Ghazanfar Ali Khan

Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan (16 August 1895 - 1963) was born in Pind Dadan Khan, a town in Jhelum district, British India. He was a leading member of the All India Muslim League and a trusted lieutenant of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, serving in the Interim Government of India of 1946 as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. He later became a minister in the Government of Pakistan and finally a diplomat.

Background

The father of Ghazanfar Ali Khan was Saif Ali Khan. A Khokhar Rajput from Pind Dadan Khan in Jhelum district, Ghazanfar Ali was a nephew to Pir Fazal Shah of Jalalpur Sharif, another powerful and influential figure in the region during the Pakistan Movement. He was a follower of Sunni Islam.

Khan had political ambitions and was a prominent figure in Muslim politics by 1927, when he attended a conference, comprising 30 significant Muslim leaders, that resulted in the "Delhi Muslim Proposals" which attempted to address constitutional development but were ultimately thwarted by the recommendations of the 1928 Nehru Report. He persuaded his uncle to support his career in politics and this brought with it support from those who favoured Pir Fazal Shah himself. He stood in the 1937 provincial elections to the Punjab Legislative Assembly as a candidate of the All India Muslim League but then deserted the organisation in favour of the Unionist Party after being offered a position as a parliamentary secretary by Khizar. He supported the pact arranged at Lucknow between Sikandar Hayat Khan and Muhammad Ali Jinnah in October 1937, believing that the nationalist movement had suffered greatly from internal divisions and that a political party that united the aspirant Hindu and Muslim nationalist communities might prove more effective. In 1944, he returned to the League fold after the split between Khizar and Jinnah, realising that the League was likely to get the upper hand. His uncle and local supporters followed him through these various manoeuvres.

In the February 1946 provincial elections, Khan was a candidate for the League in the Pind Dadan Khan constituency 77. In October of that year, he was among the five men nominated by Jinnah on behalf of the League to join the interim Government of India, in which he subsequently took the Health portfolio. The other four nominated by the League were Liaquat Ali Khan, I. I. Chundrigar, Abdur Rab Nishtar and Jogendra Nath Mandal. He said of the League's involvement that "We are going into the interim government to get a foothold to fight for our cherished goal of Pakistan".

After the Partition of India, Khan became Pakistan's Minister for Food, Agriculture and Health. He was minister for refugees and rehabilitation in 1948, during a period when there was much controversy regarding the movement of Muslim people between the now-divided India and Pakistan.

In 1948, he became the first president of the newly formed Pakistan Hockey Federation.

From 1948 to 1957 he took to a new career as a diplomat. He was successively Ambassador to Iran (1948-1952), Ambassador to Turkey (1952-1953), High Commissioner to India (1954-1956) and finally Ambassador to Italy (1956-1957).

Khan died in 1963.

Memorials

In honour of his contribution to Pakistan, a major road in Saddar, Karachi was named after him.