 1959 at Jhelum, he shifted to Lahore in 1960 where he set up his office near 4-Mozang Road.

He was elected as the secretary Lahore High Court Bar Association for the year 1974-75. He remained associated with teaching of law as adjunct professor with different colleges, including his alma mater University Law College.

In March 1984, he became a judge of Lahore High Court from where he retired in 1994 and was elevated to the Supreme Court. He retired as the Supreme Court judge in 1997 after having delivered the famous and the only dissenting opinion in the case of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto vs President of Pakistan. He was the only judge in the panel of seven judges who had given the dissenting judgment in favour of Benazir.

Previously, Justice Mirza had also served as the secretary law to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990. In 1996, as chairperson of the Wage Board Award, he issued a verdict in the 6th Wage Board Award for working journalists.

Justice Mirza is survived by a son Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza, and two daughters, Farah Zia, the former editor of The News on Sunday and current director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Dr Iram Zia, a professor at the National College of Arts (NCA). His wife Fazal Mirza died in 2019.

Funeral prayers for the deceased will be offered at 8am near Punjab Quran Academy, Scotch Corner, Upper Mall. He will be buried in his ancestral graveyard of village Mulhal Mughlan, district Chakwal.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2024