SINDH had never submitted to British subjugation and always played an important role in the struggle for Pakistan. The Muslims of Sindh supported the 'Jihad Movement' under the leadership of Syed Ahmed Shaheed Barelvi and also fought the British in the first war of independence of 1857.

Sindh was an important centre of activities during the Khilafat Movement. The Hijrat Tehrik also started in Sindh, when many Sindhi Muslims sold their properties and migrated to Afghanistan.

The separation of Sindh from the Bombay Presidency was the first step towards the foundation of Pakistan. When Muslims of Sindh realised the importance of separation of Sindh, the All India Muslim League passed a resolution in 1925 urging separation. The new leadership of Sindhi Muslims was more active in the movement for a separate province.

Subsequently, under the Government of India Act of 1935, Sindh was made a province with its own Legislative Assembly on April 1, 1936. After its initial reorganisation, the Sindh Provincial Muslim League Conference held its first session at Karachi in October 1938 under the presidentship of Quaid-i-Azam.

The conference adopted a resolution which recommended to the All India Muslim League to devise a scheme of constitution under which Muslims may attain full independence. It was the province of Sindh which first adopted the resolution for an independent Muslim state.

The resolution was moved by Shaikh Abdul Majeed Sindhi who recommended, “All India Muslim League should devise a scheme of constitution under which Muslims may attain full independence”.

A Muslim League Assembly party was established in Sindh ,of which Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah was elected leader and Mir Bandeh Ali Talpur deputy leader. The Quaid-i-Azam declared on the occasion that he was happy to see that the Muslim League had formed a parliamentary party in the Sindh Legislative Assembly and the Muslim majority in Sindh was in support of the policy and the programme of the Muslim League.

The Quaid's plea that India was never a united nation and that Muslim India had always been a separate entity was echoed by the late G.M. Syed, a member of the then working committee of the Muslim League and a Sindhi leader, who asserted that the Indus Valley civilisation as revealed by Moenjodaro was a clear indication that Pakistan territories had never formed part of India.

He went on to say that Sindh, Punjab, Afghanistan and the NWFP “formed part of the Middle East rather than of the Far East.”

It was only the Sindh Assembly, amongst all the provinces of undivided India, which passed a resolution on March 3, 1943, presented by the late G.M. Syed on the lines of the Lahore Resolution, in support of Pakistan.

On June 26, 1947 the Sindh Assembly, at a special session, decided to join the new Pakistan Constituent Assembly. Thus, Sindh became the first province to opt for Pakistan.

The members in Sindh who voted Pakistan are the founding fathers of Pakistan. It would be appropriate to pay them homage. They are Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah, Mohammad Ayub Khuro, Mir Bunde Ali Khan Talpur, Pirzada Abdul Sattar, Mohammed Hashim Gazdar, Peer Elahi Bux, Miran Mohammad Shah, Mahmoud Haroon, Kazi Mohammad Akbar, Khan Sahib Ghulam Rasool Jatoi, Sardar Kaisar Khan Gazdar, Mir Jaffer Khan Jamali, Sardar Nabi Bux Soomro, Ghulam Mohammad Wassan, Sardar Noor Mohammad Bijarani, Ghulam Nabi Dheraj and Agha Badruddin, who presided over the session as speaker.

CHAGHTAI MIRZA EIJAZUDDIN
Karachi