The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 168
152 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN case this afternoon, here. " He said, "We know nothing at all about the boundary case! We don't know what you're talking about. We were asked to meet you here, to welcome you back to Lahore, knowing that you have come to handle this case. We know nothing at all about the case. " Tableau! To put it very mildly, I was flabbergasted, not only to learn that nobody had been paying any attention to the case, much less preparing it, but at the prospect that within less than three days - it was already the afternoon of Tuesday - I would have to present a case in writing on the partition of this part of the country. I did not know which way I could turn for any material or statistics or to ascertain the principles on which the line should be drawn, or what our case should be! I said good-bye to the assembled lawyers within a few minutes, and then turned to the Nawab of Mamdot and asked, "Has the Muslim League Organization prepared any plan or collected any material or done anything in the matter?" He uttered a laconic "No. " Everything had been left to me! And I had just come from abroad!! Khwaja Abdur Rahim, who was then the Commissioner of Rawalpindi, was in Lahore on special duty in connection with the influx of refugees from the other side, which had already started in large volume. He had certain statistics on population prepared on his own. He came over to see me the same afternoon and handed over the material to me. This was a piece of sheer good luck for which I was most grateful. I also found that four lawyers from outside Lahore had come up to Lahore in the hope that they might be useful to me in the preparation of the case. Two of them were from Montgomery, one from Pakpattan and one from Hoshiarpur. Those from Montgomery were Mr. Nisar Ahmad and Sahibzada Nusrat Ali; the one from Pakpattan was Syed Muhammad Shah; and the one from Hoshiarpur was Chaudhari Akbar Ali Khan, who is at present Pakistan's Ambassador in Jiddah. There were also one or two junior lawyers from Lahore, who occasionally looked in and were able to assist, not so much with the preparation of the case but on any odd matter on which I needed any assistance. I am very grateful to all of them for their devoted assistance. My anxiety now was to work day and night and get the case in readiness by Friday noon. Even now, looking back, I cannot explain how it became possible for us to produce a case, which we did by the noon of Friday.