Renowned lawyer Hafeez Pirzada is no more

LONDON: Senior Advocate Supreme Court and a premier lawyer of Pakistan Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, a founding member of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party and the legal adviser to former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, died here on Tuesday evening, family sources said. He was seriously ill for the last many days and was under treatment in a UK hospital.
Born in 1941, Hafeez Pirzada was one of the 30 members who founded the Pakistan People’s Party on 30 November 1967, along with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Hafeez Pirzada played a pivotal role in formulating the 1973 Constitution. He was elected as a Member of the National Assembly in 1970. He remained the Education Minister from 1971 to 1973 and was later appointed as the Federal Law Minister from 1973 to 1977.
Pirzada was a close confidant of ZAB and was a member of the legal team representing ZAB in the murder case against him. He represented former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as a defence lawyer in the murder trial in which ZAB was finally sentenced to death. Recently, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada represented the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the famous election rigging case.
Abdul Hafiz Pirzada belonged to a prominent family of Sindh, and was the son of Pirzada Abdus Sattar, a former Chief Minister of Sindh. Abdul Hafeez Pirzada was a graduate of Karachi University where he obtained an LLB degree, followed by LLM from Sindh University. Pirzada also obtained his MSc in Political Science where he wrote a brief thesis on the Soviet Union and the rise of Communism. Hafeez Pirzada began his professional career at the Sindh High Court.
After a brief exile, Hafeez Pirzada returned to Pakistan in the late 1980s. He withdrew from active politics and fully concentrated on his legal career. Hafeez Pirzada was one of the most successful and highly-paid advocates of Pakistan. In a Geo TV broadcast of “Aik Din Geo Kay Saath”, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada stated that he earned about Rs 120 to 130 million annually.
Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada, brother of Hafeez Pirzada, said that it will take them two to three days to bring his body back from England. Hafeez will be buried in his ancestral graveyard in Sukkur, he added.