Home Critical Analysis/Archives Report on Punjab Disturbances of 1953

THE DEPARTMENT OF ISLAMIAT

The decision to create a department of Islamiat was taken on 14th May 1951 at a meeting attended by the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, the Finance Secretary and the Director of Public Relations. A board of six ulama was set up and the Chief Secretary was appointed the head of the department. The Director of Public Relations became the controlling and disbursing officer while Maulvi Ibrahim Ali Chishti was appointed as Deputy Secretary on a salary of Rs. 650 per month. The amounts actually spent by the department were Rs. 49,815 in 1951-52 and Rs. 1,05,435 in 1952-53. Seventy-two persons were paid honoraria for writing articles in different periodicals and newspapers from September 1951 to February 1953. Out of these persons, Manlaua Abul Hasanat Muhammad Ahmad and Maulana Muhammad Bakhsh Muslim took a prominent part in the ariti-Ahmadiya agitation, the former being the President and the latter a member of the Punjab Majlis-i-Amal. The department employed eighteen persons as lecturers to deliver speeches in theology in schools, colleges and jails. Of these, the following eleven took a very active part in the movement:—

(1) Maulana Muhammad Bakhsh Muslim,

(2) Maulvi Ghulam Din,

(3) Maulana Abul Hasanat Muhammad Ahmad Qadri,

(4) Sahibzada Faiz-ul-Hasan,

(5) Allama Ala-ud-Din Siddiqi,

(6) Maulana Ghulam Muhammad Tarannum,

(7) Qazi Murid Ahmad,

(8) Hafiz Kifayat Husain,

(9) Professor Abdul Hamid,

(10) Manlana Salim Ullah, and

(11) Mufti Muhammad Hasan.

Seven of these gentlemen were arrested for their activities in connection with-the agitation. With the exception of Qazi Murid Ahmad, Professor Abdul Hamid and Mufti Muhammad Hasan., they were all members of the Majlis-i-Amal which directed the agitation. Qazi Murid Ahmad was the President of the District Council of Action, Sargodha, and Hafiz Kifayat Husain of the District Council of Action, Sargodha, and Hafiz Kifayat Husain of the District Council of Action, Lahore. Of the Board of Members, the following —

(1) Maulana Abul Hasanat Muhammad Ahmad Qadri,

(2) Maulana Ghulam Muhammad Tarannum,

(3) Maulana Muhammad Bakhsh Muslim   and

(4) Mufti Muhammad Hasan,

took an, important, part in the movement and the first two were arrested for their activities.