THE OPENING OF THE SHAIKH AHMAD HASSAN SCHOOL OF LAW: THE JOURNEY AHEAD[1]

By:
DR. PARVEZ HASSAN[2]

Members of the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan Family, Honorable former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr. Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Honorable Governor of Punjab, Mr. Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Mr. Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, Judges and former Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Lahore High Court, Pro Chancellor, Rector, Vice Chancellor, Members of the Board of Trustees of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Members of the Board of Governors of the National Management Foundation (NMF), Members of the Faculty and Students of the SAHSOL, Members of the Faculty and Students of LUMS, Friends, and other Distinguished Guests:

This is a happy day of thanksgiving for the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan family. With me present here are my brothers, Jawed and Tariq, and my sisters, Parveen Khan and Shama Najeeb, to thank LUMS for naming its Law School as the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law. There are several other members of the family present here. My daughter, Yasmeen, made a very special effort to fly in yesterday on a two (2) days visit from New York, juggling a busy schedule in her upcoming meetings in Nairobi. She is a very special daughter and her presence here today makes it specially pleasurable for me. I also acknowledge, with love and gratitude, the dedication of my son, Omar, and his wife, Fatima, for the celebration today. My niece, Rabia Hussain, has traveled from London to be here. From all of us, members of the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan family, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, grand-children and great grand-children, our gratitude for each of you that has joined us today to formally open this building. It is doubly pleasurable that the Beaconhouse National University honors the memory of my mother, in its naming of the Razia Hassan School of Architecture. Thank you, Mona Kasuri and Shahid Kardar, both present here, for this valued association.

On 5 April 2014, in the distinguished presence of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court and the Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court, we had laid the foundation stone of this building. I had then undertaken that inshallah we will build and open this building for the fall semester 2015. I am glad that we have met our commitment and open today within seventeen (17) months of the start of the construction. This has been possible because of the 24/7 commitment of the architects, Habib Fida Ali and Mansoor Ghanchi, and the contractor, Sadiq Qamar, who well redeemed his reputation for the timely completion of an earlier project at the Punjab University Law School. The LUMS project team was ably co-ordinated by Almaee Hassan Jafri, Rashid Hussain and Ali Safdar Raja, all led by the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Sohail Naqvi and the SAHSOL Head, Dr. Ali Qazilbash. I must share that I have discovered a new calling for Dr. Sohail Naqvi. He has lent his passion to the horticultural landscaping of this Building – opening possibilities of another association with SAHSOL after he steps down as the Vice Chancellor of LUMS. My good friend, Farid Ahsanuddin, provided gratuitous support for the engineering consultancy services for the Project. He provided similar support to the Environmental Law Centre that was set up for the Punjab University Law College in 2003. To each of them, my personal and heartfelt gratitude.

In my remarks at the ground-breaking, I had, at length, highlighted the iconic background and accomplishments of Shaikh Ahmad Hassan and how his name will well resonate with the three other distinguished sons of the soil, Mr. Suleman Dawood, Nawab Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani and Syed Babar Ali, with whose names the other Schools at LUMS are associated. I had also then emphasized the pivotal support of my mentor, Syed Babar Ali, and Razak Dawood, for the establishment of the law school at LUMS and for naming it to honor my father. I effusively reiterate that sentiment today and proudly add that the friendships of Syed Babar Ali  and Razak Dawood have enriched and added a luster to my life. The support of the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Sohail Naqvi, was also important as also of former Vice Chancellors, Dr. Ahmad Durrani, Dr. Adil Najam, Dr. Zahoor Hasan, and Dr. Wasim Azhar. Let me acknowledge the distinguished presence amongst us today of Dr. Ahmad Durrani who is visiting from the U.S. May I say a big thank you to all of you.

I feel privileged that, right from the beginning, I was able to initiate and support the thinking about the setting up of a law school at LUMS. I recall the late night sessions at my house of a small group including Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid and Osama Siddique that first conceptualized the law school. We took this thinking to an open house at LUMS and much benefited from the wide participation at this session. We sought a paradigm shift in legal education in Pakistan. We wanted the law school to be research-based, to have a dominant full time faculty and to the traditional law school courses that produce good Court room lawyers, we wanted to emphasize and add disciplines such as securities regulation, banking regulation with its challenges of Islamic financial regimes, competition control, and laws and regulations on telecommunications, oil and gas, electronic media, and public procurement. The list also included environment, climate change, human rights, gender studies, terrorism, internally displaced persons and refugees, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, intellectual property, WTO issues, foreign investments, and regional and international trade. We looked to a legal education that encouraged inquiry, analysis, discussion and debate, that accommodated dissent and promoted tolerance. Mr. Hamid Khan led the Pakistan Bar Council to the approval of SAHSOL and its vision. It is our hope that SAHSOL will meet these needs and that it will constantly review its curriculum to include emerging issues important to our national life and the region.

The building that we open today has three (3) floors. Two (2) have been completed and furnished for immediate use. These include eight (8) class rooms, reading room, cafeteria, moot Court room, thirteen (13) faculty and visiting faculty offices, Dean’s office, IT Room, and discussion/seminar rooms which you will visit after this event. The dedicated floors in the adjoining Library Building service the library needs of SAHSOL. The third floor, presently vacant but with fully completed floors and windows, which I hope you will also visit today, has been built to accommodate the future vision and needs of SAHSOL. My own hope and effort, that we have already begun with two Chinese Universities, is to use a part of the third floor for a Centre of Chinese Legal Studies. With the growing Chinese interest in the region, SAHSOL can seek to position itself as the leading legal research hub for students and professors particularly from China, Pakistan and the Central Asian Republics. We have initiated a similar capacity building effort with Pace University in the U.S.A. for strengthening the teaching of environmental law courses at SAHSOL. These will serve as models for faculty and student exchanges with other Universities all over the world. 

I report that we are well on the trajectory of our goals ahead. We have a remarkable full time and adjunct faculty; our entering class this year is one of the best that we have so far attracted. Confidentiality prevents me from disclosing the identity but we may be close to positioning a Pakistani academic at a law school outside Pakistan as a possible Dean of SAHSOL. A dedicated SAHSOL Advisory Board that includes Justices Fazal Karim and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah will inshallah continue to steer us to our vision and goals.

I feel blessed that I was able to support the founding and building of this law school. This was possible because of the opportunities of the professional work at my law firm, Hassan & Hassan (Advocates). I want to acknowledge four (4) individuals and Groups that, in the following time sequence, catalyzed this result: one, General Habibullah Khan, the dynamic soldier-turned entrepreneur who loomed large on Pakistan’s business horizon in the 1960s and 1970s; two, the Dawood Group, starting with Mr. Ahmad Dawood, the business wizard that led the Dawood Group, and well-succeeded by Razak Dawood and Hussain Dawood; third, Syed Babar Ali and the well-known Packages Group; and fourth, Sheikh Irshad Ahmed, who first led NESPAK as its founding Managing Director. Each of them turned to me over four (4) decades ago when I started my legal career and I am proud that each of these professional associations continues today. It is personally gratifying to me that Syed Babar Ali, Razak Dawood and the family of General Habibullah Khan have joined to support this Building. General Habibullah’s family is present here through my friends, Raza Kuli, General Ali Kuli and Ahmad Kuli Khan Khattak. We also honor, posthumously, the memory of Sheikh Irshad Ahmad. It will continue to mean a lot to me that four (4) rooms in the building shall honor Syed Babar Ali, Razak Dawood, General Habibullah Khan, and Sheikh Irshad Ahmad. In fairness to them, I should add that Syed Babar Ali and Razak Dawood were most reluctant to be so honored but I used the strength of my friendship with them to over-rule them. I was similarly over-ruled in the decision of SAHSOL to name the Reading Room after me for which I am grateful. A big thank you for this honor, Dr. Naqvi and SAHSOL.

Mian Mohammad Abdullah of the Sapphire Group, with whom I have also valued decades of professional association, has supported SAHSOL to our grateful appreciation in a room named after him. Mian Sahib has generously supported other civic causes that I serve. He is out of the country today and is represented here by his son, Mr. Shahid Abdullah. The Sapphire Group continues its important and welcome support to LUMS.

And, I proudly announce that the Gurmani Family has continued its monumental generosity to LUMS by supporting SAHSOL. Nawab Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani was a close friend of my father, and I had the privilege to transform his vision for public service in the creation of the non-profit Gurmani Foundation and serving on its Board of Governors since its inception in 1980. Begum Abida Aminullah, Nawab Sahib’s gracious and dynamic daughter, is here. Abida Apa, much gratitude from a person who has been treated, over the years, as a part of the Gurmani Family. A room in the building proudly reflects an association with Nawab Sahib.

I also acknowledge the presence with us today of Ms. Amna Piracha. She was an early supporter of the building that we open today. This building honors the memory of her late and distinguished husband, Mr. Saleem Zulfiqar Khan. Saleem and I worked together when he was an in-house counsel at the National Fertilizer Corporation Limited and I testify to his brilliance, exemplary professional ethics, humanity, and remarkable personal charm. His presence in the Building adds to the glow and shine of SAHSOL.

The IT Room acknowledges, gratefully, the support of UBL, a first for SAHSOL from the country’s banking sector. We hope to develop more common ground with UBL in the confidence of the generosity of my good friend, Sir Anwar Pervez.

And, that brings me to my most important acknowledgment. My friendship and admiration for Hasan Irfan and his family has spanned several decades. Irfan well responded to the opportunity to join me in 2003 in helping our alma mater, the Punjab University Law College, with additional academic infrastructure and facilities. And, I turned to him last year for the Moot Court Room at SAHSOL. At the ground-breaking, I had promised the then Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Mr. Justice Umar Ata Bandial, who is present today as a Judge of the Supreme Court, that we will replicate his Court Room at SAHSOL. With the support of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, we have reproduced, as much as possible, the carving, the furniture, the woodwork, and the walk-up stairs of the bench of the Court Room of the Chief Justice. We have also included, as you can see, the portraits of the forty four (44) former Chief Justices of the Lahore High Court starting from Justice C. Boulnois in 1866 that, in original, adorn the Court Room of the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court. All this planning was also facilitated by Hasan Irfan and his brothers.

We are today pleased to announce the naming of the Moot Court Room, where we are holding this opening ceremony, as the Asifa Irfan Moot Court to honor the mother of these distinguished brothers. Begum Asifa Irfan was expected to be here today but could not make it at the last minute. We reverentially salute her and her family in gratitude. Their generosity, we hope, will inspire other Groups and friends to join in the support to SAHSOL.

As you can see, we are fortunate in the support that we have received in the seventeen (17) months since our ground-breaking. SAHSOL looks forward to building on these and other partnerships in the years ahead.

Finally, a few more thank yous.

I want to thank Maulana Ahmad Ali Kasuri for accepting the Family request to lead the dua today. My father helped Maulana Kasuri in the engineering of the mosque in New Muslim Town, Lahore. He prayed behind Maulana Kasuri most Fridays and on Eids. Maulana Kasuri joined in the Namaz-e-Janaza of my father and led the Namaz-e-janazas of my mother and my bhabi. His presence with us today means much to our family.

I also want to specially thank Retired Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr. Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Mr. Justice Umar Ata Bandial, the Governor, Punjab, and the Chief Justice, Lahore High Court, who have responded to our friendship to honor my father.

All the members of the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan Family including those present here join me in thanking all of you for sharing a happy day with us and making it possible. May Allah shower his blessings on the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, its students, faculty, and staff in the years ahead to progress it to the best and most respected law school in the region. Ameen.

I echo Syed Babar Ali’s hope and wish that SAHSOL produce the future generations of the Mohammad Ali Jinnahs of South Asia.

I want to end, as I did on a similar event at the Punjab University Law College, Lahore, in 2003, with three things:

Thank you,

Thank you, and

Thank you.

 


[1].       This is an epilogue to the earlier trilogy of stories of gratitude:

(1)     Dr. Parvez Hassan Environmental Law Centre: A Story of Gratitude, PLD 2003 Journal, at 19-28, being remarks at the inauguration of the Dr. Parvez Hassan Environmental Law Centre, at the Punjab University Law College, Lahore, on 15 February 2003;

(2)     Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law: Another Story of Gratitude, 2014 Pakistan Law Journal (Magazine), at 230-235, being remarks at the groundbreaking of the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, on 5 April 2014; and

(3)     Razia Hassan School of Architecture: Yet Another Story of Gratitude, 2014 Pakistan Law Journal (Magazine), at 218-224, being remarks at the naming ceremony of the Razia Hassan School of Architecture, at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, on 13 April 2014.

[2].       Remarks made at the opening ceremony of the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, on 12 September 2015.