Zia
Chishti and his wife, Zeb, now live in Canada after a life that started
in India, then Pakistan, following the Partition of India, 1947. After
six years in London, England, Zia and his family immigrated to Canada,
settling, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 1982. That’s because two
of their six sons lived in P.E.I., one of them teaching at the University
of P.E.I. and another, a practicing accountant. Zia, whose ancestors settled
more than 400 years ago in the historic town of Fatehpur-Sikri (India's
capital between 1569-1609), was born in 1926 and married Zeb at 19. In
1953, Zia left Zeb and two sons with family members to study law and work
at the office of the High Commissioner of Pakistan, London, England. Returning,
1956, he practiced and taught law at both Karachi and Lahore Universities,
1961-1973, before returning to London with his wife and two youngest sons
to be with the four older boys attending university. In London, he resumed
the practice of law, arguing on occasion, cases in France for the United
Nations. When two of the Chishti sons got jobs in Canada, the other family
members decided to join them in P.E.I. where Zia discovered he had to spend
18 months attending law school at Mount Allison University, New Brunswick,
take his exams at Dalhousie University and spend still another year articling
with a law firm in P.E.I., before being able to open his own office in
Charlottetown. He did so, opening his own firm at age 66, and has
since established himself as a respected member of the legal profession
as well as a devoted Muslim in the community of some 20 Muslim families
in the Charlottetown area. [Photo, courtesy Badar Chishti]
