©The New Straits Times (Used by permission)
KUALA LUMPUR: A prominent former judge and father to a former Royal Malaysian Air Force chief, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohamed Zain, died at his Bukit Pantai home on Thursday. He was 89.
His son, Lt–Gen (rtd) Datuk Seri Abdul Ghani Aziz said his father died in his sleep at 6am.
Aziz leaves behind wife, Puan Sri Fatimah Zahirin, 82, and six children.
Ghani said his father was buried at the Taman Titiwangsa Muslim cemetery.
Aziz was born on Nov 10, 1922 in Kepala Batas, Penang. He obtained his law degree from Mid dle Temple, London in 1951.
He began his civil service career with the Kedah state secretariat before he was appointed a magistrate in Taiping, Perak in 1955.
Thereafter, Aziz became a deputy public prosecutor in Perak before he was appointed Kuala Lumpur legal council member in 1957.
In 1958, he held the post of Kelantan and Terengganu state legal adviser, said Ghani.
In 1960, he was appointed Perak state legal adviser before serving as Brunei's attorney–general for two years from 1961.
Aziz then served as Malaysia's solicitor–general in 1963 before being appointed a High Court judge in July 1964 and later a Federal Court judge in 1970.
He served as National Electricity Board chairman from 1971 to 1973, and later as trustee of the Council of Colleges Malaysia, chairman of Bedford (M) Bhd, Kota Tanah Sdn Bhd, Kao (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and the Malaysian Institute of Management.
Aziz was special assistant to the country's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, when Tunku served as secretary–general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in 1973.