KARACHI: Senior lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada passed away in the city on Friday morning. He was 94 years old. 

Hearing news of the senior lawyer's demise, the Sindh High Court decided to discharge all the boards. Important cases in the high court will be heard inside the judges' chambers.

Pirzada, who was most recently the counsel for former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the treason case against him, was considered the top constitutional expert of Pakistan.

He also served as Pakistan's foreign minister during the government of former president Gen Ayub Khan as well as the attorney general during the Ayub and Gen Yahya Khan's governments. He also served as a secretary to Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the 1940s.

From 1985 to 1988, Pirzada also served as the secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Conference.  

Pirzada began his legal career in the Bombay High Court before moving to the newly created Pakistan.

Pirzada was not considered a friend of democracy by rights activists of the country as he wrote the legal order for Musharraf?s emergency rule, updating a similar one he prepared for General Ziaul Haq after his 1977 coup. 

Additional input by AFP