An Eyewitness Account of Justice Munir's Doctrine of Necessity Judgement by Mr Ashraf Janjua

Justice Munir's Doctrine of Necessity Judgment is the most important single event in the history of Pakistan. The costs of Justice Munir's Doctrine of Necessity have been 4 Martial Laws and 35 years of direct dictatorships. The remaining years of Pakistan's existence have been spent fighting the booby traps inserted in the constitution by the dictators that throttle and strangulate the s/elected governments and keep on exploding every few years keeping Pakistan in a perpetual ICU emergency.

Mr Ashraf Janjua

Here is an eyewitness account by octogenarian Mr Ashraf Janjua who had been Deputy Governor SBP, and Dean and Professor at IoBM Karachi. He is also the author of a multi-volume history of State Bank of Pakistan. This is taken from his recent comments on my facebook post on political engineering that led to the judgment:

[Begin Quote]

Maulvi Tamizuddin was the speaker of the Constituent Assembly that was dissolved by the Governor General Ghulam Mohmmad. He was Governor General of Pakistan from 1951 to 1955. Maulvi Tamizuddin had challenged the GG’s decision to dissolve the assembly in Sindh High Court and had won the case. On appeal by the government, the case was heard in the Federal Court (renamed later on as Supreme Court) during 1955.
My memory is no longer as sharp as it used to be, but I remember distinctly that people could sense that there was something important about Maulvi Tamizuddin Case. During the hearings, first thing everyone would look for in the morning newspaper was the news about the proceedings of the Maulvi Tamizuddin case in the court.  

I listened to the proceedings of this case in the then Federal Court (before it was renamed as Supreme Court) in Lahore. A few students from Economics Department of Punjab University including myself sat in the gallery of the court for a few hours in May of 1955. During these hours Maulvi Tamizuddin was represented by Hamidul Haq Chowdhery and a British advocate named Mr Pritt, the latter was willing to fight for Democracy anywhere in the world without charging any fees. 

I remember many details of that hearing. One worth sharing with readers is that in his presentation,  Hamidul Haq Chowdhery used the word dishonest for the Governor General. On hearing this, CJ Munir lost his cool and said,”Mr Chowdhery you have used the word dishonest for the Governor General twice, if you use it again you will no longer be at the bar”. Mr Chowdhery apologized profusely. 

The five judges of the Federal (Supreme) Court at that time were Justices Mohammad Munir, Justice A. R. Cornileus, Justice S.A Rahman, Justice Mohammad Sharif and Justice Mohammad Akram. The first three were in the same order of seniority. May be Justice Shahbuddin was replaced by Justice Mohammad Akram or Justice Mohammad Sharif[1], I have no idea. I could identify Justice Mohammad Sharif on the Bench because as early as early as April 1951, I had received a prize from his hand as he was the Chief Guest in the annual prize distribution at Government College, Chakwal. I am not sure but I think at that time he was on the Bench of Punjab High Court. 

I recall that once all the judges retired to an ante room perhaps for consultation, and after a few minutes asked the messenger to get them a book placed on a table before the judges. Again, the proceedings continued. When the decision was announced the reaction was mixed. I have hazy recollection that Daily Dawn came out against it. But some of my fellow students said, "A decision against GG would have meant Martial Law.”
These are some of my recollections.

[End Quote]

[1] Justice Shahabuddin was actually replaced by Justice Mohammad Akram. The story of this replacement is part of the political engineering as detailed in my post Doctrine of Necessity, DoN godfathers Political Engineering of the SC Bench to Obtain Doctrine of Necessity Judgement. 

Mr Ashraf Janjua's Profile

Mr. M. Ashraf Janjua served as Chief Economic Advisor of State Bank of Pakistan from 1995 to 2004. Mr. Janjua joined the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in 1966 and served as a Deputy Governor of Policy at SBP from 1992 to 1995. Prior to that, he served at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics as a Research Economist and at Pakistan Development Review as an Associate Editor. He served as an Independent Director of Atlas Asset Management Limited at Atlas Fund of Funds from September 11, 2008 to October 29, 2012. He served as an Executive Director for Pakistan at the International Monetary Fund, Washington from 1979 to 1983. Amongst other research works, he is the author of History of State Bank of Pakistan - Volume III (1977-78), and Volume IV (1988 - 2003). He was a Senior Fellow with the rank of Professor of Economics and the Dean of College of Business Management in Karachi. He holds a Masters degree in Economics from Government College Lahore at Punjab University and a Masters degree in Development Economics from the Williams College in USA. Mr. Janjua has also done one year's graduate work at the Stanford University in California, USA.

Other posts related to Doctrine of Necessity:

• [1] Justice Shahabuddin was actually replaced by Justice Mohammad Akram. The story of this replacement is part of the political engineering as detailed in my post Doctrine of Necessity, DoN godfathers Political Engineering of the SC Bench to Obtain Doctrine of Necessity Judgement. 
• Is Justice Munir's Doctrine of Necessity Dead or Alive? describes that in spite of publicly disavowing "Doctrine of Necessity", the more the judiciary tries to distance itself from the DoN the more it becomes the DoN. 
• Doctrine of Necessity from CJ Munir to Judge Khosa: Role of Judiciary in the Service of Neocolonialism. This post describes the great influence of doctrine of necessity on the judiciary even when it tries to stay away from it.