Justice Hamood-ur-Rahman was born in Patna, Bihar in British India on 1st November 1910. Despite being born in Bihar, he hailed from a Bengali Muslim family. His father, Khan Bahadur Dr. Dawood-ur-Rahman was the first Muslim Civil Surgeon in undivided India to do FRCS from Royal College London. He was the personal surgeon to the Emir of Kuwait.
Justice Hamood-ur-Rahman
Born on 1 Nov 1910
Died on 20 Dec 1981
Chief Justice of Pakistan (1968–1975)
He was educated in Calcutta and entered St. Xavier’s College of the University of Calcutta where he secured his Graduation (BA). Later he went to Great Britain to attend the University of London where he obtained his LLB degree and resumed his studies in Gray’s Inn, London, and was called to the Bar in London in 1937.
Upon arriving in British India, he began practising law at the Calcutta High Court in 1938 and served as the Legal Councilor of the Calcutta Corporation in 1940. In 1943, he also presented the Mayor of Calcutta as its Legal Councilor and was a Member of the Junior Standing Counsel of the East Bengal from 1943 to 1947. After the independence of Pakistan, he opted for East Pakistan and settled in Dhaka in 1948. He was the first Legal Advisor to the State Bank of Pakistan and drafted all the State Bank of Pakistan laws and rules. Later he was appointed Advocate-General of East Pakistan in 1953 and held this position until 1954, when he was appointed to the bench as a Judge of the Dhaka High Court by the Governor of East Pakistan.
He served as a Judge of the Dhaka High Court from 1954 until 1960 when he was appointed as Senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan by the President of Pakistan. In addition, he also served as the Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University from 11 May 1958 until 14 December 1960 while serving as a visiting Professor of Law at Karachi University.
During his career as Senior Justice at the Supreme Court, Rehman held various dignified positions and engaged himself in promoting literacy across the country. From 1959 to 1960, he was a member of the International Court of Arbitration which is based in The Hague, Netherlands. In 1964, he, upon request by the Ministry of Education, led the “Commission on Students Problems and Welfare” as its Chairman where he authored the report and submitted the case study recommendations to the Government of Pakistan in 1966. In 1967, he was a member of the “Law Reforms Commission” which conducted various case studies on land reforms in Pakistan on behalf of the Ministry of Law and its report was submitted in 1970 to the President of Pakistan.
In 1968, he was nominated as Chief Justice by outgoing Chief Justice Alvin Robert Cornelius, and his appointment as Chief Justice was approved by President Ayub Khan. His tenure witnessed the resignation of President Ayub Khan who invited Yahya Khan to take over the country by enforcing martial law in 1969. He heard the petition filed by Asma Jilani against Yahya Khan’s takeover in a case known as “Asma Jilani vs. Government of the Punjab”. Upon hearing the case, his court retroactively invalidated the Martial Law that suspended the Constitution and notably ruled that Yahya Khan’s assumption of power was “illegal usurpation”. The Supreme Court also overruled and overturned its convictions that called for validation of Martial Law in 1958. He carefully distinguishes the meaning of Martial Law in terms of controlling the internal disorder and imposing the Martial Law in alien territory. His stance stood firm against Yahya Khan’s Martial Law but condoned such actions by the application of the doctrine of necessity. In 1970, he supported the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold the general elections held in 1970 across the country.
In 1971, he remained loyal to Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War and the war with India. He did not support the independence of Bangladesh and remained quiet throughout the events. He administrated the oath of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as President of Pakistan at the Supreme Court building. The same year, President Zulfiqar Bhutto constituted a Commission to investigate the responsible causes of the war with India that led to the liberation of East Pakistan and to provide insightful recommendations to prevent future armed foreign intervention. The commission, known as the War Enquiry Commission (otherwise known as Hamoodur Rahman Commission), was led by him as its Chairman and consisted of both civilian and military members. Initially, he was tasked to investigate the causes and the break-up of Pakistan, and the role of the Pakistan Armed Forces in national politics. His report revealed many aspects of politics in the Pakistan Armed Forces during the East-Pakistan war. Because of the nature of the findings, it was not declassified for decades until Indian newspapers, later Pakistani newspapers, published the details.
From 1971 until 1975, the Commission led by Rahman conducted several interviews of Pakistan Military’s Senior Officers, Bureaucrats, Politicians, Activists, and the Bengali Nationalists. Criticism of the Government and the misconduct of civilian Politicians was very heavy and intense, therefore, the Report was never made it public in Pakistan and concealed all of its information as the report was marked as “Top secret”. However, the report explores a number of issues such as the genocide of the Bengali populace—both civilians and Bengali soldiers—rape, pan smuggling, looting of banks in East Pakistan, drunkenness by military officers, and even an instance of a one-star rank officer “entertaining” women while their troops were being shelled by Indian troops. The Report recommended a string of courts-martial and military trials against the top senior military officers including the PAF’s Air Marshal Enamul Haq (the AOC of Eastern Air Command of Pakistan Air Force), Vice-Admiral Mohammad Sharif (Fleet Commander of the Eastern Naval Command of Pakistan Navy), and Lieutenant-General Tikka Khan (the GOC of Eastern Army Command of Pakistan Army), and former generals such as Amir Khan Niazi and Rao Farman Ali. Despite recommending field courts-martial by the commission, there were no actions taken by Prime Minister Bhutto or the successive governments. Nearly 300 individuals were interviewed and hundreds of classified armed forces military signals were examined, with the final comprehensive Report submitted on 23rd October 1974 by Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman who submitted the report to the Prime Minister Secretariat.
In 1972–73, he went on to work with the United Nations and was a Member of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. He retired with state honours in 1975 and administrated the oath to appoint Senior Justice Muhammad Yaqub Ali as Chief Justice.
In 1974, the final Report was submitted, but both Bhutto and President Zia-ul-Haq claimed that the report was lost and was nowhere to be located in the National Archives of Pakistan.
He lived a very quiet life in Lahore and remained active in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He was appointed the Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology after his retirement for 3 years, later he was appointed as an Advisor to the President of Pakistan on constitutional affairs. He also conducted a Commission on election reforms and proposed the proportional representation system existing in Germany, Sri Lanka and many other countries. In which it can be accessed via the library to publish judicial supplements.
He died in Lahore due to a cardiac arrest on 20th December 1981. Later his burial took place at Shah Jamal Graveyard in Lahore with close judicial associates and friends attending his funeral.
He belongs to a family of practised lawyers before the Partition of India. His brother, Maudood-ur-Rahman, was a Barrister who ascended as a Judge of the Calcutta High Court. His father-in-law, Nawabzada Ashraf Ali was also a Barrister who was a practising advocate in the Calcutta High Court. He later participated in general elections held in 1930 and was a Member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly. He also served as Deputy Speaker of the Bengal Legislative Assembly before the Partition of India.
His son Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rahman is the former Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court. He had refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) issued by General Pervez Musharraf who imposed the Emergency Rule in November 2007. He resumed work at the Lahore High Court on the 19th of March 2009 after the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
He was conferred Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 1974 and Nishan-e-Imtiaz in 1976.
