The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 159
143 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN in my mind that he would accept my advice, but we were good friends, and I had great confidence in his judgment and good sense and in his sense of responsibility, and I hoped that I might be able to influence him to some degree. So I wrote a letter to him, first, putting the position before him as it emerged from the Prime Minister's announcement; secondly, his responsibility in the particular situation that had arisen; and urged very strongly upon him that the time had come, the distinction between the provincial sphere and the central sphere so far as this matter was concerned having been abolished, when he should resign and thus prepare the way for a Muslim League government to be formed in the Punjab so that they could then cooperate in this process of partition that was adumbrated in Prime Minister Attlee's speech. As soon as he received my letter in Lahore he called me over the telephone and said he could not speak to me openly or in detail about what I had written to him because he was not quite sure that his telephone calls were not tapped, but he indicated to me that he agreed in principle with what I had written to him and wanted me to go up to Lahore immediately so that he could discuss the whole matter with me and how it was to be carried through. So I left for Lahore that night and was with him next morning. We discussed the pros and cons of what I had written to him, not so much what needed to be done - on that he was in principle in agreement - but how it should be done. Then he brought into consultation the late Nawab Sir Allah Bakhsh Khan Tiwana, who had always been a very close friend of his and whom he often consulted over matters, and who also was a man of very strong common sense. Nawab Allah Bakhsh Khan also agreed that on the whole he thought Khizr should resign and let the Muslim League take over. Khizr Hayat then said, "There is one other man whom I must consult or at least who ought to know what I am contemplating. He has stood by me and I just can't carry this through without his knowing what I propose to do. " That was Nawab Muzaffar Ali Khan Qizalbash, who was a colleague of his in the government. So he sent for him and when he arrived, he discussed the matter with him. All four of us were in the conversation. Muzaffar suggested that Khizr should decide to resign but should not hand in his resignation until after the budget session, which was due to start within a few days, and until after he had got the budget through.