Muhammad Munir

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Muhammad Munir

| office = 2nd Chief Justice of Pakistan

| appointer = Malik Ghulam Muhammad

| term_start = 29 June 1954

| term_end = 2 May 1960

| predecessor = Abdul Rashid

| successor = Muhammad Shahabuddin

| birth_date = 1895

| birth_place = Amritsar, Punjab, British India

| death_date = {{death year and age|1979|1895}}

| death_place =

| alma_mater = Government College University, Lahore

| native_name = {{nq|محمدمنیر}}

}}

Muhammad Munir ({{Langx|ur|{{nq|محمدمنیر}}}}; 1895–1979) was the second Chief Justice of Pakistan serving from 1954 to 1960.

Background

Munir was born into a Kakkyzai Pashtun family and obtained his degree of master's in English Literature from Government College University Lahore, he joined Punjab University Law College to earn his L.L.B. He started his career as a lawyer in Amritsar in 1921. He moved to Lahore in 1922.{{cite book|title=Chief Justice Muhammad Munir: his life, writings, and judgements|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCpYAAAAMAAJ|access-date=16 May 2013|year=1973|publisher=Research Society of Pakistan}}

Career

Munir was appointed assistant advocate-general of Punjab in 1937, and first president of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal of British India in 1940. He was elevated to the Bench of Judicature at Lahore in 1942. He and Justice Din Muhammad represented the All India Muslim League on the Punjab Boundary Commission in 1947. The following year he was made the chairman of the Pakistan Pay Commission. In 1949, he was made the chief justice of the Lahore High Court.{{cite book|title=Chief Justice Muhammad Munir: His Life, Writings and Judgments|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m4OcPgAACAAJ|access-date=16 May 2013|year=1973|publisher=Research Society of Pakistan}}

=Chief Justice=

In 1954, Munir was made the chief justice of the Federal Court,{{cite book|author=Paula R. Newberg|title=Judging the State: Courts and Constitutional Politics in Pakistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PbSeGQO3xdsC&pg=PA25|access-date=16 May 2013|date=16 May 2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-89440-1|pages=25–}} chief justice of Pakistan. Besides being the chief justice, he also remained the chairman of the Delimitation Commission from June 1956 to July 1958. He retired on 2 May 1960.

In the major Federation of Pakistan v. Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan case, Munir invoked the doctrine of necessity, validating the dissolution of the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. The assembly was dissolved on 24 October 1954, by Governor General Ghulam Muhammad, an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University. He has been widely criticized for validating the dissolution, although some of the Pakistani politicians had called for its dissolution.{{cite book|author=Imtiaz Omar|title=Emergency powers and the courts in India and Pakistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6-wZP7Tz8YC&pg=PA55|access-date=16 May 2013|year=2002|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=978-90-411-1775-5|pages=55–}} Due to Munir’s ruling in the case, he has been perceived as a controversial figure, primarily due to his doctrine legitimizing the further dissolutions of assemblies.{{Cite web |title=Legacies of Pakistan's chief justices: The highs and lows |url=https://www.geo.tv/latest/570828-legacies-of-pakistans-chief-justices-the-highs-and-lows |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=www.geo.tv |language=en-US}}

He also validated 1958 Pakistani military coup by invoking doctrine of necessity.{{Cite web |last=Qazi |first=Sabina |date=2015-03-27 |title=Necessity as the mother of laws |url=http://herald.dawn.com/news/1152911 |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=Herald Magazine |language=en}}

Writings

Justice Munir also wrote a book From Jinnah to Zia, arguing that Jinnah stood for a secular state.{{cite book|author=Muhammad Munir|title=From Jinnah to Zia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eRgvAAAAYAAJ|access-date=16 May 2013|year=1980|publisher=Vanguard Books}}{{cite book|author=Muhammad Munir |url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14759046-from-jinnah-to-zia-by-muhammad-munir |title=Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading |publisher=Goodreads.com |access-date=2013-05-16}}{{cite news |title=From Jinnah to Zia |url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-101816-From-Jinnah-to-Zia |work=The News International |date=8 April 2012 |access-date=2013-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120408233403/http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-101816-From-Jinnah-to-Zia |archive-date=2012-04-08}}{{cite book|author=Hafiz Sher Muhammad|title=The Ahmadiyya Case|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uxnRQfRqIdwC&pg=PA316|access-date=16 May 2013|publisher=www.aaiil.org|pages=316–|id=GGKEY:19TKD2GN31G}}