Liaquat Ali Khan
Early life
He graduated in 1918 from Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College (later: Aligarh Muslim University), Aligarh, and married his cousin, Jehangira Begum, in 1918.[2] After the death of his father, Liaquat went to England and was awarded a Master's degree from Exeter College, Oxford in 1921. While a student at Oxford University, he was elected Honorary Treasurer of the Indian Majlis. Thereafter he joined the Inner Temple, one of the Inns of Court in London. He was called to the Bar in 1922.
Political career
On his return from Britain in 1923, Liaquat entered politics, determined to eradicate what he saw as the injustices and ill treatment meted out to the Indian Muslims under the British.[citation needed] In his early life, Liaquat believed in Indian Nationalism. His views gradually changed. The Congress leaders asked him to join their party, but he refused and joined the Muslim League in 1923. Under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslim League held its annual session in May 1924 in Lahore. The aim of this session was to revive the League. Liaquat was among those who attended this conference.
Liaquat began his parliamentary career as an elected member of the United Provinces Legislative Council from the rural Muslim constituency of Muzzafarnagar in 1926. In 1932, he was unanimously elected Deputy President of UP Legislative Council.[1] He remained a member of the UP Legislative Council until 1940, when he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly.
Liaquat took active part in legislative affairs. He was one of the members of the Muslim League delegation that attended the National Convention held at Calcutta to discuss the Nehru Report in December 1928.[3]
Liaquat's second marriage took place in December 1932. His wife Begum Ra'ana was a prominent economist and an educator. She, too, was an influential figure in the Pakistan movement.[4]
Following the failure of the Round Table Conferences, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had settled in London and was practicing law before the Privy Council.[1] Liaquat and his wife had a number of meetings with Jinnah and convinced him to come back to India to take up the leadership of the Muslims of the region.
Pakistan movement
When Muhammad Ali Jinnah returned to India, he started to reorganise the Muslim League. In 1936, the annual session of the All India Muslim league met in Bombay. In the open session on 12 April 1936, Jinnah moved a resolution proposing Liaquat Ali Khan as the Honorary General Secretary. The resolution was unanimously adopted and he held the office till the establishment of Pakistan in 1947.[5] In 1940, Liaquat was made the deputy leader of the Muslim League Parliamentary party. Jinnah was not able to take active part in the proceedings of the Assembly on account of his heavy political work. It was Liaquat Ali Khan who stood in his place. During this period, Liaquat was also the Honorary General Secretary of the Muslim League, the deputy leader of their party, Convenor of the Action Committee of the Muslim League, Chairman of the Central Parliamentary Board and the managing director of the newspaper Dawn.[6]
The Pakistan Resolution was adopted in 1940 at the Lahore session of the Muslim League. The same year elections were held for the central legislative assembly which were contested by Liaquat from the Barielly constituency. He was elected without contest. When the twenty-eighth session of the League met in Madras on 12 April 1941, Jinnah told party members that the ultimate aim was to obtain Pakistan. In this session, Liaquat moved a resolution incorporating the objectives of the Pakistan Resolution in the 'aims and objectives of the Muslim League'. The resolution was seconded and passed unanimously.[6]
In 1945-46, mass elections were held in India and Liaquat won the Central Legislature election from the Meerut Constituency in the United Provinces. He was also elected Chairman of the League's Central Parliamentary Board. The Muslim League won 87% of seats reserved for Muslims of the sub-continent.[7] He assisted Jinnah in his negotiations with the members of the Cabinet Mission and the leaders of the Congress during the final phases of the Freedom Movement and it was decided that an interim government would be formed consisting of members of the Congress, the Muslim League and minority leaders. When the Government asked the Muslim League to send their nominees for representation in the interim government, Liaquat Ali was asked to lead the League group in the cabinet. He was given the portfolio of finance.[8] By this point, the outgoing British government of India and the Indian National Congress had both accepted the idea of Pakistan and therefore on August 14, 1947, Pakistan came into existence.[3]
Liaquat Ali Khan as Prime Minister
After independence, Liaquat Ali Khan was appointed the first Prime Minister of Pakistan. Pakistan faced a number of difficulties in its early days. Liaquat and Jinnah were determined to stop the riots and refugee problems and to set up an effective administrative system for the country. Liaquat established the groundwork for Pakistan's foreign policy. He also took steps towards the formulation of the constitution. He presented The Objectives Resolution, a prelude to future constitutions, in the Legislative Assembly. The house passed it on March 12, 1949. It has been described as the "Magna Carta" of Pakistan's constitutional history.[9] Liaquat called it "the most important occasion in the life of this country, next in importance, only to the achievement of independence". Under his leadership a team also drafted the first report of the Basic Principle Committee and work began on the second report.
During his tenure, India and Pakistan agreed to resolve the dispute of Kashmir in a peaceful manner through the efforts of the United Nations. According to this agreement a ceasefire was effected in Kashmir on January 1, 1949. It was decided that a free and impartial plebiscite would be held under the supervision of the UN.[10]
After the death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the problem of religious minorities flared during late 1949 and early 1950, and observers feared that India and Pakistan were about to fight their second war in the first three years of their independence. At this time, Liaquat met Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact in 1950. The pact was an effort to improve relations and reduce tension between India and Pakistan, and to protect the religious minorities on both sides of the border.[11]In May 1951, Liaquat visited the United States and set the course of Pakistan's foreign policy towards closer ties with the West. An important event during his premiership was the establishment of National Bank of Pakistan in November 1949, and the installation of a paper currency mill in Karachi.[12]
In January 1951, Liaquat appointed Ayub Khan as the first Pakistani commander-in-chief of the army with the retirement of the British commander, Douglas Gracey. In the same year, an attempted coup was launched against the government by senior military leaders and prominent socialist. Akbar Khan, chief of general staff, was arrested along with 14 other army officers for plotting the coup. This Rawalpindi Conspiracy, as it became known, was the first attempted military coup in Pakistan's history. The arrested conspirators were tried in secret and given lengthy jail sentences.[13]
Death
On October 16, 1951, Liaquat had been scheduled to make an important announcement in a public meeting of the Muslim City League at Municipal Park, Rawalpindi. Liaquat was shot twice in the chest during that meeting by a man sitting in the audience only fifteen yards away. It was reported that the police immediately killed the assassin, who was later identified as Saad Akbar Babrak, an Afghan from the same Zadran tribe as Pacha Khan Zadran. Liaquat was rushed to a hospital where he was given a blood transfusion, but he succumbed to his injuries. The exact motive behind the assassination has never been fully revealed. However, Liaquat was an ardent supporter of partition, which involved absorbing Pushtun land into Pakistan. He did not believe Pushtun land east of the Durand Line deserved to be reunited with Afghanistan after its illegal annexation into British India in 1893. Afghans, as well as the Pushtuns living in the disputed territory, including those of the Zadran tribe, held political animosity toward Liaquat Ali Khan because of this, and Saad Akbar Zadran is believed to have killed the Prime Minister after he made inflammatory statements about Afghanistan during his speech.
Upon his death, Liaquat Ali Khan was given the honorific title of "Shaheed-e-Millat", or "Martyr of the Nation".
His last words are said to have been, "May God keep Pakistan safe."
Municipal Park, where he was assassinated, was renamed Liaquat Bagh Park in his honor.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated just outside the same park on December 27, 2007 and was attended to without success by Dr Mussadiq Khan whose father Dr Sadiq Khan had tried, in like manner, to save the life of Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951.
Criticism and legacy
Liaqat Ali Khan had many failures. Some were due to his lack of knowledge of the country where he was imposed as the first unelected Prime Minister, other relate to his obsession with the right of rule of the immigrants (Mohajirs from India) over Pakistan. He ruled for five years but did not make a serious attempt to give constitution to the ill fated country. He remained Prime Minister of the country but never went to polls. He preached democracy but was never elected to the Parliment of Pakistan. He laid the foundation of "land Grabbing" mafia in Pakistan. He distributed government and fleeing non Muslim estates and lands amongst his cronies and Indian Mohajirs. He confined the jobs to his ethnic brothers. He was miopic and racial. Liaquat Ali Khan has received criticism from the left wing in Pakistan for his pro-Western foreign policies and the restrictions placed on the Communist Party of Pakistan. At the time of his death, the extreme leftist press, such as the Communist Swadhinata, stated: "Liaquat's death only reflects inevitable disaster that overtakes policy of playing lackey to Anglo-American Powers."[15]He was further criticised for not visiting the Soviet Union, whereas he did go the United States. This was perceived as a rebuff to Moscow, and has been traced to profound adverse consequences, including Soviet help to India, most prominently in the 1971 war which ultimately led to the separation of Bangladesh.
Others argue that Liaquat Ali Khan had wanted Pakistan to remain neutral in the Cold War, as declared three days after Pakistan's independence when he declared that Pakistan would take no sides in the conflict of ideologies between the nations.[16] Former serviceman Shahid M. Amin has argued that the Soviets themselves could not settle convenient dates for a visit, and that, even during his visit to the United States, Liaquat had declared his intention to visit the Soviet Union.[17]Amin also notes that "Failure to visit a country in response to its invitations has hardly ever become the cause of long-term estrangement.
In Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan is regarded as Jinnah's “right hand man” and heir apparent. His role in filling in the vacuum created by Jinnah’s death is seen as decisive in tackling critical problems during Pakistan’s fledgling years and in devising measures for the consolidation of Pakistan. His face is printed on postage stamps across the country.
Liaquat was portrayed by Pakistani actor Shakeel in the 1998 film "Jinnah.[19]
No comments:
Post a Comment