SARDAR Muhammad Ibrahim Khan (1915–2003), who earned a law degree from Lincoln’s Inn, London, was a political activist. Under the Maharajah’s Government in 1943, Khan was appointed as a public prosecutor in Mirpur. He later worked as the Assistant Advocate General of Jammu and Kashmir. He then left the government job to participate in the Kashmir Liberation Movement and ran for and won the 1947 Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly (Praja Sabha) elections. He delivered a fiery speech critical of the despotic ruler in the budget session of 1947, which led to his being kept under strict vigilance.
The Pakistan Movement was in full swing, and Khan wholeheartedly advocated for Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. On 19th July 1947, before Pakistan’s existence, the Muslim Conference passed a resolution demanding Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, marking a landmark day now commemorated annually as the Day of Accession. This bold move came when the state was ruled by an autocratic ruler, supported by the British and Hindus of India, making it risky to pass such a resolution. The resolution’s final paragraph warned the Maharaja of a potential Muslim revolt if their demand was not met. Recognizing the Maharaja’s inclination towards India, Ghazi-e-Millat took a significant risk by leaving his family in Srinagar and traveling to Murree and then Abbottabad. There, he organized a force to liberate Kashmir, successfully raising a contingent, arranging logistics, and initiating a full-fledged armed struggle. His efforts were crucial in advancing the cause of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.
It was because of his relentless efforts that by October 1947, a considerable area of the state was liberated. He again risked his life to accept the presidentship of the “Azad Government of the State of J&K,” by making a Declaration of Independence of the State on the 24th of October 1947. He set up its headquarters at Junjal Hill, Pallandri. At a time when nobody was willing to be the head of this government on the plea that this step could endanger the lives of their families in Occupied Kashmir, Sardar Ibrahim did so despite the fact that his wife and son were still in Srinagar. Justice Yusuf Saraf writes that “people were not sure as to what would happen to the war and therefore did not want to take the risk of being pinned with the label of being Chief Rebel.” It was under these circumstances that Sardar Ibrahim risked himself and his family for the sake of his nation’s freedom.
Besides leading from the front on the ground, Ghazi-e-Millat led the nation politically as president and represented the state in the UNSC on a complaint lodged by India accusing tribal armed raids on Kashmir by Pakistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. This was a gigantic task when everything was unclear and fluid. As President, Ghazi-e-Millat devoted his full attention to the liberation of the India-occupied part of Jammu & Kashmir. Ghazi-e-Millat was elected president of Azad Kashmir for the second time on 13 April 1957 and for the third time on 5 June 1975. He was very close to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and had formed the AJK chapter of the Pakistan People’s Party.
In 1977, General Zia ul Haq dissolved Bhutto’s government and offered to allow Khan to continue as president as long as he stopped supporting Bhutto. Khan refused to betray Bhutto, resulting in his termination as president through a proclamation issued by General Zia ul-Haq, the Chairman of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council, on 30 October 1978. Sardar Sahib was elected again as the President of Azad Kashmir in August 1996. He remained in office until August 2001.
He was a great statesman, orator, and writer as well as a die-hard advocate for the liberation of the state and its accession to Pakistan. The Accession to Pakistan Resolution and Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan have become synonymous. His book “The Kashmir Saga” is a living story of the Kashmir Movement, events in AJK, and the Government of Pakistan’s policies in relation to Kashmir.
Sardar Ibrahim was a strong advocate for representation for the people of AJK in Pakistan’s National Assembly and Senate. For instance, talking to pressmen in Lahore in December 1953, Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan said that Kashmir should be given a “definite and real” place in the proposed Constitution of Pakistan. In November 1973, he said that AJK should have some constitutional links with Pakistan, including the provision of symbolic representation of Kashmiris, on both sides of the control line, in the National Assembly and the Senate. The links should be “transitional arrangements” subject to a plebiscite to be held in Jammu & Kashmir.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
