Manzur Qadir (28 November 1913 – 12 October 1974) ( ur, منظور قادر) was a Pakistani

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served as the

Foreign Minister of Pakistan The Minister of Foreign Affairs (or simply the Foreign Minister) is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Pakistan), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan. The minister is responsible for overseeing the federal governmen ...

in the military government of

Ayub Khan Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced ...

from 1958 to 1962.Obituary Khushwant Singh: 'The last Pakistani living on Indian soil'
Dawn (newspaper), Updated 30 March 2014, Retrieved 31 October 2022 Manzur Qadir served as the

Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the b ...

from 1962–1963. He was the son of Sir

Abdul Qadir Abd al-Qadir or Abdulkadir ( ar, عبد القادر) is a male Muslim given name. It is formed from the Arabic words '' Abd'', '' al-'' and '' Qadir''. The name means "servant of the powerful", ''Al-Qādir'' being one of the names of God in t ...

. He married a daughter of Fazli Husain, a political leader of

Punjab, British India Punjab was a province of British India. Most of the Punjab region was annexed by the East India Company in 2 April 1849, and declared a province of British Rule, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British co ...

. After his demise, his associate Ijaz Husain Batalvi annually organized Mazur Qadir memorial lectures attended by hundred of thousands lawyers and judges, this practice was continued by his associate Akhtar Aly Kureshy for Ijaz Husain Batalvi memorial. In 1962, Qadir served as the chairman of the constitutional committee which eventually formulated

Constitution of Pakistan of 1962 The Constitution of 1962 was the fundamental law of Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 8 June 1962 until martial law was declared in 25 March 1969. It was abrogated on 25 March 1969 by President Yahya Khan. Origins Pakistan became an independent ...

View of tolerance and respect

Qadir was a role-model to and a friend of

Khushwant Singh Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write ''Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 (made ...

- a famous

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. Both friends shared a common worldview of tolerance and mutual respect. In February 2015, this view was endorsed by a panel of guests on a TV show including late

's son Rahul Singh, Pakistani

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

Aitezaz Ahsan, an Indian writer Shobha De and the son of Manzur Qadir - Basharat Qadir. Basharat Qadir related how Khushwant Singh handed over the keys of his house in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...

to Manzur Qadir at the time of

Partition of British India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

in 1947 before he left for India.Outrageous but honest
Dawn (newspaper), Published 21 February 2015, Retrieved 31 October 2022

References

1913 births 1974 deaths Foreign Ministers of Pakistan Pakistani jurists Chief Justices of the Lahore High Court Justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan {{Pakistan-law-bio-stub