Mian Muhammad Iftikharuddin was born on 8th April 1907 in Baghbanpura, Lahore to the wealthy Arain Mian family, the custodians of the Shalimar Gardens, Lahore. His father, Khan Bahadur Mian Jamaluddin, was the owner of over 1200 acres of land in various parts of Lahore district and served as an Honorary Magistrate and a Zaildar. He was also the holder of the keys to the main gate of Shalimar Gardens, which upon his death were passed on to his only son, Iftikharuddin. Shortly after his death, the Ayub Government instructed the West Pakistan Auqaf Department to take over the Shalimar Gardens. The officials took possession of the keys to the gardens from his cousin, Mian Khurshid, and thus ended the Mian family’s 300-year-plus custodianship of the garden.
MIAN IFTIKHARUDDIN
Born on 8 Apr 1907
Died on 6 Jun 1962
Set a new progressive trend in journalism in Pakistan in the 1940s
He obtained his primary and secondary education at the Aitchison College in Lahore. Later he proceeded to Balliol College, Oxford (UK), where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. While at Oxford, he was influenced by leading members of the Communist Party and even attended various workshops run by them on the principles of communism. Thus began his lifelong commitment to the cause of socialism and left politics.
Upon his return from Oxford, Iftikharuddin primarily devoted himself to the care of his feudal estate, his father having passed away quite a few years earlier. But by the mid-1930s he decided to enter the political arena. At a time when the overwhelming majority of Punjab’s Muslim feudal adorned the ranks of the Unionist Party, he true to form, bucked the trend and instead joined the Indian National Congress in 1936. The Muslim League was a party he was then not prepared to touch even with a ten-foot barge pole since he saw it as a communal and reactionary grouping.
In 1937, he contested the elections on the Congress ticket and was duly elected as a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. By 1940 he had been elected President of the Punjab wing of the party, an impressive achievement for a Muslim in a party which was overwhelmingly dominated by the Hindus and Sikhs of the province. He continued to hold this office until 1945, during which a considerable period was spent in jail during the Quit India Movement. He was perhaps the only one of Punjab’s leading Muslim feudals who spent such a long period of imprisonment on political grounds. He was very close to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and was often called his blue-eyed boy.
In 1945, he resigned from the Congress Party and joined the All Indi Muslim League at the request of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was elected to the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1946 as a Muslim League member and led the civil disobedience movement against the Unionist Government of Khizar Hayat Tiwana, which brought him praise and widespread recognition.
Quaid-e-Azam was of the view that there was not a single newspaper in Punjab that could represent the viewpoint of the Muslim League during this time. Therefore, in May 1946, Progressive Papers Ltd. (PPL) was set up with seven directors: Mamdot, Daultana, Shaukat Hayat, Rafi Butt, S.A. Latif, Amir Hussain Shah and Mian Iftikharuddin. Being the largest shareholder, he was appointed Managing Director in October, and after the Party leadership was arrested in January ‘47, the PPL started publishing the newspaper Pakistan Times, with distinguished poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz as its Editor. Founded under Jinnah’s patronage, the Pakistan Times was received enthusiastically and played a great role in motivating League workers in urban Punjab during the civil disobedience movement.
In 1947, after the creation of Pakistan, he joined the Punjab Cabinet as the first-ever Minister for Rehabilitation of Refugees. After taking charge of the office, he quoted on the quorum several times that the successful rehabilitation of refugees is possible through land reforms. He proposed many projects on the rehabilitation of refugees through land reforms, but the dominance of large landowners could not result in any considerable lawmaking. He was a staunch opponent of feudalism, army intervention in the democratic process and curbing of minorities’ rights.
He justified his solution to the refugee problem on a two-fold basis: first, he argued that the initiative had religious sanction, since Islam supports the principles of social justice, fairness and an end to exploitation; and second, he believed that such a measure was imperative for Pakistan to quickly progress as a nation and for all its people to receive the opportunity for a fair go. Not surprisingly, his revolutionary idea met with an unbreakable wall of opposition from the Punjab cabinet and the overwhelming majority of MLAs in the Punjab Legislative Assembly, nearly all of whom represented the landed gentry of the province. He saw the writing on the wall and he resigned in protest from the cabinet at the rejection of his proposals. This two-and-a-half-month stint in office marked his first and last entry into the corridors of power.
Moreover, he was the only Muslim member in the house who opposed the objectives resolution as he felt that the resolution was vague. He further suggested that such a resolution should be the decision of the 70 million people of Pakistan. This resolution was also disapproved by minority leaders Prem Hari, Chandra Mandal and Kumar Dutta. However, he chose to vote in favour of the resolution, because he was assured that minorities would have all the rights and privileges in an Islamic state.
A couple of days after leaving ministerial office, he was elected President of the Punjab Muslim League, proof of his popularity among the party’s rank and file, particularly when his opponent was strongly supported by Nawab of Mamdot. Thus, he enjoys the unique distinction of having been the President of the Punjab Congress and of the Punjab Muslim League! As the party’s Provincial President, he toured the length and breadth of the province and he kept hammering home the need for socio-economic justice and a redistribution of wealth – this policy obviously did not endear him to the party dignitaries.
In 1951, he was expelled from the Muslim League for “objectionable speeches on the floor of the house” when he had in fact opposed the introduction of the draconian Public Security and Safety Ordinance that curbed civil liberties, the continued “anachronism in the structure of the state” in the form of princely rule that violated the people’s right to representation, and his constant appeal for the just and equitable treatment of minorities. He then, along with Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, formed the Azad Pakistan Party, a secular and liberal party that promoted a non-aligned foreign policy (this in a time when Pakistan’s elites unanimously supported alignment with the United States of America). He later became a founding member of the National Awami Party (NAP) in 1957 and remained at the forefront of the political struggle until 1958, when political activities were banned by Ayub Khan’s martial law regime and this effectively ended his political career.
He was married to Begum Ismat Iftikharuddin and had three children: Sohail Iftikhar, Arif Iftikhar and Seema Iftikhar.
He passed away on 6th June 1962 in Lahore at the age of 54, after suffering a heart attack. His burial took place at the Mian Family Graveyard, Baghbanpura in Lahore.
