Muslim League in N.W.F.P. SYED WAQAR AU SHAH ROYAL BOOK COMPANY P.O. BOX 7737 SADDAR, KARACHI-74400 PAKISTAN © Copyright reserved with the author First Published ia 1992 Published by Royal Book Company Rehman Centre, Zaibunnisa Street, P.O. Box 7737, Saddar Karachi - 74400. Printed and Designed by Laureate Packages Karachi. CONTENTS Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 3 i. The Formation of the Province of NWFP ii. Political Developments in the NWFP iii. Hijrat Movement and the Frontier People iv. The Khalifat Movement and the Frontier Province v. The Khudai Khidmatgar Movement vi. Constitutional Developments in the NWFP vii. The Frontier Enquiry or Bray Committee Report viii. All India Muslim League and the Frontier Reforms ix. Simon Commission and the NWFP x. Round Table Conferences and the NWFP xi. The Haig Committee References and Notes Chapter One 20 Rise of Muslim League in the Frontier i. Khyber Union London ii. Quaid-i-Azam’s First Visit to the Frontier (1936) iii. The Elections of 1937 and After iv. Congress in Office v. Nishlar’s Resignation from the Congress r vi. Organisation of Frontier Muslim League vii. The celebration of the League Week viii. By-elections and the Frontier Muslim League References and Notes Chapter Two ................................ ................ Hie Frontier Contingent and Lahore Resolution — March 1940 References and Notes Chapter Three ............................................ Transfer of Power front Congress to League in Frontier i. Governor’s Rule (1936-1943) ii. The Cripps Mission and the NWFP iii. Quit India Movement iv. The Formation of Muslim League Ministry in the Frontier Province V. Factionalism in the Frontier Muslim League vi. The Simla Conference 1945 vii. Abdul Qaiyum Khan's Entry into the Muslim League viii. Quaid-i-Azam’s Second Visit to Frontier Province References and Notes Chapter Four ....................................... The Last Phase-1 i. The Elections of 1945-46 ii. The Cabinet Mission Plan iii. Direct Action Day and the Interim Government iv. Re-organization of the Frontier Muslim League v. Pandit Nahru’s Visit to Frontier Province References and Notes Chapter Five The Last Phase-U 1. Civil Disobedience Movement in NWFP ii. Sarhad Muslim Students Federation iii. Women and Agitation in the NWFP iv. Mountbatten’s Visit to the Frontier V. Olaf Caroe’s Removal from Governorship vi. Referendum References and Notes Conclusion Appendices Bibliography Respectfully dedicated to Dr. (Miss) Lai Baha, Mr Khalid Shamsul Hasan and to the memory of Dr Waheed uz Zaman. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The present study is based on a thesis submitted for the M. Phill degree at the University of Peshawar. I would like to record my im­ mense debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. (Miss) Lai Baha of the Department of History, University of Peshawar. She is an authority on the North West Frontier Province and without her help and guidance this work would never have come to light Despite her own commitments to research work, and heavy schedule as a Professor, she spared time to check the entire thesis and to provide valuable guidance all along. I am also thankful to Prof. Dr. Mohammad Nazeer Kaka Khel of the Department of Political Science, University of Peshawar, who despite his research work supervised the linal stage of my work. I am also grateful to Prof. Fateh Mohammad Khan Arbab, Chairman, Department of History, University of Peshawar, who commented on the thesis and greatly encouraged me. I should also like to record my deep indebtedness to late Prof. Dr. Waheed uz Zaman, Islamabad, for his unfailing inspiration and guidance in the course of preparing this thesis for publication. I am also thankful to Khalid Shamsul Hasan of Karachi who not only provided me with the relevant material but also made my stay at Karachi comfort­ able. In Karachi, another place where I found valuable material was the family of the Allah Bakhsh Yusufi, father of journalism in the NWFP. His sons, specially Tariq Yusufi, provided me with all newspapers and manuscripts and I am thankful to them for their generosity. Prof. Sharif al Mujahid, Director, Quaid-i-Azam Academy, Karachi, Khwaja Razi Haider, Deputy Director and staff members of the said Academy also helped me with most valuable documents pertaining to the Freedom Movement. I must thank them. Thanks must also go to Zafar Hasan Mahmud, National Documentation Centre, Lahore, and his staff members who allowed me to consult their material mostly from the India Office Library, London. I am also thankful to Mohammad Aslam, Chief Librarian, Punjab Public Library, Lahore, who made my study in the Library comfortable,. 2 Muslim League In N. W.F.P My stay in Lahore with Abdul Hamid Malik and his sons was one of the best moments I ever spent outside Peshawar. I am also thankful to Ali- que Zafar Shaikh, Director General, National Archives, Islamabad, and his staff members who allowed me to consult their rich material, special­ ly the Quaid-i-Azam Papers. I am also thankful to Prof. Dr. Mohammad Anwar Khan, presently Vice-Chancellor, University of Peshawar, Tariq Jalali, Director Ar­ chives, the NWFP, Iflikhar Hussain and Fazalur Rahim Khan Marwat of Pakistan Study Centre, University of Peshawar, Abdul Karim Khan of the Department of History, University of Peshawar, Prof. Fazle Qaiyum Khan, Senior Research Officer, NDC Peshawar, Ghulam Ghaus Chauhan of Peshawar and the management of Daily Khyber Mail, Peshawar. My thanks are also due, in no small measure, to a number of students and friends, Mohammad Riaz Khaltak, Yusuf Akbar Khattak, Abdul Wahab, Faqir Hussain, Asmat Ullah, Ibrar Mohammad, Sham- shad Khan and Hazrat Shah of History Department, Mian Wahab ud Din and Sardar Khan of Geological Survey of Pakistan, Alam Zeb, General Secretary of Tanzeem Fikro Amal, Peshawar, and Salcem Shah and Shah Nawaz of International Relations Department, University of Peshawar. My special thanks are to my father Saycd Qamar Shah and uncles S. Tajdar Shah and Dr. Shah Jahan who not only encouraged but appreciated my research work throughout my slay in Univerisly. My thanks are due to Pirzada Nabi Amin, son of Aminal Hasanat, the late Pir of Manki Sharif, who gave me original files containing valu­ able correspondence between the Pir Sahib and the Quaid-i- Azam. I am also obliged to late Malik Shad Mohammad, a veteran Muslim Leaguer, who allowed me to consult his unpublished autobiography - a historical document about the Frontier politics before Independence. In the end I must thank Prof. Sharif al Mujahid, Director, Quaid- i-Azam Academy, Karachi, who went through the entire work with meticulous care and made certain suggestion and improvements which were incorporated in the work. I am also thankful to Dr. Sikandar Hayat, Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, for his advice and encouragement. Saycd Wiqar Ali Shah Kaka Khcl Islamabad May 1989 INTRODUCTION “The North West Frontier”, to quote the Simon Commission, “is not only the Frontier of India, it is an international frontier of the first importance from the military point of view for the whole empire”.1 The significance of the region lies in its strategic situation that used to give the throne of Delhi to the invader who occupied it. Being an interposing geographical unit between the Central Asia and India, the Frontier Region paved the way for the spread of Islam from Central Asia to India. The people of this region benefited from the Islamic forces and movements both from Central Asia and India. The history of Islam in the frontier is closely linked with its spread and stabilization in India right from Mahmud Ghaznavi (997-1039 A.D.) down to Bahadur Shah Zafar (1837- 58 A.D.) Froniter is a slope where from men and movements have been flow­ ing from Central Asia into India. The Russian advance was much the cause of the Russophobic behavior of the British in India, the result of all that being the First and Second Anglo- Afghan Wars (1833-39 and 1S78-79). In that way the Frontier Region played its own part in the great game of Central Asia. The Formation of the Province of the NWFP Although the Frontier Region had been taken by the British from the Sikh Punjab Court as a consequence of their victory ifr the Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1849 and had been brought under llic^Hlniinisiration of the Punjab Province, the overall administrative and political structure in the region was the continuation of the Sikh heritage. The need of a scientific structure for the region bused on the British scheme of things within the Indian administrative and political framework had already been felt. It was however, left to the lot of Lord Curzon who became the author of the formation of the NWFP. He separated the five districts of the North West Frontier of India from the Punjab Province and grouped them together into a separate province of the NWFP on the 9lh of November 1901.' The inaugural ceremony of the new Provinve 4 Muslim League In NAV.F.P. took place on 26 April 1902 in Shahi Bagh at Peshawar in a dinner of the dignatories of the province with Lord Curzon in the chair.3 Lord Curzon told the audience that: Business will be better done and more quickly done; and there will not be long and vexatious delays. The system of rule will not be altered, but it will be more efficiently worked. Every man in the Frontier districts ought to look upon it as a direct gain to himself that he has a local government on the spot, and that there is no body about that local government but the Government of India.... Merit will be better known under the new system, services will be more quickly rewarded, abuses will be more promptly checked, responsibility will be more strictly enforced and punishment, when punishment is needed, will be more swift.4 However, Lord Curzon did not leave the Dubar in doubt about the consequent action the Provincial and the Central Governments would take should there be any rising against the Scheme and the attending ' benefits.