5 Dec 2011 was the 48th death anniversary of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Not a single newspaper in Pakistan published any news or article in this regard. I remember when I went to East Pakistan in 1966, every other shop in Dhaka, Commilla and Jessore displayed his pictures. He was very popular in East Pakistan, but in the West Pakistan, he was projected as pro-congress, having links with Gandhi. No one ever bothered to learn the facts. No worthwhile written material was available about his life except in Government propaganda books , till the publication of biography 24 years after his death in 1987.
While carrying out research for this paper, I discovered he was one of the founders of the Pakistan Movement, who lead the Muslim League from the front, winning 115 seats in 1946 elections that enabled Muslim League to become the majority party in the Bengal Assembly thus strengthening the case for creation of Pakistan. He was a great Muslim leader, having started his political life by joining the Khilafat Movement in 1920, was deputy Mayor of Calcutta during the 1926 Hindu Muslim riots. He was in the forefront for defending the innocent Muslims in the courts. As minister for Food under Kh Nazim ud din during the Famine in Bengal 1942-45, he earned a lot of respect from both Hindus and Muslims alike. He became the Muslim League Chief Minister of United Bengal (54% of the entire Muslim population) after the 1946 elections. He was the author and mover of the Delhi Resolution of 1946 that made the amendment for a United Pakistan.
The Leadership of the then ruling Muslim League took arbitral action against him by banning his entry to Pakistan and enacted an order that any one not having residence in Pakistan would lose his seat in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.
On 5th August 1947, Khwaja Nazim ud din an unpopular leader was nominated as new CM of East Pakistan at Karachi. HS Suhrawardy being a popular CM of United Bengal was ignored? Why this decision was taken is a mystery? Earlier Quaid e Azam had personally given task to Suhrawardy to negotiate for a united Bengal / Assam as well as retaining Calcutta as part of East Bengal. Suhrawardy left Karachi on 9 August 1947, after learning about a scheme for Massacre of Muslims in Calcutta, to meet Mr. Gandhi to save the Muslim Lives irrespective of threat to his personal and Political life. The Leadership of the then ruling Muslim League took arbitral action against him by banning his entry to Pakistan and enacted an order that any one not having residence in Pakistan would lose his seat in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.
He came to Dhaka in March 1948 to take residence there. The federal government directed the CM East Pakistan Khawaja Nazimuddin to ban his entry into East Pakistan and extradite him. The orders were issued by none other than Kh Nazimuddin who himself got elected to Bengal Assembly in 1937 through H S Suhrawardy, who had won on two seats and surrendered his second seat. IG East Pakistan Zakir Hussain himself delivered the orders. Zakir Hussain was against him because he did not give him out of turn promotion as CM of United Bengal. ( Mr. Zakir Hussain was rescued by 3 commando battalion of Pakistan Army in Chittagong during April 1971, ALLAH has his own ways)
After the Death of his father, Mr. HS Suhrawardy came to Karachi in 1949. The Federal Government directed the Karachi Bar not to enroll him as lawyer. The Bureaucracy led by Ch Muhammad Ali implemented the order. He went to Punjab and got himself enrolled as a lawyer in the then Montgomery district Bar and stayed in the house of Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Mamdot at Lahore to start his practice. His first case in Pakistan was to Defend Nawab Iftikhar Mamdot. Later he was one of the Main defence Lawyers in 1951 Conspiracy case. (Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote a poem in Praise of Mr. HS Suhrawardy, the only one in his life.) These and other such reasons laid the foundation of Bangladesh. H S Suhrawardy was appointed neither the Prime Minister nor CM of East Pakistan, in spite of being the leader of 54% Muslim population of Pakistan and sitting Chief Minister of United Bengal. The Government knew about the independent mindset of H S Suhrawardy who was not acceptable to the then Establishment. The next nail in the coffin of United Pakistan was declaring Urdu as National Language at Dhaka, a proposal not acceptable to the people of East Pakistan, who were proud of their language and rich culture.
The next nail in the coffin of United Pakistan was declaring Urdu as National Language at Dhaka, a proposal not acceptable to the people of East Pakistan, who were proud of their language and rich culture.
During the 1954 elections his party, along with Sher e Bengal Party, as United Front won all the seats in the East Pakistan Assembly except 9 that were won by the ruling Muslim League. However, the elected government of A K Fazal e Haq, (the mover of 1940 Pakistan Resolution) was dismissed. A CSP officer, Maj Gen Sikander Mirza, a descendent of Mir Jaffer and an active member of the anti- democracy/people group was appointed Governor. He ordered the arrest of 2000 people over night; They arrested all the poor rickshaw drivers and petty shopkeepers irrespective of their affiliations. (Altaf Gohar being Deputy Secretary Home, implemented.)
Mr. Suhrawardy did not give up and again won elections and was appointed Law Minister. Mr. Suhrawardy convinced the people of East Pakistan to give parity to West Pakistan in spite of being 54% of the total population while framing the 1956 Constitution. In 1956, he was elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan. He began a tour of West Pakistan and East Pakistan for the cause of united Pakistan. He later visited USA, where he was given a warm reception not only by the US government but also by the people of USA at private receptions. As Prime Minister of Pakistan, he did not change the Pakistani Ambassador Ch Muhammad Ali to US, his opponent from the Muslim League, because Ch Muhammad Ali was a heart patient and was getting treatment in the USA.
He opposed President Ayub who even wanted to appoint him as his Vice President. Ayub Khan arrested him in 1962 and every word in his letter to Ayub Khan is worth in gold. He informed Ayub Khan that when he was fighting for freedom and the Pakistan Movement Ayub was nowhere at that time. This letter can be read in the book written by his cousin Begum Shaista Ikramullah (OUP-1991), and in his Memoirs compiled by M. H. R. Talukdar published in Bangladesh in 1987 and reprinted by OUP in 2009. What a tragedy that nothing was available about this great man’s life prior to 1987.
In 1956, he was elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan. He began a tour of West Pakistan and East Pakistan for the cause of united Pakistan. He later visited USA, where he was given a warm reception not only by the US government but also by the people of USA at private receptions.
There is another incident, which speaks of West Pakistan Bureaucracy attitude towards an independent-minded East Bengal Prime Minister. Mr. Altaf Gohar in his interview to Javed Chaudary confessed that as DC/DM Karachi he did not allow Mr. Suhrawardy the Prime Minister to address a public meeting of Awami League on 14th August but instead gave the same ground to Muslim League on the same day. The Prime Minister left for Dhaka a day earlier to address /hold the public meeting in East Pakistan. At the Airport before his departure, he only informed Mr. Altaf Gohar that he was going to Dhaka because the DC/DM Karachi would not allow the Prime Minister of Pakistan to hold a public meeting on the Pakistan’s Independence Day. In spite of this affront, the Prime Minister did not take any action against the DC/DM! He fought for democracy and the cause of united Pakistan until his death in Beirut.
Now is the time for us in Pakistan to give him his due recognition by celebrating his 50 years of death in 2013. The government should name a major road in the main Blue Area in Islamabad as H S Suhrawardy Avenue. Punjab, Karachi, Peshawar, Baluchistan and Quaid e Azam universities should institute a chair after him and carry out research about his life, his achievements and his works.
References:-
Humood ur Rehman commission report;
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy by Shaista Ikramullah;
Memoirs of HS Suhrawardy by Talukdar ,oxford;
The Great Divide, HV HODSON;
Pakistan in search Of Identity by Mubarik ali;
Gai Dinnoy kay SOORAJ by Javed Ch ;
East Pakistan to Bangla desh;Days Decisive by Serajuddin hussain;
Three Presidents, three prime minister by Abdul Qayyum;
The separation of East Pakistan by Hassan Zaheer;
Hum Nafus by Masud Mufti;
Quaid e Azam as I knew him by MAH Isphani;
Divide and Quit by Penderel Moon; Transfer of power papers; Alama Mashiqi’s speech at nasir bagh Lahore in 1954/56.
The writer is a veteran of 1965 and 1971 wars and a visiting faculty member of various prestigious management and administration training institutes of Pakistan.
By: Lt Col (Retd) Muhammad Shahbaz Thuthaal
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