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{{Short description|Pakistani civil servant (1909–1975)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Zafrul Ahsan Lari
| honorific_suffix = [[Pakistan Civil Service]] Administrator
| office =
| term_start =
| term_end =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| birth_date = 1909
| birth_place = [[Lar, Uttar Pradesh]], [[British India]]
| death_date = 27 February 1975 (aged 65–66)
| death_place = [[Karachi]], Pakistan
| profession = civil servant
| party =
| alma_mater =
| spouse =
| children =
}}

'''Zafrul Ahsan Lari''' (1909 – 27 February 1975) was an [[Indian Civil Service|ICS]] (Punjab Cadre) Administrator of 1934 batch. He faced challenges in his [[civil service]] career. Particularly, he worked during [[Partition of India]] (1947) at a senior level when civil administration and government in Punjab were under stress due to the influx of refugees from the Indian side of Punjab, providing stability to the [[civil service]] run the newly born country [[Pakistan]].

==Early life==
Zafrul Ahsan Lari was born in 1909 at [[Lar, Uttar Pradesh|Lar]], [[Gorakhpur]] district, [[United Provinces of British India|United Provinces]], India. He was born to parents (Father Abdus Shakoor) who belonged to the historic local Muslim community [[Iraqi Biradari]].<ref name="our publication">{{cite book |author1=Jalil Ahmad Lari|author2=Javed Ahmad Gauri|author3=Tabrez Akhtar Lari|title= APNO KI TALASH FINAL Book Urdu|url= https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dl5q9nluGUWuc8BVjZY1BvljlYN2j2lZ |access-date=18 March 2023|pages=71}}</ref>
He received a B.A. in English literature from [[Allahabad University]] in 1930 and was appointed on probation to teach English Literature at Allahabad University for more than one year.<ref>Zafrul Ahsan Lari, B.A. 1932 {{cite book |title= University Of Allahabad Calendar For The Year 1932|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.97465/page/n553/mode/2up
|publisher=The Standard Press,.allahabad|access-date=1 July 2015}}page. 537</ref> Afterward, he fulfilled the U.P. civil service requirement serving the state government in Aligarh for a short time from February 1933 to July 1934.<ref name="our publication1">{{cite web|last=Lari|first=Suhail Zaheer|title=ICS|url=https://www.suhaillaripakistan.com/chapters/ICS/|access-date=27 January 2021|archive-date=27 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127061455/https://www.suhaillaripakistan.com/chapters/ICS/}}</ref>

==Career==
Zafrul Ahsan Lari passed the [[Indian civil service]] examination that took place in [[Delhi]] in January 1934. He completed his probationary year of service at [[St John's College, Oxford]] and joined the [[Indian Civil Service]] in 1934 under the British government in [[India]]. He returned to India and was appointed low-level district administrator(s), to get on-field administrative experience, serving the [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]] government until he reached the Deputy Commissioner position in [[Jhelum]] (1946).<ref name="our publication1" /> Punjab government appointed him Additional Deputy Commissioner on 11 August 1947 and promoted him [[Deputy Commissioner]], [[Lahore]], on Independence Day (14 August 1947) for looking into refugee camps and refugee rehabilitation issues when [[Lahore]] was an uninhabitable place.<ref name="our publication2">{{cite news|title=Harking Back: Lahore Master Plan 2050: clever |newspaper=Dawn|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1598045|access-date=27 December 2020}}</ref> He had received an additional charge as Chairman of the Lahore Improvement Trust on 1 September 1947, to rebuild Lahore. He rebuilt the burnt-out Shah Almi in the old town by widening the road and developed new areas like Gulberg and Samanabad, to cater to the influx of population.<ref name="our publication1" /><ref name="our publication2" />

Toward the end of 1946, the 20-year-old Punjab government dominated by the [[Unionist Party (Punjab)|Unionist party]] was replaced by the [[Pakistan Muslim League]] as a result of new elections in 1946. Two years later on 26 May 1949 when the new Punjab government/or governor appointed him the chairman of the Thal Development Authority on 26 May 1949, he created new cities called Jauharabad, Quaidabad, and Liaquatabad by granting land to anyone who was prepared to settle and work there, thus drawing them away from old towns which were being choked by the influx of refugees.<ref name="our publication2" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Herald Exclusive: The whole Roedad - Pakistan|newspaper=Dawn|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1165632 |access-date=25 February 2015}}</ref>

Zafrul Ahsan laid the foundation of [[Pakistan|PIA]] after he was appointed the first managing director of PIA by the government of Pakistan in 1956. He worked relentlessly toward creating a functional national airline and in his 4-year tenure got the ball rolling and set the shape of things to come. The PIA Head Office building at [[Karachi Airport]], which houses all the major departments of the airline, was the brainchild of Mr. Zafar-ul-Ahsan.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pakistan International Airline - PIA - Tribune Labs|url=http://labs.tribune.com.pk/pia-descent/|access-date= 8 January 2024| archive-date=8 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108063423/http://labs.tribune.com.pk/pia-descent/}}</ref>

President Sikandar Mirza abrogated the Constitution, dissolved the National and Provincial Assemblies, and declared [[Martial Law]], on 7 October 1958. After the Martial Law, he retired from the [[civil service]] job in Pakistan. Not only did the [[Indian Civil Service|ICS]] and [[Civil Services of Pakistan|CSP]] officers facilitate development, but they also took a leadership role in economic and urban planning. Mr. Zafar-ul-Ahsan Lari is an example, an ICS officer who, after retirement, turned into a patriotic entrepreneur. He built the first Soda Ash factory in Pakistan. Before retirement, he was also instrumental in setting up the Pakistan as mentioned above International Airlines (PIA) from scratch.<ref>{{cite thesis|title=Public Administration and Sustainable Democracy|author=Amna Imam|url=https://cipe.umd.edu/conferences/Moscow/papers/public%20administration%20and%20democracy-new.pdf }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Nasreen Jalil]], Pakistani senator
*[[Yasmeen Lari]], the first female architect in Pakistan

==Death==
Lari died in Karachi on 27 February 1975.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lari, Zafrul Ahsan}}
[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:Muhajir people]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian civil servants]]
[[Category:Pakistani civil servants]]
[[Category:People from Gorakhpur]]
[[Category:University of Allahabad alumni]]
[[Category:Civil servants from Karachi]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to Pakistan]]

Zafrul Ahsan Lari - Revision history

BernardoWebb158: Made First Post V1