Faction-building in Pakistan: Sir Francis Mudie and Punjab politics, 1947–1949

Abstract

This essay provides new evidence on local Pakistani politics in the immediate post-independence period. It reveals that far from being a period of national unity and service to the fledgling state, the country was mired in faction-building strategies between political rivals, competing for power and scrambling for resources, with debilitating consequences for democratic consolidation. While the new sources – largely based upon the archival records deposited at the National Documentation Centre, Islamabad – provide material relating primarily to Punjab, this essay demonstrates that the tensions between central government and the provinces can only be comprehended by reference to studies of localities.

Keywords:

• West Punjab
• Governor Francis Mudie
• Premier Nawab of Mamdot
• factionalism
• the centre–province relations

Notes

1. National Documentation Centre (NDC) File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, Francis Mudie to Khawja Nazimuddin, 12 October 1948.

2. ‘League MLAs to checkmate Mudie's move for cabinet reshuffle’, Pakistan Times (Lahore) 14 May 1948.

3. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, 28 December 1948, Francis Mudie to Khawja Nazimuddin.

4. NDC, Pakistan Ministry of Refugees and Rehabilitation, File No. 128/CF/48, 262, PMS/48, Prime Minister Files, 36–37.

5. NDC, Pakistan Ministry of Refugees and Rehabilitation, File No. 2 (2)-PMS/48, Prime Minister Files, 26 March, 1948, 2.

6. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, 2 August 1948, Francis Mudie to Khawja Nazimuddin.

7. NDC, File No. F164/5, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’.

8. NDC, File No. F/164/51, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’.

9. See for full speech of Mamdot, Punjab Legislative Assembly Debates (PLAD), 23 March 1948, 259–260, D- 50 (4), Punjab Secretariat Archives, Lahore (henceforth, PSA).

10. Later, when Mamdot was dismissed as the Premier and facing charge of corruption, he told an inquiry: ‘I refused to place on record a censure purported to have been passed by the Refugee Council against Raja Hasan Akhtar which was justified and dictated by Sir Francis Mudie on the account of his enmity with Raja Hasan’, see for example, Civil and Military Gazette, 6 December 1949, 3.

11. See for the details of the meeting between the Prime Minister and Mudie in Rawalpindi on 30 September, NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences.

12. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, 12 October 1948, Francis Mudie to Khawja Nazimuddin.

13. For an analysis of Sindh politics in this period see, Ansari, Life After Partition.

14. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, 20 October 1948, Khawja Nazimuddin to Francis Mudie.

15. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, 20 October 1948, Khawja Nazi- muddin to Francis Mudie.

16. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, 5 November 1948, Francis Mudie to Khawja Nazimuddin.

17. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences.

18. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, 5 November 1948, Francis Mudie to Khawja Nazimuddin.

19. ‘Like a vesture shalt thou change them’, Pakistan Times, 23 January 1949.

20. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor- General Correspondences, 23 January 1949, Liaquat Ali Khan to Francis Mudie.

21. NDC, File No. F164/5, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’.

22. ‘The mills grind’, Dawn (Karachi) 26 January 1949.

23. NDC, File No. F164/5, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’, 30 January 1949, Francis Mudie to the governor-general of Pakistan.

24. NDC, File No. F164/5, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’, 30 January 1949, Francis Mudie to the governor-general of Pakistan.

25. NDC, File No, F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences.

26. Civil and Military Gazette, 13 March 1949.

27. NDC, File No. F164/5, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’.

28. ‘Save League and Province’, Civil and Military Gazette, 9 March 1949.

29. NDC, File No. F164/5, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’.

30. ‘Sins of Individuals’, Pakistan Times, 10 March 1947.

31. NDC, File No. 2 (5) PMS-49, ‘Charge Sheet against H.E. Sir Francis Mudie, Governor of West Punjab’, 1949, Prime Minister Files, 215–224.

32. NDC, File No. F164/5, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’, 30 April 1949, Francis Mudie to the governor-general of Pakistan.

33. NDC, File No. 2 (5) PMS-49, ‘Charge Sheet against H.E. Sir Francis Mudie, Governor of West Punjab’, 1949, Prime Minister Files, 215–224.

34. See for example, ‘reports on West Punjab –I, II, III’, by editor, Dawn, 28, 29, 30 April 1949; and also ‘the long and short of it’, Dawn, 6 June 1949.

35. ‘Is Mudie Irreplaceable?’ Dawn, 5 May 1949.

36. Zamindar (Lahore) 29 April and 3 May 1949.

37. ‘Agitation in Pakistan: Feelings against Britain’, The Times (London) 15 May 1949.

38. ‘Anti-British feeling in Pakistan due to fear of Hindu Rule’, by Douglas Brown, Daily Telegraph (London) 13 July 1949.

39. ‘Deeds, not words’, Dawn, 1 May 1949; also see Pakistan Times, 13 May.

40. ‘Sir Francis Mudie’, Times of India, 25 May 1949; also see ‘Background of Mudie-recall’, Pakistan Times, 8 June 1949.

41. NDC, File No. F/164/51, Governor-General Correspondences, 19 April 1949, Liaquat Ali Khan to Francis Mudie.

42. NDC, File No. F164/5, ‘papers relating to imposition of section 92-A in West Punjab 1949’, 12 May 1949, Francis Mudie to Liaquat Ali Khan.

43. Ibid.

44. NDC, File No. 2 (4) PMS-49, ‘Appointment of Advisors to Governor West Punjab’, 1949, Prime Minister Files, 198–204.

45. WP League's rejoinder to Prime Minister's statement’, Dawn, 29 May 1949.

46. Safeena, 28 May 1949.

47. See a full interview of Altaf Hussian with Price Ward, a Karachi-based correspondent of Times of India, 12 June 1949.