Quaid-e-Azam and Bacha Muslim League


The story of Bacha Muslim League Allahbad is related by Syed Salahuddin Aslam in Bun Kay Rahey Ga Pakistan (Karachi, 1993). He writes: “One day I went to see Senator Faseeh Iqbal for some personal reasons. By the way Pakistan came into discussion. His father Syed Rashid Ahmed was an active worker of Muslim League. Faseeh Iqbal used to accompany his father in meetings and rallies. He was so young that he was usually introduced as president of Bacha Muslim League Allahbad. Faseehuddin has an excellent memory, and he recalls meetings, rallies, baton charging, tear gas events of the movement days vividly, as if it did not happen forty-five years ago but just forty-five days back. It was not a remote past when the subcontinent echoed with speeches of great Quaid, and forty-five years do not matter much in lives of the nations.”

Both Justice Muhammad Naeem, judge of Pakistan Supreme Court and Justice Zahoor-ul-Haq, judge Sindh High Court, were in that Bacha Muslim League.

Soul of Muslim Nation

 .
In his Presidental Address delivered at the Special Pakistan Session of the Punjab Muslim Studentss Federation on March 2, 1941, the Quaid-e-Azam said:

"The only solution for the Muslims of India, which will stand the test of trial and time, is that India should be partitioned so that both the communities can develop freely and fully according to their own genius economically, socially, culturally and politically. The struggle is for the fullest opportunities and for the expression of the Muslim national will. The vital contest in which we are engaged is not only fot the material gain but also the very existence of the soul of Muslim nation: Hence I have said often that it is matter of life and death to the Mussalmans and is not a counter for bargaining. Muslims have become fully concious of this. if we lose in the struggle all is lost. Let our motto be as the Dutch proverb says:

'Money is lost nothing is lost;
Courage is lost much is lost;
Honour is lost most is lost;
Soul is lost all is lost'
[Loud applause]

Quaid-e-Azam's Professional Integrity


Once a client entrusted a case to Quaid-i-Azam and asked him about his fees. Quaid-i-Azam said that his fee was Rs. 500 per hearing. The client said that he could pay only Rs. 5000. Quaid-i-Azam said he would appear only on per day basis. The client paid Rs. 5000. which he had with him. The case was decided after three hearings, and Quaid-i-Azam refunded Rs. 3500. to his client. His client wanted him to retain the entire amount, but Quaid-i-Azam said that he could not retain anything more than what was actually due to him.

Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Kashmir

By Mir Abdul Aziz
Mr Jinnah with Kashmiri alumni of Aligarh University in Srinagar, 1944
Mr Jinnah with Kashmiri alumni of Aligarh University in Srinagar, 1944

Quaid-i-Azam and Kashmir is a very vast subject. Much has been written on it but much remains to be written.

Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was not the leader of Pakistan only. In fact he was the leader of the Muslim Ummah of the South Asian subcontinent, which was called India in pre-partition days. Then again, there was two Indias, namely British India and “Indian India” which was the name given to the native states, ruled by nawabs and rajas. These natives states were internally independent, but their defence and foreign affairs were with the British Indian Government. None of these states, including Hyderabad and Kashmir, could conclude any treaties with any foreign country, except through the British Indian Government. They could not issue passport, though there is evidence of the Jammu Kashmir Maharajah’s government having issued passports in certain circumstances but these also were subject to recertification by the British Indian authority in the subcontinent.1


Scope of the activities of the All India Muslim League, which was formed in 1906, at the residence of a Kashmiri of Bengal, Sir Salimullah Khan of Dhaka, was limited to the British Indian province. In his book on Quaid-i-Azam, Dr. Riaz Ahmad has made it clear that there were days when the Quaid-i-Azam used to say that there were four powers in the sub continent and they were the British Government, the Hindu Congress, the Muslim League and the native states. This was the Quaid’s reply to the leaders of the Hindu Congress who used to claim that there were only two powers in the sub continent, the British and the Congress.2

PAF Officer receiving Quaid-e-Azam at Lahore Airport

Gandhi and Jinnah - a study in contrasts

An extract from the book that riled India's Bharatiya Janata Party and led to the expulsion of its author Jaswant Singh, one of the foun...