My Mother — Page 94
94 was bound to be fulfilled. I did not know its true interpretation, nor could I guess when or in what manner it would be fulfilled. That was known only to Him who had caused it to be revealed to. That being so, I had not let it influence my judge- ment at any time. The brief summary of my public career set out in the preceding chapter would show that I had not been eager to grasp opportunities of a literal fulfilment of the dream. My choice of the Federal Court in 1941 was not influenced by ’s dream, it was determined by my own dreams of the immediately preceding week. But for them I would have had no hesitation in complying with the Governor-General’s wish. If I had chosen to remain permanently in India on partition in 1947, I would have been the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. In December of that year, I was given the choice of becoming the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. I preferred the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. Mian Abdur Rashid was appointed Chief Justice. In 1952, when his term was about to expire he made persistent efforts to persuade me to let him propose my name as his successor. I resisted all his kindly meant efforts, not because personally I was averse to becoming Chief Justice, but because I was convinced that I could serve the cause of Pakistan better as Minister of Foreign Affairs than as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Now, at 68 years of age, I was no longer eligible for high judi- cial office in Pakistan. Had I been re-elected to the International Court, I would, in all probability, have succeeded President Klaestad as President of the Court. But I had not only not been re-elected, there was not a single instance of a judge who had left the Court being subsequently elected back to the Court.