THIS refers to ‘Lahore March 23, 1940: The Moment of Truth’ (June 18) The caption of the photograph of Sir Zafarullah Khan states that he “is credited with the original drafting of the (Pakistan) Resolution…” The caption promotes a misconception that the resolution was adopted by the Muslim League with the approval of, or in connivance with, the British authorities.

This was a fallacy initially promoted by Abdul Wali Khan in a press statement in 1981, based on his observations of a letter he claimed to have seen in the India Office Library, London, written by Lord Linlithgow to Lord Zetland on March 12, 1940. It referred to a memorandum that had been sent by Zafarullah on the subject of “two dominion states” for adoption by the Muslim League. From this, Wali Khan inferred that the Pakistan Resolution was based on this memorandum and Pakistan was a brainchild of the British – from resolution to creation. Zafarullah, alive at the time, debunked Wali Khan’s allegations and provided a complete text of the memorandum to the press.

In his book, Wali Khan misquotes the letter’s contents, avoids direct citations and conceals the contents of the memorandum entirely. The letter actually refers to “Zafarullah’s note on dominion status” whereas Wali Khan makes a reference to “two dominion states” – a twist of words. And the memorandum that Wali conceals in his book indeed makes a strong case against, not for, Pakistan.

For Pakistan, he wrote: “There is for instance the Pakistan scheme which, broadly speaking, seeks to divide India into Muslim and non-Muslim parts, the Muslim part being described as Pakistan… One has only to contemplate the expense, misery, suffering and horror involved in any such attempt … [W]e are convinced that the scheme is utterly impracticable… [I]t seeks to confine the progress of Muslim faith and culture in India within certain geographical limits, than which no greater disservice could be done to Islam.”

The facts are that the resolution was drafted by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Nawab Muhammad Ismail Khan, Sir Sikander Hayat Khan and Malik Barkat Ali on the evening of March 21, at the residence of Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Mamdot in Lahore. It was presented to the Subject Committee on March 22 by Liaquat Ali Khan and was approved thereby.

While I appreciate the newspaper’s effort to promote Pakistan’s history, the information it uses should be verified through profound research rather than relying on Wikipedia.

Hassan Jafar Zaidi

Lahore

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2017