The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 15
15 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN made Sir Fazle Hussain, as it were, the builder of the Punjab. In that respect, Sir Fazle Hussain never made any distinction between Hindus and Muslims. Both in the Province, and later in the Government of India, his first concern was to Indianize the services as far as possible; his second was that the Muslims should not be left behind, and that they should have a fair share of representation. The provision of better facilities for training and education helped them greatly in that respect. So long as he was in the Government, he was able to work in cooperation with the official bloc in the Legislature as well as with the Governor and the services. They were happy to work with him for he was a go-ahead man, was working for the good of the country, and was able to keep a Party together in the Legislature which gave him a majority, and which brought strength also to what was known as the "reserved half" of government. Though the "executive members" could not be turned out by vote of the Legislature, it is unpleasant to be voted down each time, and with the support he had in the Legislature, Sir Fazle Hussain was able to lend support to them too. Judged by the results it was a wise policy in that stage of political and constitutional development of the country. Question: I wonder if I could now turn your thoughts to Sir Muhammad Iqbal, the poet-philosopher, who is credited with giving the first major ideological impetus to Pakistan, both personal and theoretical considerations, if you like. Khan : Sir Muhammad was a poet, a philosopher and during a certain part of his career, had also been a teacher. He later went to England and Germany where he studied philosophy as well as law and came back a barrister. For a number of years, he practised law at the Lahore High Court Bar till his demise in 1938. He furnished the Muslim younger generation with an ideology which also embraced the concept of Pakistan. He was not too keenly interested in the day to day practical politics. He was elected to the Punjab Legislature but never took much interest in its work. He was tremendously bored by the various procedural stages through which everything had to pass and by the long, sometimes very wearying debates that went on and on. He was apt to get tired very quickly and leave. I doubt whether he took part in more than one-quarter to one- third of the divisions. By the time the matter under debate was to be voted on, Sir Muhammad Iqbal had gotten tired of the whole business and gone home to contemplation. But even if he had paid more