Remembering Justice Murshed

Today is the 37th death anniversary of one of the most distinguished sons of the country. He is remembered and revered as one of the most distinguished personalities in our history. He is none other than Syed Mahbub Murshed, the late Chief Justice or Justice Murshed as most of us knew him. Yet on another anniversary of his death, the minds of today's people who keep learning about him, continue to wander in the world of nostalgic memories.

Born a little after the first decade of the last century, Murshed remains a very prominent figure and a striking personality to all sections across the country. Although he had the most aristocratic background, he remained undoubtedly an articulate spokesman of the collective feelings of the then repressed and subjugated people. Along also with his notable heritage, he had brilliant academic results both at home and abroad with high merit and distinctions all through and this culminated in his becoming a Barrister in England at the honourable society of Lincoln Inn in 1938. Hence, Murshed's historical ancestry was a fitting precursor from his youth to what became a academic career of rare distinction.

In life, Justice Murshed rose to the eminence of the highest order as a jurist imbued with a deep sense of social justice. His contribution to the field of literature was no less outstanding. In all, Murshed lavishly bestowed upon us the vast store of wisdom on various issues ranging from constitutional law, jurisprudence, literature, to politics, not to mention innumerable social causes. As a judge and later as Chief Justice, he was a fearless exponent of the rule of law and for this admiration came from all walks of life particularly for his courage. Justice Murshed never yielded even to the highest provocation. The greatness of his legal mind was that he drew his inspiration from a variety of historical, philosophical and theological sources. Yet he was able to interpret these themes in his own inimitable fashion. Justice Murshed's genius lay in his ability to fathom these diverse intellectual influences into his own brilliant individualism. He was acutely aware of the fact that excessive insistence on the letter of the law may violate the spirit and in his own words, "It is not the use but the abuse of power that the courts should seek to redress."  Murshed's judicial pronouncements, while sitting in the bench of the High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan where he served as an ad hoc judge and then as Chief Justice, reflected the lofty ideals of liberty, justice and excellence. Some of his judgments created constitutional history and became landmarks which also won for him international acclaim. From the bench, his verdicts went against the Ayub Monem dictatorship. Around five decades ago, when our country was under alien rule, when those who governed our country from more than a thousand miles away were determined to impose their culture upon us and erase our cultural heritage, it was Murshed from the Bengali intellectuals who stood up to fight for the age-old traditions and cultural identity of Bangladesh. It will always be remembered as in 1961, he organised the 'Tagore Centennial celebrations' at Dhaka and other parts of the country which now comprise free Bangladesh and this was in defiance of the opposition of the then Pakistani rulers. When the great tide of nationalism swept the country in the 1970s, originating from ripples that were noticeable in the 50s and 60s, the distinguished person who figured most prominently in this process was Syed Mahbub Murshed. The fight for a separate identity became, through a process of metamorphosis, a battle for nationalism. The stirrings of a nation in the making in the late 1950s and 1960s found eloquent expression in the manifold speeches, judgments and writings of Justice Murshed. In this sphere, he became the most articulate spokesman of Bengali nationalism.

In his earlier professional life as a lawyer, despite preoccupations, Murshed found time to write and publicly speak with brilliance and also to participate in political, social and humanitarian activities. His article 'Quo Vadis Quaid e Azam' where he criticised the policies of Mohammed Ali Jinnah in defence of his uncle Fazlul Haque appeared in the 'Statesman' of Calcutta and the 'Telegraph' in London in 1942 created a thought- provoking stir. During the famine in 1943 and later the communal riots in 1946, Murshed worked actively with the 'Anjuman Mofidul Islam.' Deep down, he was a Sufi and a liberal Muslim and spoke of tolerance which was against any form of communalism. Further again, the communal violence that shook the sub continent in the partition year, he was one of those men who were primarily responsible for setting into motion the process that culminated in the Liakat   Nehru pact. Murshed was also drawn to the vortex of the language movement in the early fifties.

In addition to his monumental work, another significant contribution by the then Chief Justice Murshed was that he gave final touch to the drafting of the historic Six Points in 1966 for provincial autonomy which was the demand of Bengali intelligentsia. This was what Sheikh Mujib had fought and was jailed for. In early 1954 while he was still a practising lawyer, he was among those who drafted the 21-point manifesto of the Jukta Front government and this was summarised by Murshed as the famous Six Points. Later in 1966, Mazharul Haq Baqui, the then President of the Chattra League, recorded that no one except Chief Justice Murshed dared to accept being the chief guest at their annual conference. This was where Murshed also like Sk Mujib made the clarion call for provincial autonomy of then East Pakistan.

While the country was sensing a victory for autocracy with President Field Marshal Ayub Khan about to celebrate his so-called decade of reforms, Murshed resigned from the post of Chief Justice to join the masses for the fight for democracy. Among the first things that he did was to help organise the defence of the Agartala conspiracy case and subsequent to this, Murshed entered politics directly, which was the major momentum to the anti Ayub movement. It was because of Murshed who was leading the charge during the mass upsurge that Sk Mujib was not released on parole. Not only that, it was on account of Murshed's constant public demands that all the co accused in the Agartala conspiracy case were unconditionally released and exonerated.

Perhaps what is most significant was that during the round table conference while Ayub was virtually on his knees and in addition, with the dissolution of the one unit in West Pakistan, Justice Murshed demanded one-man one-vote. Prior to this, in the then Pakistan National Assembly, there was parity of 150 seats each for East and West Pakistan. As Murshed's one-man one-vote proposal was accepted and because of this, 169 seats out of 300 came to East Pakistan in the next national election. Therefore, in reality, it was clearly Justice Murshed who paved the way as to whoever would be the majority in East Pakistan could form the national government.

It was Murshed's protest resignation as Chief Justice that made the intellegentia in the country to find him as the only acceptable presidential candidate against Ayub. During our war of liberation, his refusal to collaborate with the ruling military junta is also recorded by historians. Hence, in fact, it can be said that Justice Murshed is the founding father of Bengali nationalism and a keeper of our national conscience. In conclusion, he will remain living in history as a person who served his community above self-interest.

The writer is the founder secretary of the 'Syed Mahbub Murshed memorial committee' and a poet who retired as an employee of Radio Bangladesh.