All images and text unless otherwise indicated are © Dawn.
All images and text unless otherwise indicated are © Dawn.

The Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and G.M. Syed make their way in a triumphal procession to the Annual Session of the Muslim League in Karachi in December 1943. Behind them and standing are Mr Jinnah’s National Guard ADCs; Mumtaz Hidayatullah, the son of Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah, the veteran politician from Sindh, and Saeed Haroon, the son of Haji Abdullah Haroon.

On March 3, 1943, G.M. Syed brings before the Sindh Legislative Assembly, a resolution demanding the creation of Pakistan. The resolution is adopted, making it the first one in favour of the creation of Pakistan passed by a legislature in undivided India. It states that the Muslims of India “are justly entitled to the right as a single separate nation to have independent national states of their own, carved in the zones in which they are in majority in the subcontinent of India...”

It is this triumph for the Muslim League that frames Mr Jinnah’s arrival later in December to attend the Annual Session of the Muslim League for which Karachi is chosen as the venue.

As the President of the Sindh Muslim League, G.M. Syed is tasked with the responsibility of organising the arrangements for the Annual Session. He writes: “For nearly three months we worked to make a grand job of the honour that had been done to us. We did not spare men or material in lending all the grandeur and splendour to this historic session and only those who attended it can bear testimony to the scrupulous care with which every detail had been attended to and the lavish hospitality that Sindh had to offer.”

In his memoir, Struggle For New Sindh, G.M. Syed also writes about his admiration for Mr Jinnah: “In Jinnah I found a man of extraordinary intellectual capacity. His domineering personality and dynamic genius left a deep impression on my mind.”

G.M. Syed is subsequently asked by Mr Jinnah to resign from the presidency of the Sindh Muslim League, after which a group largely drawn from the Sindh Muslim League and styled as the Progressive Muslim League contest the 1945-46 elections in Sindh and establish a path of their own. (photo: National Archive Islamabad)

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2017

Opinion

Editorial

Digital gaps
Updated 17 Jul, 2025

Digital gaps

Digital technology affords Pakistan a unique opportunity to transform itself into a dynamic digital economy.
A grave matter
17 Jul, 2025

A grave matter

IT is a weighty issue, and one which many would not touch with a barge pole, primarily out of concern for...
Vaccine paradox
17 Jul, 2025

Vaccine paradox

PAKISTAN has recorded its highest-ever coverage of the DTP vaccine — protecting children against diphtheria,...
The next deluge
Updated 16 Jul, 2025

The next deluge

Pakistan, and others vulnerable to climatic extremes, must heed the warning before the next deluge arrives — because it surely will.
FC revamp
16 Jul, 2025

FC revamp

WHAT’S in a name? The civilian paramilitary force hitherto known as the Frontier Constabulary will continue to...
Simplified tax forms
16 Jul, 2025

Simplified tax forms

THE rollout of a new interactive tax return form should ease filing by simplifying the procedure, addressing a...