In 2015 Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) made a wonderful short documentary about the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah of which I was also a part as a young professional lawyer who believes in Jinnah’s Pakistan. The documentary also featured veteran politician Elahi Bux Soomro speaking about Jinnah. This, as a student of history, I found quite interesting if not outright ironic given the antipathy his family had towards the Pakistan Movement and the Muslim League before partition.
Elahi Bux Soomro is the son of Khan Bahadur Moula Bux Soomro and the nephew of Allah Bux Mohammad Umer Soomro, former premier of Sindh. Khan Bahadur Allah Bux Soomro (as he was till October 1942) started his career in politics as a member of Abdullah Haroon’s and Shahnawaz Bhutto’s Sindh United Party. In 1938 he replaced Sindh’s first Premier Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayetullah. Soon afterwards his government was facing a vote of no confidence from the alliance of Sindh Congress and the Hindu Independent Party in the Sindh Legislative Assembly. Given the obviously communal nature of this opposition, the Sindh’s Muslim politicians made a last ditch effort to bring unity to their ranks and invited Jinnah to come from Bombay to mediate. Jinnah’s objective was to organize a Muslim League majority in Sindh and consequently got leaders of the four Muslim parties including Khan Bahadur Allah Bux Soomro to execute an agreement to form a Muslim League ministry. Getting wind of the possibility of a united Muslim League ministry in Sindh, Sardar Vallabhai Patel and Maulana Azad immediately wired to the Sindh Congress to withdraw the vote of no confidence. A secret pact was entered into and Allah Bux Soomro immediately raised his demands to Jinnah and the Muslim League. When Jinnah and the rest of the members even acceded to his demand that Soomro should be the leader of the party in the assembly, Soomro still backed out. His government fell in 1940 when Congress joined the Muslim League in the vote of no confidence.
Allah Bux Soomro again became the premier in 1941. Allah Bux was also supported by the Ahrars, the Khaksars, Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind; all reactionary anti-Muslim League parties in Sindh. Soomro was a useful counterweight against the League for Congress even though they did not quite trust him. During this time he managed to alienate the Hurs by arresting the Sixth Pir Pagara, Pir Sibghatullah Rashdi, and imposing a specific Hur Law that sought to suppress them. The Hurs started a terrorist campaign against his government. Late in 1942, Allah Bux Soomro returned his British titles, which led to the unconstitutional action by the Governor of Sindh Sir Hugh Dow of dismissing him. A few months later, in May 1943, Hurs led by Mobhat Behan finally killed Allah Bux Soomro probably in revenge for the execution of the Sixth Pir Pagara in March 1943. Sindh Muslim League leader Khan Bahadur Ayub Khuhro, who was later the first Chief Minister of Sindh after independence, was also nominated and arrested for allegedly having encouraged the Hur Party to do so. Ultimately Sessions’ Judge Paymaster acquitted Ayub Khuhro of the charge saying that there was no strong enough motive for Khuhro to have partaken in that murder conspiracy.
Moula Bux Soomro had very famously declared in the National Assembly that his family had proudly opposed the creation of Pakistan and he was still opposed to Pakistan
Meanwhile Moula Bux Soomro, Allah Bux’s brother, took over his brother’s seat and was promptly given the title of Khan Bahadur by the British. Khan Bahadur Moula Bux Soomro later went on to become a leading member of military dictator General Ziaul Haq’s federal cabinet.
The Soomros have always been very close to the establishment in the post independence period. Not only was Moula Bux Soomro a key adviser and confidant to General Zia but his son Elahi Bux Soomro was strongly considered for the post of Prime Minister under Zia before Junejo was ultimately chosen for the post. Another grandson of Allah Bux Soomro, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, was also a key member of the Musharraf regime. They have never hidden their antipathy to Pakistan and the ideals on which it was founded. Moula Bux Soomro had very famously declared right there in the Pakistan’s National Assembly that his family had proudly opposed the creation of Pakistan and he was still opposed to Pakistan. Yet he continued to enjoy General Zia’s confidence.
What is surprising to me is that the Pakistani establishment has always sought out key historically anti-Pakistan politicians and used them in politics for their own agenda. In the 1950s the Pakistani establishment cobbled together the short lived Republican Party which was led in West Pakistan by Dr. Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan — more famously known as Dr Khan Sahib- who was the Congress backed Premier of then NWFP Province before partition and Bacha Khan’s elder brother. Ayub Khan’s main legal advisor and draftsman for the 1962 Constitution was Manzur Qadir, the son in law of Sir Fazli Hussain another politician who had opposed Jinnah in the 1930s. Indeed Sir Fazli Hussain’s son was a high-ranking member of the Nehru government in India. Maulana Maududi who had famously called Pakistan Na-Pakistan was utilised by the Pakistani establishment and especially the military in 1970-1971 against Mujibur Rahman, who ironically had been a committed worker for the Muslim League in the 1940s. Maulana Mufti Mahmood, another leading member of Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind and someone who famously said in 1971 that he was not associated with the “sin” of making Pakistan, continued to enjoy establishment support especially during his campaign to get Ahmadis declared non-Muslim. Ironically Bacha Khan’s supposedly secular National Awami Party was front and center during the move with his son Wali Khan voting proudly to achieve the excommunication of that tiny sect by the parliament. Mufti Mahmood’s son Maulana Fazlur Rahman to this day is the establishment’s go to guy and was instrumental in getting Musharraf’s 17th Amendment passed.
On 23 March 1980, General Ziaul Haq, Pakistan’s worst military dictator, awarded Ghani Khan, Bacha Khan’s son, the Sitara-e-Imtiaz which Ghani Khan proudly and graciously accepted. Ghani Khan was the same person who had abused Jinnah in his book on Pathans and had also openly colluded with Faqir of Ipi in his revolt against Pakistan in 1947-1948. Agha Shorish Kashmiri was another darling of the Pakistani establishment. He was a Majlis-e-Ahrar politician who had notably written many a tract against the creation of Pakistan and had even invented a fake interview with Maulana Azad to discredit Jinnah and the Pakistan Movement. In 1986 the blasphemy law in the parliament was presented by Apa Nisar Fatima at General Zia’s behest. She came from a staunch Ahrari family.
I have nothing against people who opposed the creation of Pakistan or had different views. What I don’t understand is why the Pakistani establishment, especially the military establishment, has always chosen to ally itself with them almost exclusively to subvert and retard the democratic process? I do not mean to offend anyone but as a Pakistani I have a right to know.
The writer is a practising lawyer. He blogs at http://globallegalforum.blogspot.com and his twitter handle is @therealylh
Published in Daily Times, July 3rd, 2017.