Lahore Conference - Proceedings

Proceedings

The session was held between March 22 and March 24, 1940, at Minto Park (now Iqbal Park), Lahore. The welcome address was made by Nawab Sir Shah Nawaz Mamdot, president, All India Muslim League, Punjab. He was also chairman of the reception committee and personally bore all the expenses for the gathering. In his speech, Jinnah recounted the contemporary situation, stressing that the problem of India was no more of an inter-communal nature, but manifestly an international. According to Stanley Wolpert, this was the moment when Jinnah, the former ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, totally transformed himself into Pakistan's great leader.

According to some experts, Sikandar Hayat Khan, the chief minister of the Punjab, was the sole author of the original Lahore resolution. Sir Sikandar Hayat's Unionist Party had swept the elections in Punjab and provided support to Jinnah at the urging of Sir Mohammad Allama Iqbal resulting in the Sikander-Jinnah pact. Sir Sikandar convinced his classfellow Fazlul Haq, premier of Bengal, to support Jinnah as well. Sikandar supported the British in the Second World War at the request of Sir Winston Churchill after all of India's political parties had refused. The British promised dominion status to India after the war. After his suspicious death other players moved in. Sikandar did not envisage partition of his beloved Punjab. When he learnt of the intended partition of Punjab he rejected this outright. The strike by the Khaksaar Tahreek and subsequent killing of their workers was a spoiler and an attempt by their leader to hijack the freedom movement. The Tahreek had supported the Germans and Japanese during the war. Due to civil unrest it was decided that Sir Fazlul Haq would present the resolution. The resolution text unanimously rejected the concept of a united India on the grounds of growing inter-communal violence and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state.

After the presentation of the annual report by Liaquat Ali Khan, the resolution was moved in the general session by A.K. Fazlul Huq, the chief minister of undivided Bengal and was seconded by Choudhury Khaliquzzaman who explained his views on the causes which led to the demand for partition. Subsequently, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan from Punjab, Sardar Aurangzeb Khan Gandapur from the North-West Frontier Province, Sir Abdullah Haroon from Sindh, and Qazi Esa from Baluchistan, and other leaders announced their support. In the same session, Jinnah also presented a resolution to condemn the Khaksar massacre of March 19, owing to a clash between the Khaksars and the police, that had resulted in the loss of 32 lives.