When a judge speaks of 'Day of Judgment'
By Anjum Niaz
"Don't scare us" said Justice Ramday to Malik Qayyum, the government's counsel, after hearing how Malaysian President Mahathir Mohammad deposed judges inimical to him. The judge who heads the 13 member Supreme Court bench on the CJ case then motored across to Marriott that Monday afternoon to preside over a lecture on religion and terrorism. "As I was coming here I thought of the Almighty ordaining knowledge for mankind at the beginning of the Holy Quran," said Justice Ramday. He recited the relevant verses in fluent Arabic underpinning the splendour of self-study and logic made easy for humans. From a heavenly discourse, the judge descended the spiritual staircase down to a flesh and blood world inhabited by ordinary Pakistanis in everyday life.
But before I spill my story of that day, let me confess to a state of consternation. I am temporarily seized by the arrangement of the honourable judge's quotations and their placement. He is an influential judge, daily making headline news. So what tone and voice does one employ? Should I tell it straight as it came from the horse's mouth (excuse the awful cliché) or hem and haw and hide behind journalistic gobbledygook?
It would be an injustice to Justice Ramday if I place him beyond the pale of human experience, etherising him as a judge whose heart and soul must not be touched. On the contrary, generous with his personal narrative, the judge provided us a multi-dimensional view of his diverse background, the telling feature being that he was comfortable sharing his life story just like any other human who himself tells about who he is, and why.
As I begin to assemble a portrait of the judge -- very much a product of the society in which we live today -- the contrarians among us may well ask why the pressing need to know Justice Ramday. Fair question. The persona of a judge -- his intellectual pursuits, mannerisms, attitudes, interests and life outside the purview of the court -- helps us frame our personal beliefs by correlating his legal arguments with his personal characteristics rather than legal precedents that he may cite. Our opinions can be over simplistic or too nuanced, fiercely dramatic or cloyingly pious, but at least we would have tried entering the judicial monastery where no ordinary mortal dare wander. Is this argument too dense? Too tangled? Okay, let me try a simpler route and come right to the point with an exclusive insight of what I'm trying to present.
Justice Ramday joked, smiled, listened, spoke as if he was one of us and not above us. A flesh and blood kind of man one can dialogue with. His moral compass pointed in the right direction; his spiritual reach was authoritative; his knowledge of Islam and other religions far-reaching. The audience, wary at first (aren't we all scared to even approach our lordships for fear of contempt of court?) drawn by his sincerity of purpose, gravitated towards Justice Ramday. Having suffered over bloated, half-literate and unsavoury 'chief guests' who are never on time, Justice Ramday was sophisticatedly humble and intellectually principled. And very punctual.
On the dais, he sat not nitpicking panellists, but wanting to be enlightened. He heard with rapt attention what Air Marshal Nur Khan said about the end of Musharraf's army rule and the beginning of democracy; he introduced the former interior secretary Tasneem Noorani as the "most handsome bureaucrat he'd seen"; he appreciated MNA Meenu Bhandara's bid to re-launch his amended bill on blasphemy; he complimented his host Ambassador Iftikhar Murshed for his excellent journal the Criterion; and he gave us a patient hearing when the audience instead of asking short questions engaged in dialectics.
Singling out two "great teachers" Justice Ramday spoke adoringly of Khwaja Masud and Nasrullah Malik sitting in the front row. "But for teachers like them, people like me wouldn't be here today." His appreciation was genuine, not symbolic, just as his interest in what we had to say was real not routine.
He reminisced of his college days, some 40 years back. Earlier parliamentarian Fauzia Wahab of PPP had mentioned her university days in Karachi and how girl students were free to roam around the campus. Justice Ramday joked about having missed all that fun for being in the "wrong place at the wrong time." He told us that he went to Gordon College, Rawalpindi, and was not allowed to talk to girls: "We had a notice saying, 'Anybody talking to a girl will be fined Rs10.'" The underlying humour was contagious and the audience began to relax, no longer awestruck by the presence of a judge presiding over 24 petitions challenging the presidential reference against the CJ.
Ms Wahab lamented the beard and burqa invading our culture. Dispelling her fears, Justice Ramday said the beard is not the sole identity of Muslims. The Jews, Christians and Sikhs too sport beards. "A beard is not the kind of curse we take it to be." Similarly, he said, we shouldn't "look down" upon women who cover their faces. He mentioned travelling the countryside in India and found Hindu women bent in veils coming down to their ankles.
Without naming the clergy, he said we should not rely on other people's "eyes and ears" to interpret religion. "In legal and judicial terms we discard such people as 'interested witnesses' because there's a motive attached to their evidence." Allah has made the study of our Holy Book so easy: "Treat it like an owner's manual, a guide." Just as a manual informs the owner how to operate the machine, "the Creator and the Manufacturer of man has given him the Holy Quran as a manual which guides man how to live."
Irrespective of Zia's "ideology", the judge said he gives credit to the general for introducing religion to the masses. "He gave Islam respectability... I remember I was in Gordon College in those days. My father would force me to offer my prayers," said Justice Ramday who today has a mehrab on his forehead.
As one deeply interested in other religions, Justice Ramday rightly observes: "What does the Old Testament, the Bible, Vedas, the Wheel of Life with 8 spokes, Jainism, Buddhism and all other scriptures speak of? They show the path for man to be a human; how to attain nirvana and salvation." Every soul worries about "accountability and stock taking… reward and punishment in the life hereafter." The venerable judge is aware of the 'Day of Judgment' hovering over all of us. He recently rebuffed Malik Qayyum saying that the Supreme Judicial Council was not above the apex court: Will a judge wait for the Day of Judgment to get justice, he asked the counsel defending the government?
As an ardent advocate of interfaith dialogue, he says "this planet would be worth a life if a Muslim, Hindu, Jew or Christian irrespective of his faith is above all a good human being."
Calling people who attack each other "narcissists" Justice Ramday gives a parable (dare one draw political parallels here?) of two people travelling to Lahore via two different routes -- the Motorway and the GT Road. Instead of "slitting each other's throats" saying their route was "better" wouldn't it be civil if both the feuding parties eschewed their differences and said to each other: "I wish you good luck. Follow the rules. Be careful with your speed."
All rise for Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday.
The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting. Email:
aniaz@fas.harvard.edu