Justice Murshed: In Memoriam

SYED Mahbub Murshed is undoubtedly one the most striking and impressive public figures that have ever appeared in our national scene. Many describe him as the torch-bearer of his uncle Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Haque. Born in early 1911 in a distinguished Muslim family of Bengal, he had shown signs of his talented abilities at an early age. The late playwright and litterateur Nurul Momen, recalls in his essay "The Precocity," a youthful Murshed in their Presidency College days in Calcutta. The great expectations Murshed aroused in his contemporaries during his student days were subsequently materialised. 

After a brilliant academic career, both in the Subcontinent and England, Syed Mahbub Murshed began his career as a lawyer in 1939 and soon made his mark in the Calcutta Bar and High Court. His attachment to the Bar and to the members of the legal profession lasted till the end of his days. While serving at the bench, he would speak nostalgically of the Bar. The Bar, Murshed stated, "is my professional home a place to which I shall continually return; even when I am dead, my disembodied soul shall hover around the precincts of the Bar." His affection for people of his profession was deep. After his somewhat premature retirement or more correctly resignation he wrote, "I salute you - you who are my erstwhile comrades, the members of the Bar."

In spite of his professional preoccupations, Syed Mahbub Murshed found time to write and publically speak with brilliance and also to participate in social, cultural and humanitarian activities. His article "Quo Vadis Quaid-e-Azam" criticised the policies of Mohammed Ali Jinnah when it appeared in the 'Statesman' at Calcutta and 'Telegraph' at London 1942. During the famine of 1943 and later during the communal riots of 1946, Murshed worked actively with the Anjuman Mofidul Islam. He was one of the men who were primarily responsible for setting into motion the process that culminated in the Liakat-Nehru pact after the communal violence that shook the Sub-Continent. Murshed was drawn to the vortex of the language movement in the early fifties. 

In the later part of 1954, he was elevated to the bench of the Dhaka High Court. As a judge, Syed Mahbub Murshed remained committed to his lifelong ideals of liberty, justice and excellence. His judicial pronouncements, delivered while sitting in the bench of the Dhaka High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan where he served as an ad-hoc judge, then as Chief Justice, reflected these ideals. Some of Murshed's judgements created constitutional history and were landmarks which won for him international acclaim. 

In addition to his monumental work on constitutional law in the judiciary, Murshed's championing of cultural freedom especially during the repressive Ayub regime will be always remembered. In 1961 he organised the Tagore centennial celebrations in Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh, in defiance of the opposition of the then Pakistani military rulers. Deep down, Murshed was a Sufi and a liberal Muslim and preached tolerance which was against any form of communalism. 

Another significant contribution by Chief Justice Murshed was that he gave the final varnish to the drafting of the six points that was the demand of the then Bengali intelligentsia of all walks of life for provisional autonomy, which Sheikh Mujib fought for and was jailed for. It was Justice Murshed, as a practicing lawyer in early 1954, who was among those who drafted the 21-point manifesto of the Jukta-Front government and this was summarised by him into the famous six points. Again, Mazharul Haq Baki, the Chhatra League President in later 1966, records that no one except Chief Justice Murshed dared to accept being the chief guest at their annual conference, where Murshed like Sheikh Mujib made the clarion call for provincial autonomy for East Pakistan. During the roundtable conference in 1969, and when Ayub was virtually surrendering to the opposition and additionally, with the dissolution of the one unit in West Pakistan, Justice Murshed demanded 'one man, one vote.' Prior to this new demand, there was parity of 150 seats each for East and West Pakistan in the then Pakistan National Assembly. However with the breaking of the one unit in West Pakistan, Justice Murshed's proposal was accepted, the one man, one vote concept resulted in 169 seats for East Pakistan out of 300 seats. In other words, it was Justice Murshed, who paved the way, as whoever would hold the majority in East Pakistan would obviously form the national government. 

Justice Murshed's significant role during the mass upsurge in late 1968-69 is also on record. After Ayub Khan's ouster as president of Pakistan, the general public expected Murshed to run for the presidential office before Yahya usurped the post. Justice Murshed thus played an important role in shaping the Bangali nationalism. To quote Dr. Mizanur Rahman Shelly, in his lifetime Murshed always endeavoured in "building bridges between the past, present and future." He will always remain the keeper of our national conscience. 

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