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{{short description|Pakistani politician}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
|name=Mian Iftikharuddin<br />
|image=Mian Iftikharuddin.jpg<br />
|birth_date=8 April 1907<br />
|birth_place= [[Lahore]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], [[British India]]<br />
|death_date = 6 June 1962<br />
|death_place = Lahore, [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]], Pakistan<br />
|occupation = [[Political activist]]<br />
|known for = Founder and owner of [[Pakistan Times]] newspaper, Urdu language newspaper ''Imroze'' and the magazine ''Lail-o-Nahar'', all 3 from Lahore, Pakistan<ref name=TheFridayTimes/><br />
|alma_mater = [[Aitchison College]]<br>[[University of Oxford]]<br />
| years active = 1930s–1962<br />
| movement = Set a new progressive trend in journalism in Pakistan in the 1940s<br />
}}<br />
'''Mian Iftikharuddin''' ([[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], {{lang-ur|میاں افتخارالدیں}}; 8 April 1907 – 6 June 1962) was a Pakistani politician, activist of the [[Indian National Congress]], who later joined the [[All-India Muslim League]] and worked for the cause of [[Pakistan]] under the leadership of [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]].<ref name=TheFridayTimes/><br />
<br />
== Early life ==<br />
Mian Muhammad Iftikharuddin was born on 8 April 1907 in [[British Raj|British India]] (in modern-day [[Baghbanpura]], [[Lahore]], Punjab, Pakistan) to the wealthy [[Arain]] [[Mian Family Baghbanpura|Mian family]], the custodians of the [[Shalimar Gardens, Lahore]].<ref name=TheFridayTimes/> His relations included [[Mian Mohammad Shafi|Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi]] and [[Justice Sir Mian Abdul Rashid|Sir Mian Abdul Rashid]].<ref name=TheFridayTimes/> Mian Iftikharuddin was educated at [[Aitchison College]] and the [[University of Oxford]].<ref name=Dawn/><ref>Firoz Khan Noon (Malik Sir), (1966) From Memory, Ferozsons, p.197</ref><br />
<br />
== Political career ==<br />
<br />
=== Indian National Congress ===<br />
Mian Iftikharuddin joined the [[Indian National Congress|Congress Party]] in 1936. He was elected to the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1937 and became the President of the Punjab Provincial Congress in 1940, serving in that position until 1945.<ref name=Dawn/><ref name=TheFridayTimes/> He was a member of the [[All India Congress Committee]] from the 1930s to the mid 1940s.{{sfn|Asdar Ali, Surkh Salam|2015|page=323}} Iftikharuddin was very close to [[Jawaharlal Nehru]].<br />
In 1937, he was instrumental in introducing the Kashmir leader [[Sheikh Abdullah]] to Nehru.<ref name="Hussain2016">{{cite book |last=Hussain |first=Syed Taffazull |title=Sheikh Abdullah-A Biography: The Crucial Period 1905–1939. 2016 Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RwFAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA293 |date=2016 |publisher=Syed Taffazull Hussain |isbn=978-1-60481-603-7 |pages=293–}}</ref><br />
<br />
Iftikharuddin opposed the Muslim League's [[Lahore Resolution]] and declared that "any attempt at disrupting the unity of [India's] spirit is a betrayal of the history of a thousand years.” However, by 1942, he was supporting [[C. Rajagopalachari]]'s formula for granting the Pakistan demand, which was rejected by [[Congress Working Committee]]. In 1945, Iftikharuddin resigned from the Congress Party and joined the Muslim League.<ref name="Gandhi2010">{{cite book |last=Gandhi |first=Rajmohan |title=Rajaji: A Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=45pYCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT243 |date=14 October 2010 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-93-85890-33-8 |pages=243–}}</ref><ref name=TheFridayTimes/> According to scholar Asdar Ali, he was persuaded to join the Muslim League by his colleagues in the [[Communist Party of India]], which had by then decided to work for "Muslim self-determination".<ref>{{harvnb|Asdar Ali, Progressives, Punjab and Pakistan|2013|pp=486, 497–498}}: "Sibte Hasan in his essays on Sajjad Zaheer details how Zaheer forced Ifitkharrudin to resign [from Congress]. Iftikharuddin was very close to Nehru and to Maulan Azad, and he was a nationalist and did not agree with Muslim League’s politics, which he thought of being led in most part by feudals and communalists. Yet he was under the ideological influence of the CPI leadership and specially Zaheer who according to Sibte Hasan would taunt Iftikharuddin of being an anarchist by temperament and not able to follow party discipline."</ref><br />
<br />
=== Muslim League ===<br />
Iftikharuddin joined the [[All India Muslim League]] in September 1945.{{sfn|Jalal, Self and Sovereignty|2002|p=451}} His palatial ancestral home in Baghbanpura was used for training [[Muslim League National Guard]]s.{{sfn|Jalal, Self and Sovereignty|2002|p=489}} 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]].<ref name=TheFridayTimes/><br />
<br />
After the 3 June plan for [[partition of India]] was announced, Jinnah looked increasingly towards young men like Iftikharuddin to help Pakistan stand on its own feet.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} Iftikharuddin was elected the first president of the Punjab Provincial Muslim League after the Independence of Pakistan in 1947. He was also appointed the Minister for rehabilitation of [[refugee]]s in the Government of Punjab.<ref name=Dawn/><ref>Speeches and Statements of Mian Iftikharuddin, (1971) Edited by Abdullah Malik, Lahore.</ref><br />
<br />
=== Pakistan Times ===<br />
Iftikharuddin was the founder-owner of the ''[[Pakistan Times]]'', a newspaper started by the leftists in the Muslim League to create a balance to the centrist Muslim League mouthpiece ''[[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]]'' newspaper as well as the Hindu press in pre-1947 [[British India]].<ref name=Dawn>[http://www.dawn.com/news/769764/remembering-mian-iftikharuddin, Remembering Mian Iftikharuddin], Dawn (newspaper), Published 8 December 2012, Retrieved 25 July 2017</ref><br />
<br />
=== Kashmir conflict ===<br />
In 1947, Iftikharuddin played a key role in the development of the [[Kashmir conflict]]. The [[All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference|Muslim Conference]] leader [[Sardar Ibrahim]] narrated that he went to Lahore on 28 August 1947 seeking Pakistan's help for the [[1947 Poonch Rebellion|rebellion in Poonch]]. After a week's efforts, Ibrahim finally met Iftikharuddin, who lent a sympathetic ear. Then Iftikharuddin went to [[Srinagar]] to make his own enquiries. Sardar Ibrahim says that he came back convinced on all the points made by him.{{sfn|Ibrahim Khan, The Kashmir Saga|1990|pp=69–70}}<br />
<br />
According to General [[Akbar Khan (Pakistani general)|Akbar Khan]]'s narrative, Iftikharuddin was asked to go to Srinagar to assess Pakistan's prospects in acquiring Kashmir's accession. On his way, he met General Akbar Khan vacationing in [[Murree]] and asked him to prepare a plan to help Kashmiri Muslims to take action against possible accession of Kashmir to India.<ref name=Nawaz/><ref name=Raghavan/> He then speent a week in Srinagar, and came back convinced that the Maharaja was intending to accede to India and Pakistan needed to help the Muslims of Kashmir to fight for freedom.<ref name=Suharwardy>{{citation |last=Suharwardy |first=Abdul Haq |title=Tragedy in Kashmir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjRuAAAAMAAJ |year=1983 |publisher=Wajidalis |location=Lahore |page=202}}</ref><br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Akbar Khan created a plan titled "''Armed Revolt inside Kashmir''", which was then passed on to the Prime Minister [[Liaquat Ali Khan]] and other senior officials. A meeting was called under the leadership of the Prime Minister on 12 September 1947, where this plan as well as another plan prepared by Sardar [[Shaukat Hayat Khan]] for organising a tribal invasion of Kashmir were discussed and approved.<ref name=Nawaz>{{citation |first=Shuja |last=Nawaz |title=The First Kashmir War Revisited |journal=India Review |volume=7 |number=2 |pages=115–154 |doi=10.1080/14736480802055455 |date=May 2008 |s2cid=155030407 }}</ref><ref name=Raghavan>{{citation |last=Raghavan |first=Srinath |title=War and Peace in Modern India: A Strategic History of the Nehru Years |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbtBJb1bsHUC&pg=PA101 |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-00737-7 |pages=105–106}}</ref><br />
<br />
After Sheikh Abdullah was released from prison, at the beginning of October 1947, Iftikharuddin went to Srinagar again in order to persuade Abdullah regarding accession to Pakistan. Abdullah agreed to meet Pakistani leaders and accompanied him to Lahore. However, the Governor General [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] refused to meet Abdullah and the mission failed. Iftikharuddin was dejected and concluded, 'Kashmir is lost to us'.{{sfn|Taseer, The Kashmir of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah|1986|pp=300–301}}<br />
<br />
Soon afterwards the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1947|tribal invasion]] was launched and Iftikharuddin played no more role in the Kashmir conflict.{{sfn|Ibrahim Khan, The Kashmir Saga|1990|p=70}}<br />
<br />
=== Government of West Punjab ===<br />
Iftikharuddin briefly served as ''Minister for Rehabiilitation of Refugees'' in the provincial government of [[Punjab (Pakistan)|Punjab]] in 1947.{{sfn|Asdar Ali, Surkh Salam|2015|page=323}}<ref name=TheFridayTimes>{{citation |author=Shahid Saeed |title=Mian Iftikharuddin |newspaper=The Friday Times |date=18 February 2011 |url=http://www.thefridaytimes.com/18022011/page22.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140310210441/https://www.thefridaytimes.com/18022011/page22.shtml |archive-date=10 March 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1949, as a minister, he proposed radical [[land reform]]s in the [[Punjab]], however this led to a backlash from the land-owning feudal leadership of the [[Pakistan Muslim League]] under the leadership of Nawab [[Iftikhar Hussain Khan Mamdot]], a big landowner himself. In frustration, Iftikharuddin resigned from his Ministry in 1949 and was formally expelled from the Muslim League in 1951.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}<br />
<br />
Iftikharuddin was the only Muslim member in the parliament 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 minorities’ leaders Prem Hari, Chandra Mandal and Kumar Dutta. However, he chose to vote in favour of the resolution, because he was assured that minorities will have all the rights and privileges in an Islamic state.<ref name="blogs.tribune.com.pk">[http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/31962/mian-iftikharuddin-the-stranger-in-the-house/ Profile of Mian Iftikharuddin], ''The Express Tribune'', 15 May 2016</ref><br />
<br />
=== Political activism ===<br />
Later he jumped off the [[Punjab Muslim League|Muslim League]] ship, and formed his own ‘[[Azad Pakistan Party]]’ committed to [[Liberalism|liberal]] [[secularism]] in the country. Though big names like ''[[Dr. Khan Sahib]]'' and the [[Khudai Khidmatgar]]s were attracted to it, Azad Pakistan Party soon faded away in history. He was also considered a leading light of the [[National Awami Party]] as well.<br />
<br />
His Pakistan Times newspaper continued to promote [[social justice]] and agrarian reforms in Pakistan, it attracted many well known leftists including its first editor [[Faiz Ahmad Faiz]]. However, in 1959, following the military takeover by [[Ayub Khan (Field Marshal)|Ayub Khan]], the newspaper was taken over by the government and despite a legal challenge, he failed to obtain either compensation or the return of ownership of his newspaper.<ref>Judging the State: Courts and Constitutional Politics in Pakistan, by Paula R. Newberg {{ISBN|0-521-89440-9}}</ref><br />
Since he was an advocate of an independent foreign policy, free from demented generals and Pakistan's exit from The [[Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation]] (SEATO), the [[Baghdad Pact]] also called [[CENTO]] and other defense treaties, it was expected from his opponents to label him as 'a stranger in the house'.<ref name="blogs.tribune.com.pk"/><br />
<br />
==Life==<br />
Mian Iftikharuddin was married to Begum Ismat Iftikharuddin. According to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir civil servant and writer Abdul Haq Suharwardy, Begum Ismat and General Akbar Khan's wife, Nasim Shah Nawaz (later Nasim Jahan), were cousins.<ref>{{citation |last=Suharwardy |first=Abdul Haq |title=Kashmir: The Incredible Freedom-fight |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFtuAAAAMAAJ |year=1991 |publisher=Jang Publishers |page=202}}</ref> The couple lived in a mansion at 21 Aikman Road, which they bought from the Raja of Mandi.<ref>{{citation |title=The Concept, Volume 26, Issues 1–6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-NtAAAAMAAJ |year=2006 |publisher=Raja Afsar Khan |page=18}}</ref><br />
They had three children: Sohail Iftikhar, Arif Iftikhar and Seema Iftikhar.<ref name=TheFridayTimes/><br />
<br />
Iftikharuddin died at the age of 54, after suffering a heart attack on 6 June 1962.<ref name=TheFridayTimes/><br />
Pakistan's famous poet [[Faiz Ahmed Faiz]], Iftikharuddin's friend and ally, paid a tribute to him through his poetry:<ref name="blogs.tribune.com.pk"/><br />
<br />
"Jo rukey tu koh-e-garan thay hum, jo chalay tu jaan say guzar gaye,<br />
<br />
Raah-e-yaar hum ne qadam qadam, tujhay yaadgaar banaa diya."<br />
<br />
Translation:<br />
<br />
"I was a mountain when I stopped<br />
<br />
And when I moved I sacrificed my being<br />
<br />
O path to my beloved, I have, step by step<br />
<br />
Turned you into a memorial"<br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
*[[List of Pakistani journalists]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
{{Reflist|30em}}<br />
<br />
== Bibliography ==<br />
* {{cite journal |last1=Asdar Ali |first1=Kamran |title=Progressives, Punjab and Pakistan: the early years |journal=South Asian History and Culture |volume=4 |issue=4 |year=2013 |pages=483–502 |issn=1947-2498 |doi=10.1080/19472498.2013.824679 |s2cid=144915436 |ref={{sfnref|Asdar Ali, Progressives, Punjab and Pakistan|2013}}}}<br />
* {{cite book |title=Surkh Salam: Communist Politics and Class Activism in Pakistan, 1947–1972 |author=Kamran Asdar Ali |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-19-940308-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Kc7DwAAQBAJ |ref={{sfnref|Asdar Ali, Surkh Salam|2015}}}}<br />
* {{citation |last1=Ibrahim Khan |first1=Muhammad |title=The Kashmir Saga |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PCtuAAAAMAAJ |year=1990 |publisher=Verinag |ref={{sfnref|Ibrahim Khan, The Kashmir Saga|1990}}}}<br />
* {{citation |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |author-link=Ayesha Jalal|title=Self and Sovereignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam Since 1850 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sa6CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA482 |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-59937-0 |ref={{sfnref |Jalal, Self and Sovereignty |2002}}}}<br />
* {{citation |first=Ali |last=Raza |chapter=The Illusory Promise of Freedom: Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din and the Movement for Pakistan |editor1=Ali Usman Qasmi |editor2=Megan Eaton Robb |title=Muslims against the Muslim League |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bh4xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA82 |year=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-16663-9 |pages=82–108 |ref={{sfnref|Raza, Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din and the Movement for Pakistan|2017}}}}<br />
* {{citation |last=Sobhan |first=Rehman |title=Untranquil Recollections: The Years of Fulfilment |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8qeMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT129 |year=2015 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-93-5150-320-0 |ref={{sfnref|Sobhan, Untranquil Recollections|2015}}}}<br />
* {{citation |last=Taseer |first=Christobel Bilqees |title=The Kashmir of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KNpHAAAAMAAJ |year=1986 |publisher=Ferozsons |ref={{sfnref|Taseer, The Kashmir of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah|1986}}}}<br />
<br />
== External links ==<br />
<br />
* Irfan Haidar, [https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/31962/mian-iftikharuddin-the-stranger-in-the-house/ Mian Iftikharuddin: The stranger in the house], The Express Tribune blog, 15 May 2016.<br />
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{{Pakistan Movement}}<br />
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{{authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Iftikharuddin, Mian}}<br />
[[Category:1907 births]]<br />
[[Category:1962 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Punjab, Pakistan MLAs 1947–1949]]<br />
[[Category:Pakistani male journalists]]<br />
[[Category:Pakistani newspaper chain founders]]<br />
[[Category:People from Lahore]]<br />
[[Category:Pakistan Movement activists from Punjab]]<br />
[[Category:People of the 1947 Kashmir conflict]]<br />
[[Category:Mian family]]<br />
[[Category:Punjabi people]]</div>39.45.63.113