Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan

Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan (Pashto: خان عبدالجبار خان‎) (born 1883, Utmanzai, Charsadda – 9 May 1958, Lahore), popularly known as Dr. Khan Sahib (ډاکټر خان صاحب), was a pioneer in the Indian Independence Movement and a Pakistani politician.[1] He was the elder brother of the Pashtun independence activist Bacha Khan, both of whom opposed the partition of India, favouring a united country.[2]

Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan
1st Chief Minister of West Pakistan
In office 14 October 1955 – 27 August 1957
Monarch	Elizabeth II
President	Iskander Mirza
Governor-General	Iskander Mirza
Governor	Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Sardar Abdur Rashid Khan
2nd and 4th Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province
In office 7 September 1937 – 10 November 1939
Governor	George Cunningham
Preceded by	Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum
Succeeded by	Governor rule
In office 16 March 1945 – 22 August 1947
Governor	George Cunningham Olaf Caroe
Preceded by	Sardar Aurangzeb Khan
Succeeded by	Abdul Qayyum Khan
Personal details
Born	1883[1] Utmanzai, Afghanistan (present-day Pakistan)
Died	9 May 1958 (aged 75)[1] Lahore, West Pakistan
Citizenship	Afghan (1883-1893)  British Indian (1893-1947)  Pakistani (1947-1958)
Political party	National Awami Party
Parents	Abdul Bahram Khan (father)
Education	Glasgow University

As the Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province, Dr Khan Sahib along with his brother Bacha Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars boycotted the July 1947 NWFP referendum about the province joining India or Pakistan after the partition of India, citing that the referendum did not have the options of the NWFP becoming independent or joining Afghanistan.[3][4]

Early life

He was born in 1883 into a prosperous Muslim Pashtun family from Utmanzai, in the Peshawar Valley of Pakistan. Three years after his birth, his home region was annexed and incorporated into British India following the Second Anglo-Afghan War, which saw a victory for the British Raj and subsequent demarcation of the Durand Line. His father, Bahram Khan was a local landlord. He was seven years older than his brother, Bacha Khan (Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan).[1]

After matriculating from the Edwards Mission High School in Peshawar, Khan Sahib studied at Grant Medical College, Bombay. He subsequently completed his training from St Thomas' Hospital in London. During the First world war, he served in France. During his stay in France, he met a Scottish girl Mary. They fell in love and soon they got married, though his younger brother Bacha Khan was against this marriage. After the war, he joined the Indian Medical Service and was posted in Mardan with the Guides regiment. He resigned his commission in 1921, after refusing to be posted in Waziristan, where the British Indian Army was launching operations against his fellow Pashtun tribes (1919–20).[1]

Contribution to the Indian independence movement

In 1935, Khan Sahib was elected alongside Peer Shahenshah of Jungle Khel Kohat as representatives of the North-West Frontier Province to the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi.

Along with his brother Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgar, Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan strongly opposed the partition of India, favouring a united country.[2]

With the grant of limited self-government and announcement of 1937 Indian provincial elections, Dr. Khan Sahib led his party to a comprehensive victory. The Frontier National Congress, an affiliate of the Indian National Congress emerged as the single largest party in the Provincial Assembly.

In the 1940s, a Sikh family was killed in the Hazara District of colonial India, with their daughter Basanti being married off to a Muslim man.[5] Basanti asked to be sent to her Sikh relatives and Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan agreed with this.[5] The All India Muslim League, however, agitated against Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan's decision, "and made the woman’s return to Islam the principal demand of its civil disobedience movement in the Frontier Province."[5]

In the same district, Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan fined the villages of the Hazara District for riots that targeted Hindus and Sikhs.[5] When a crowd of pro-separatist Muslim League supporters arrived at his residence, Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan stated that he did what he considered his rightful duty.[5]

Politics in Pakistan 1947 – 1954

At the time of the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he was the chief executive of the province appointed in British India.[6] Later he was jailed by Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri's government. After Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri's appointment to the Central government and the personal efforts of the Chief Minister of the North West Frontier Province at the time, Sardar Bahadur Khan, he along with his brother and many other activists were released.

Back in government

He joined the Central Cabinet of Muhammad Ali Bogra as Minister for Communications in 1954. This decision to join the government led to his split with his brother.[7]

In October 1955, he became the first Chief Minister of West Pakistan following the consolidation of the provinces and princely states under the One Unit scheme.[1] After differences with the ruling Muslim League over the issue of Joint versus Separate Electorates, he created the Republican Party with the help of then Governor-General of Pakistan Iskander Mirza.[8]

He resigned in March 1957 after the provincial budget was rejected by the assembly. In June, he was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan representing the constituency of Quetta, the former capital of Balochistan.

Assassination

He was assassinated by Atta Mohammad at approximately 8:30 am on 9 May 1958, according to some sources on the orders of Allama Mashraqi, leader of the Khaksars.[9]

In a book entitled “Allama Mashriqi Narrowly Escapes the Gallows: Court Proceedings of an Unpardonable Crime Against the Man Who Led the Freedom of the Indian Subcontinent”, scholar and historian Nasim Yousaf, Mashriqi’s grandson, provides a day-by-day account of the court proceedings. [10]

This tragic incident occurred while Dr. Khan Sahib was sitting in the garden of his son Sadullah Khan's house at 16 Aikman Road, GOR, Lahore.[11] He was waiting for Colonel Syed Abid Hussein of Jhang to accompany him to a meeting organised in connection with the scheduled February 1959 General Elections. The assailant was a "Patwari" (Land Revenue Clerk) from Mianwali who had been dismissed from service two years previously. Despite his appeal in court, the assailant had not been reinstated to his position as 'Patwari'.[1] "In his first public address after the assassination of his elder brother in Lahore, Abdul Ghaffar said on May 19 that he felt that Dr. Khan Sahib had been done to death by those people for whom he had forsaken his own people, discarded his party and thrown to the winds the position he held as a result of a glorious political career."[12]

The body of Dr. Khan Sahib was taken to his village Utmanzai, Charsadda about 30 miles from Peshawar, where he was laid to rest by side of his European wife Mary Khan.[13]

Speaking of his passing, Pakistani President Iskander Mirza said, about him that he was "the greatest Pathan of his times, a great leader and a gallant gentleman whose life-long fight in the cause of freedom, his sufferings and sacrifices for the sake of his convictions and his passion to do good to the common man were the attributes of a really great man."[14]

Legacy

Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan's granddaughter, Brinda Dubey, married a member of the Indian Foreign Service (1964 batch) and lives in India.[15]

References

1. Profile of Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, Updated 4 January 2008, Retrieved 27 May 2017
2. Hamdani, Yasser Latif (21 December 2013). "Mr Jinnah's Muslim opponents". Pakistan Today. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
3. Meyer, Karl E. (5 August 2008). The Dust of Empire: The Race For Mastery In The Asian Heartland – Karl E. Meyer – Google Boeken. ISBN 9780786724819. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
4. "Was Jinnah democratic? — II". Daily Times. 25 December 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
5. Ashraf, Ajaz (20 January 2018). "On Frontier Gandhi's death anniversary, a reminder of how the Indian subcontinent has lost its way". Scroll.in.
6. Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan on Dawn newspaper website, Published 20 October 2002, Retrieved 27 May 2017
7. Victoria Schofield Afghan (2004)Frontier: Feuding and Fighting in Central Asia. Tauris Parke Paperbacks,
8. Dr Khan Sahib (Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan) on Encyclopedia Britannica website, Retrieved 27 May 2017
9. Dr Ali Muhammad Khan, 'Allama Mashriqi, Khaksar Tehreek aur uss ki Qatilana Siyasat' (Urdu: Allama Mashriqi, the Khaksars and the Politics of Assassination') pub Lahore: Rang Mahal Publishers, 1978, pp 121-123
10. https://www.amazon.com/Allama-Mashriqi-Narrowly-Escapes-Gallows-ebook/dp/B00P6OP0I2/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
11. Khan, p 121
12. Tendulkar, D. G. (1967). Abdul Ghaffar Khan: Faith is a Battle. Gandhi Peace Foundation. p. 506. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
13. The Hindu : Miscellaneous / This Day That Age : dated 10 May 1958: Khan Sahib assassinated
14. Frontier Post, 27 May 2004 Dr Khan Sahib Remembered By Syed Afzaal Hussain Zaidi
15. Sharma, Vinod (1 June 2016). "Ministry goofs up on Ghaffar Khan's 'kin'". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 11 June 2020.

Notes

• Mahmud, Makhdumzada Syed Hassan (1958). A Nation is Born

See also

• Bacha Khan
• Khan Abdul Bahram Khan
• Khan Abdul Ghani Khan
• Khan Abdul Wali Khan
• Nasim Wali Khan
• Asfandyar Wali Khan