Pakistan's establishment in 1947 was a culmination of the efforts of multiple leaders. While Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah is rightly known as the father of the nation, the journey towards independence also involved the contributions of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Iqbal, and the founders of All India Muslim League. Together, their vision and determination paved the way for the creation of Pakistan, making them indispensable figures in its founding.

Pakistan was founded on August 14, 1947, due to the struggle by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, rightly recognized as the father of Pakistan, but if we consider the colonial background of the independence struggle since 1857, a host of leaders can be termed as founders of Pakistan. When the term Indian nationhood was coined by the British Colonial masters, duly backed by the Hindu leaders after 1857, it goes to the credit of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who vehemently opposed this idea of one Indian nationhood and floated and worked for the idea since 1867 that Muslims of British India are a separate Muslim nation. When Indian National Congress was founded by the British colonial masters in 1885 to guard and project the idea of one Indian nationhood politically, Sir Syed opposed this idea. He asked the Muslims not to join this party. It was based on this idea of separate Muslim nationhood for which a separate Muslim political party, named All India Muslim League (AIML), was founded in Dhaka in December 1906 after the death of Sir Syed. In this way, Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Nawab Salimullah Khan, Sir Aga Khan III, and others, who founded this political party, can also be termed amongst the list of the founders of Pakistan. Then in December 1930, Allama Iqbal, in his presidential address at AIML session, presented a new meaning of Muslim nationhood, i.e., Muslims of majority Muslim areas such as Punjab, NWFP (now KP), Sindh, and Balochistan should be formed as a Muslim nation which should be constituted into a Muslim state. After that, in 1933, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali termed this Muslim state as Pakistan. Finally, Quaid-i-Azam and his associates Liaquat Ali Khan, Raja of Mahmudabad, Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Qazi Mohammad Isa, Sir Abdullah Haroon, and many others who worked with him became the founders of Pakistan. Their joint efforts under the crowing leadership of Quaid-i-Azam achieved the miracle of creating Pakistan.
The establishment of Pakistan on August 14, 1947 under the towering leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has a long history of perception and actual realization. The establishment of Pakistan reminded the Pakistani nation of its lineage of Muslim rule since 642 AD when Balochistan’s area of Makran came under the control of the Holy Caliphate of Hazrat Umar, the second great caliph of Islam. This Muslim rule continued for a long period up to 1857, when the last Muslim king, Bahadur Shah, was dethroned by the British and Pakistan, and the whole Indo-Pak subcontinent became a British colony.
The period between 1927-1939 was a political crisis in British India. For this reason, three Round Table Conferences were held in London during 1930-1932. All important political leaders, including Jinnah and Iqbal, were invited to London, but no decision could be reached. M. K. Gandhi and other Congress leaders boycotted these Conferences. Even a short visit by Gandhi to London in 1931 could not produce any result because the Congress leaders wanted the British to ignore all minorities and directly negotiate with the Congress leaders for a transfer of power. But the British were pressurized by the Muslim and other minority leaders to protect their rights. Their rights were protected by the Government of India Act of 1935.

In the elections of 1945-46, Muslim League candidates won with a 90 percent majority in the provincial and central assembly. This further pressured the British, but still, they were not ready to establish Pakistan. 

During the Second World War in September 1939, Jinnah struck a deal with the Viceroy Lord Linlithgow not to do anything against the Muslim interests. The Viceroy promised Jinnah not to send the Indian forces against any Muslim country when the war ends, and the freedom will not be granted without the consent of AIML leaders. The Viceroy agreed because by 1939, the AIML, headed by Quaid-i-Azam, had become a powerful Muslim political organization representing the majority of the Muslims of the subcontinent. It was after getting his promise that Quaid-i-Azam arranged the Lahore session of the AIML in March 1940, and the resolution was passed by which Pakistan, consisting of six majority Muslim provinces of Bengal, Assam, Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, and NWFP (now KP), was to be established. On this basis, the British and the Congress were forced to engage and consult Jinnah on every important political matter. In the elections of 1945-46, Muslim League candidates won with a 90 percent majority in the provincial and central assembly. This further pressured the British, but still, they were not ready to establish Pakistan. To befool, Jinnah Cabinet Mission came to British India during March-May 1946, failing to strike an agreement between the Muslim League and the Congress. Then the experiment of interim government was done from September 1946-June 1947, but this effort also failed. The British Government changed the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, and appointed Lord Mountbatten as the last British Viceroy. It goes to the credit of Mountbatten who brought an agreement between the Muslim League and Congress leaders in the form of the June 3, 1947, Partition Plan. Under this plan, Bengal, Assam and Punjab were to be divided, and other conditions were imposed as prerequisites for independence. These weaknesses were deliberately created by the British-Congress alliance to make Pakistan a failed state in the near future. Still, Quaid-i-Azam faced this challenge and even accepted the “truncated” Pakistan. Pakistan emerged on the world map in 1947 as the largest Muslim state in the world.
During the last decade of the independence struggle from 1937-1947, provincial leadership of all the six Muslim-majority provinces worked very hard with Quaid-i-Azam. Though some of them initially did not realize what the Quaid was doing for the Muslim nation, and they did not support him in the elections of 1936-1937, which resulted in the failures of the AIML candidates. But after the elections, when they realized the Hindu mindset in April 1937, all Muslim provincial leaders came in the support of Pakistan.
A statement was made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, President of the Indian National Congress, on February 22, 1937, in which he banned premature moves by the Congressmen to form ministries in the provinces.¹ In a meeting of the Congress Working Committee held on February 27-28 and March 1, 1936, presided over by Nehru, it was decided that "the Congress has entered the legislatures not to cooperate with the new constitution or the government but to combat the Act and the policy underlying it."² A decision was also taken in this meeting by which binding was imposed on the provincial Congress parties, i.e., "Congress parties in the Provincial Assemblies must not enter into any alliance with other groups in the Assembly without the permission of the Working Committee."³ It also called upon the people to observe a "nationwide general strike on April 1, the day the new Constitution is to be inaugurated."⁴ According to the plan, not only the general strike was to be observed on this day, but red flags at all Congress meetings were also hoisted to show that India would get freedom under the Congress leadership from the British.⁵ This was an alarming situation for the minorities generally and the Muslims particularly. Muslim leaders like Sikander Hayat Khan, A. K. Fazl-ul-Haq, and others, who even belonged to non-League parties, came to realize what Jinnah was already telling them that the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha working for the establishment of Hindu Raj is going to come true.

The greatest contribution of the founders of Pakistan was to sense the Gandhi/Nehru Conspiracy with Lord Mountbatten, and that was to make Jinnah agree to accept Lord Mountbatten as the common Governor-General of Pakistan and Hindustan.

On this basis, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Muslim League leader from the Punjab and Editor-in-Chief of the daily Zamindar, in his letter to the Quaid on May 7, 1937, wrote: "Closely following upon its electioneering success in six provinces, the sudden decision of the Congress to create a split in Muslim ranks and embark on an  India-wide campaign to bring the Muslim masses within its fold, has caused grave alarm to people like myself who share with you the conviction that for the Musalmans of India, to merge their separate and self-sufficient entity in a Hindu-ridden body like the Congress, would be a political calamity of the first magnitude. The pro-Congress leanings of the Jamiat-ul-Ulama as also of the Majlis-i-Ahrar have unfortunately strengthened the hands of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and his henchman, who are carrying on the Congress propaganda among Musalmans at breakneck speed and large funds, have been set apart for this purpose. The time has, therefore, come for a united effort to protect the national solidarity of Musalmans from the danger ahead. A section of our go-ahead intelligentsia with whom I have discussed the situation during the last four weeks told me that if only we had a platform from which we could preach the gospel of complete independence, we would not need to join the Congress. I believe they are perfectly right. Dr. Iqbal and Malik Barkat Ali are of the same view."⁶ This aspect has not been brought into focus by most of the writers and observers.
During 1937-1947 when the independence struggle was at its peak, the man who stood like a rock with Quaid-i-Azam was Liaquat Ali Khan, the Secretary-General of AIML. That is why, when Pakistan was created, Quaid-i-Azam nominated him as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, who was also termed "his right-hand man." During Quaid-i-Azam’s negotiations with all the British Government sponsored delegations like the Cripps Mission of 1942, Simla Talks of June-July 1945, and Cabinet Mission Talks of 1946, Liaquat Ali Khan mostly accompanied  Quaid-i-Azam. That was because Quaid-i-Azam had great trust in him. When the Muslim League component consisting of Liaquat Ali Khan, I. I. Chundrigar, Raja Ghazanafar Ali Khan, Abdur Rab Nishtar, and J. N. Mandal joined the interim government in October 1946, Liaquat Ali Khan functioned as the leader of this Muslim League group.⁷ In November 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru invited the meeting of the Constituent Assembly which was the Indian Central Assembly. Jinnah refused that the Muslim League members’ participation in this meeting of the Constituent Assembly.⁸ This alarmed the government, who invited Jinnah and Nehru to London to discuss the issue with the British Prime Minster Attlee. A delegation went to London, including Jinnah, who took Liaquat Ali Khan to London in December 1946. Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan remained in London from December 6 to December 21, 1946. They discussed the Pakistan issue with them and made it clear that Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly should be created separately and Pakistan should be established.
Then during the negotiations with Lord Mountbatten during March-June 1947, Liaquat Ali Khan was with the Quaid, and even for negotiating the Partition issues according to the June 3, 1947 Partition Plan, Liaquat Ali Khan remained with the Quaid. Apart from Liaquat Ali Khan, Sardar Abdur Rab Nishter and Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan were also with the Quaid to negotiate the partition issues with the British Cabinet headed by Lord Mountbatten. Thus, after negotiations with the British and Congress leaders, the issue of partition, including the division of assets between Pakistan and Hindustan, was settled. Thus these leaders can also be termed co-founders of Pakistan.
The greatest contribution of the founders of Pakistan was to sense the Gandhi/Nehru Conspiracy with Lord Mountbatten, and that was to make Jinnah agree to accept Lord Mountbatten as the common Governor-General of Pakistan and Hindustan. The conspiracy aimed to order the reunion of Pakistan and Hindustan under the Government of India Act 1935 on the plea that it was not feasible to allow Pakistan to function as an independent country because of the refugee problems, ethnic issues, among other issues. Quaid-i-Azam, Liaquat Ali Khan, and other Muslim League leaders sensed this scheme. In the meeting of the AIML Council held on June 29-30, 1947, it was decided after a long debate that the Muslim League would not accept the joint Governor-General and proposed Quaid-i-Azam as the first Governor-General of Pakistan.
After June 3, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress leaders pressured Lord Mountbatten to convince Quaid-i-Azam to accept Mountbatten as the common Governor-General of India and Pakistan. This matter created doubts in the mind of Jinnah about the sincerity of Mountbatten and Congress leadership that they did not accept the reality of Pakistan from the core of their heart. This strengthened the Muslim popular belief that within months of the creation of Pakistan, they intended to undo Pakistan through Mountbatten. The Quaid sensed the forthcoming danger and brought the matter to the All India Muslim League (AIML) Council, which nominated the Quaid as Pakistan's first Governor-General. Mountbatten was verbally informed on July 2 by Liaquat Ali Khan about this decision. But when Mountbatten insisted, Liaquat Ali Khan, Honorary Secretary of AIML, wrote on July 5 to Mountbatten indicating Quaid-i-Azam as Pakistan's first Governor-General. This was a shock not only to Mountbatten but to the entire Congress leadership. When Mountbatten, in his meeting, insisted Jinnah change the decision, the Quaid remained determined. Rather, he suggested that Mountbatten should become the super-Governor-General of India and Pakistan, an idea unacceptable to Mountbatten and the Congress leadership. When the Indian Independence Act was passed in July 1947, it was announced by the British Government that Jinnah would be the first Governor-General of Pakistan. Thus, he functioned as designated Governor-General. Afterward, all the matters relating to partition in Pakistan were discussed and decided in consultation with Jinnah. Therefore, Mountbatten was compelled to get Jinnah's approval on all Pakistan-related matters. If Jinnah had not been Governor-General-designate, all the decisions regarding partition for Pakistan areas would have been made by Mountbatten and Nehru, ignoring Jinnah's opinion. The Quaid, the Governor-General-designate, functioned from July 10 to August 14, 1947. It was during this time when Jinnah made crucial decisions in Pakistan's national and state interests. But Jinnah functioned as such with effect from June 4, 1947.
The British Prime Minister, Mr. Attlee, announced in the House of Commons on July 10, 1947, that Jinnah had been recommended to be the Governor-General of Pakistan and Mountbatten the Governor-General of India, a matter to be approved by the King shortly.⁹ On July 13, addressing the first press conference in New Delhi,  after being designated as Pakistan's first Governor-General, the Quaid "assured the minorities in Pakistan that their religion, faith, life, property, and culture would be fully protected."¹⁰ He "repudiated the suggestion that Pakistan would be a theocratic state."¹¹ He also assured India that Pakistan would have “friendly and cordial relations with India.”¹² To prepare for power transfer in Pakistan, the Quaid reached Karachi on August 8 "amid tumultuous reception."¹³ Upon arrival, the Governor-General-designate was also presented with the guard of honor.¹⁴ Thereinafter, a meeting of the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was held from August 10-14, 1947 in which Quaid-i-Azam was first elected as the first President of Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly followed by the transfer of power by Lord Mountbatten on August 14, 1947. Thus, Pakistan came in to being in very difficult times, but the Quaid guided the nation well, and Pakistan steered through the crisis. The heroic Pakistani nation duly protected by the Pakistan Armed Forces is still combating these critical forces and have become the hope of the Pakistani nation to promise a good future.

The writer is a former Director, National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, and Professor at Quaid-i-Azam Chair (NIPS), Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. 
E-mail: [email protected]

1.   Ibid., p. 6.
2.   Ibid., pp. 174-175.
3.   Ibid., p. 176.
4.   Ibid., p. 177.
5.   Ibid., p. 187.
6.   Maulana Zafar Ali Khan to Jinnah, May 6, 1937, NAP, Islamabad, Quaid-i-Azam Papers, F. 357.
7.   Jinnah to Wavell, October 14, 1946, Nicholas Mansergh and Pendral Moon, The Transfer of Power, Vol. VIII, London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1979, p.726; and Times of India, October 16, 1946.
8.    Times of India, November 26, 1946.
9.    Times of India, July 11, 1947.
10.  Times of India, July 14, 1947.
11.  Ibid.
12.  Ibid.
13.  Times of India, August 8, 1947.
14.  Times of India, August 9, 1947.