President Asif Ali Zardari is reported to have said at the farewell dinner of former Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar that he will always bow his head "to the judgements of the Lordships". The government had long decided that judges of courts ought to be addressed as 'Sir' and not as 'my Lord' as the word Lord is often deemed to refer to Allah Almighty. Using that word would, thus, be invocation of Shirk, an unpardonable sin that needs to be avoided at all cost. The courts of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan are different from the British Law Courts and we ought to adopt practices that are more in consonance with the Islamic precepts. It is wrong for the President of Pakistan to refer to the Superior court judges as 'Lordships'. In the present scenario, it also smacks of flattery, a kind of placation of the judges' ego for the fear of any impending judgements in the courts. Bowing of a Muslim's head is only before Allah Almighty, not before any mortal. -DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI, Lahore, via e-mail, March 21.