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Today's Paper | April 29, 2024

Published 08 Mar, 2021 08:07am

From The Past Pages Of Dawn: 1946: Seventy-five years ago: Unjust move

There remains no extant copy of the March 8, 1946 edition. The excerpt below is taken from the previous day’s paper.

IN complete violation of the … spirit underlying the communal award which is the corner-stone of the Government of India Act of 1935 under which elections were fought for provincial legislatures, and which vouchsafed statutory majority for the Punjab Muslims, the Punjab Governor has called upon the leader of the predominantly Hindu-Sikh Coalition Party Malik Khizr Hyat, to help him in the formation of the Cabinet. This is calculated to forge Wardha-Khizr axis to crush Punjab Muslims. This has led to … indignation all over the Punjab among the Muslims. …Reports forthcoming from the moffusil reveal that Muslims observed hartal spontaneously. Lahore Muslims observed complete hartal on Wednesday [March 6].

A conference of the District Presidents and Secretaries will be convened … to chalk out “an effective programme on parliamentary and organisational front to take the challenge thrown by the Punjab Governor”. The announcement that the Governor has exercised his “indiscretion” to call upon Khizr to help him in the formation of a Ministry led to spontaneous demonstrations in the city. Waves of students and workers … raised anti-coalition slogans….

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2021

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