The Ail-India Muslim League was formed in Dhaka in 1906 as a political platform for Muslims in British India. Eventually, under the leadership of finnah, the Urdu-speaking elite-dominated Muslim League succeeded in carving out the Muslim homelands of East and West Pakistan. The following two articles, written by Lahore journalist Asha'ar Rehman, and Delhi-based writer Irfan Ahmed, look at how the party has fared in post-1947 Pakistan and India.
Party of The Great Leader
Much has transpired in the five decades between the departure of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the reign of Quaid-e-Azam Saani ("the Great Leader II"), as some ardent supporters of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have taken to address him. Records say both men were born on Christmas day -though some 72 years apart – and both head(ed) the Muslim League parties of their time. But that is where the similarity ends. What the charismatic Jinnah spearheaded 50 years ago and what Sharif tugs along today are two entirely different organisations, reflecting the changed times.
The All-India Muslim League was disbanded at a convention in Karachi on 15 December 1947, exactly four months after the birth of Pakistan. With Jinnah in the chair, the League leadership decided to split the party into two – to follow their respective briefs in Pakistan and India. The ageing Quaid expressed his inability to serve as the first chief of the Muslim League of Pakistan. Instead, he nominated Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman, a senior politician whom he had earlier named to head the Muslim League in the Constituent Assembly of India, to the post of chief organiser.