The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 5
5 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN Briefly, it amounted to this: In the provinces a system of partially- responsible self-government was introduced. Each province had a legislative council composed of elected members to whom the ministry would be responsible for the subjects which would be committed to the care of ministers. These were, for instance, education, health, lands, forests, public works, and the like which were known as nation-building departments. While certain key departments, like law and order, finance, and revenue were entrusted to "executive members. " The nomenclature was adopted for the purpose of indicating that ministers would be responsible to the legislature and would continue in office only so long as they had the confidence of the legislature, and that the "executive members" would be appointed for fixed terms of five years. Though the conduct of their departments would be criticized and token cuts could be proposed and carried against them which meant on those particular matters the legislature did not approve of their policies or of their conduct of their departments, they could not be turned out of office by a vote of the Legislature. The two sides had to work together under the Governor and had to find a way to make the system run. It was subsequently admitted that dyarchy had justified itself in the Punjab, for it had worked smoothly, there had been no deadlocks, and the Punjab from being one of the backward provinces of India, steadily rose under this system of dyarchy to a position that could compare favourably with some of the older and bigger provinces, particularly in the matter of education. A great part of the credit for making dyarchy work in the Punjab was due to the late Sir Fazle Hussain, who became the Minister of Education, when the first government under dyarchy took office in January, 1921. At that time the Ministry was composed of two eminent men who were selected on their individual merits, Sir Fazle Hussain and Lala Harkishen Lal. Later, through the efforts of Sir Fazle Hussain, a political party was organized in the Punjab, known as the Unionist Party which was able to hold office for the greater part of the period until 1947, when on independence the greater portion of the Punjab became part of West Pakistan. The Unionist Party was, of course, a political party, but was constituted on the basis of economic interest. It represented mainly the rural and agricultural interests. It was composed of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, so that it cut across the communal divisions and had this healthy quality, that it concentrated on the economic development of the province with due regard to the interests of the rural and agricultural