S. A. Rahman

Dr. Sheikh Abdur Rehman (Urdu, شیخ عبد الرحمان) (4 June 1903 – 25 July 1990) was the 5th Chief Justice of Pakistan. He did his MA from University of Punjab, BA Hons from Oxford and Ph.D. in Law from Cairo.

Sheikh Abdur Rehman شیخ عبد الرحمان
5th Chief Justice of Pakistan
In office 1 March 1968 – 3 June 1968
Appointed by	Ayub Khan
Preceded by	Alvin Robert Cornelius
Succeeded by	Fazal Akbar
Personal details
Born	4 June 1903 Wazirabad, Punjab, British India
Died	25 July 1990 (aged 87)
Alma mater	Islamia College,Lahore University of the Punjab University of Oxford (B.A) Cairo University

Supreme Court of Pakistan

Abdur-Rehman entered Indian Civil Services in 1926. He served in the capacity of Assistant Commissioner and District and Sessions Judge in various Districts of Punjab. He was appointed as Judge Lahore High Court in 1946. He graduated from Islamia College Lahore.

In 1947, he was appointed as the Member of Bengal Boundary Commission. From 1947-52 he acted as the Custodian of Evacuee Property Punjab. Abdur-Rehman remained the vice-chancellor of Punjab University Lahore from 1950 to 1952. He became the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court in 1954. He was elevated as the Chief Justice West Pakistan High Court in 1955. In 1958 he was made the Judge, Supreme Court of Pakistan. He replaced Justice A.R. Cornelius as the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan. He retired as the Chief Justice on 3 June 1968. He also acted as Chief Election Commissioner in 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1967.

Besides his professional career he remained the Chairman Central Urdu Board Lahore, Director Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore, Member Bazm-i-Iqal and the Board for the Advancement of Literature and President Pakistan Arts Council.

Books

Abdur-Rehman has also three books to his credit:

• Tarjuman-I-Israr (an Urdu translation in verse of Iqbal's Israr-I-Khudi),
• Safar a collection of Urdu poems, and
• Punishment Of Apostasy in Islam (1972). In this latter work Rahman is one of a number of voices working from within the Islamic tradition who seek to reinterpret scriptural texts, and reform the scriptural reading of blasphemy and apostasy laws.[1]

See also

• Chief Justices of Pakistan
• Supreme Court of Pakistan

References

1. Coffey, John (2014). Scripture and Toleration between Reformation and Enlightenment Archived 2017-08-18 at the Wayback Machine in Eliane Glaser, ed., Religious Tolerance in the Atlantic World: Early Modern and Contemporary Perspectives (Palgrave, 2014), 14-40. Another Islamic reformer working in this field is professor of Islamic Studies, Abdullah Saeed in his work Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam (2004).