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MORE SPEECHES: POLICY RECONSIDEREDIt is necessary to examine at this stage some cases because these were disposed of together by an order passed at a conference of officers on 24th December 1952. These are the Gulu Shah Fair case [File No. 16 (19) 145], the Lyallpur and Samundri cases [File No. 16 (2) 127], the Rawalpindi case [File No. 16 (2) 129] and the Shujabad case [File No. 16 (2) 130]. There is held every year at village Koreke within the jurisdiction of Police Station Satrah in the district of Sialkot a cattle fair called Gulu Shah Fair. In. 1952, the fair was held from 3rd to 10th October 1952 where a large number of men with their cattle had assembled. The Ahrar embraced this opportunity to call a meeting of All Muslim Parties Convention and to pour out their usual stuff to the people thus assembled. Some of the leaders spoke on 3rd and others on 7th October. The subject of the speeches was of course Ahmadiyyat and since these were calculated to spread sectarian hatred and were prima facie actionable, they were ordered by the Superintendent of Police to be examined by Mr. Abdus Said, Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police. After careful examination of each speech, Mr. Abdus Said gave his opinion as follows :—
Mr. Abdus Sami, Public Prosecutor, agreed with this opinion. Armed with this legal opinion, the S. P. referred the matter to the District Magistrate, requesting him to obtain the approval of the Provincial Government for prosecution in accordance with the instructions contained in paragraphs 2 and 7 of the decisions taken at the conference of officers held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary on 5th July 1952. Mr. Ghulam Sarwar Khan, the District Magistrate, forwarded this reference to Government through the Commissioner, by his letter, dated the 18th November 1952. The case was examined by Mr. Nazir Ahmad, S. P. (B), who by his note, dated 18th November 1952, suggested that instead of instituting cases against them, Bashir Ahmad and Manzur Ahmad should be arrested under section 3 of the Punjab Public Safety Act. Mr. Anwar Ali, D.I.G., C.I.D.. examined the records of these two individuals and on 22nd November 1952 submitted the case to the Home Secretary expressing the opinion that no opportunity should be lost to prosecute disruptionists who were trying to undermine the stability of the Slate and that if people realised that action would be taken in respect of speeches which offended against the law, greater restraint would be shown. On this the Home Secretary noted on 21st November 1952 that the Chief Minister intended to discuss the whole situation relating to the anti-Ahmadiya agitation with officers on his return from Karachi and that this case could also be discussed in that meeting. He remarked, however, that many another objectionable speech in this connection had come to his notice regarding which it was considered that the best course would be to leave it alone. At Lyallpur the khatm-i-nubuwwat conference was held under the auspices of the All Muslim Parties Convention on 26th and 27th September 1952 and another public meeting under the same auspices at Samundri on 28th September 1952. Among the speakers at Lyallpur were Mirza Ghulam Nabi Janbaz, Master Taj-ud-Din Ansari, Sahibzada Faiz-ul-Hasan, Sheikh Husam-ud-Din, Taj Muhammad of Lyallpur, Muzaffar Ali Shamsi and Maulana Daud Ghaznavi. In the course of his speech Sahibzada Faiz-ul-Hasan was reported to have remarked that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a man of cheap morals and deserved to be prosecuted under the Goonda Act for having attacked the modesty of Hazrat Bibi Fatima. He also described Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan as a goonda. He further said that Mr. Muzaffar Ahmad, who was an Ahmadi and a son-in-law of Mirza Mahmud Ahmad could not be appointed as Finance Secretary to Government, Punjab. Sheikh Husam-ud-Din described Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan as khabis and stated that there were few chances of Pakistan’s betterment so long as he was the Foreign Minister. Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari said something about Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth which had better be left unmentioned. He attributed the air crash near the Lahore Cantonment and the Jangshahi air crash which resulted in the death of Generals Iftikhar Khan and Sher Khan to Mirzais. The speakers at the Samundri conference were Sayyad Muzaffar Ali Shamsi, Master Taj-ud-Din Ansari, Sheikh Husam-ud-Din, Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari, Ghulam Nabi Janbaz and Ghazi Muhammad Hussain of Chak No. 423, Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari in his speech alleged that Hakim Ghulam Murtaza, the father of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, had contributed fifty horsemen to Sardar Nau Nihal Singh to fight against the Muslim King, Bahadur Shah, in the battle of Bala Kot. While commenting on these speeches Mr. Anwar Ali, D. I. G., C. I. D., remarked on 28th October 1952 that the reference to Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth was objectionable, that the allegation that the Mirzais had anything to do with the Jangshahi or the Lahore Cantonment air crash was false because one of the persons killed in the former, General Sher Khan, was himself a Mirzai, that the speeches of the Ahrar leaders were not only venomous but indecent and offensive, that there was no decrease in the number of conferences and hatred continued to be preached and that he did not see why for such mischievous speeches some kind of ban should not be imposed on Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari. He added that the intelligentsia were getting tired of such speeches which were corrupting the whole nation. The Home Secretary on 29th October expressed the view that time had come when Government should review the whole position because the tone and tenor of the speeches delivered by the Ahrar leaders was marked by their mischievous and highly objectionable nature. He recommended that the Chief Minister should call a meeting of officers when he was free from the forthcoming Muslim League Conference at Lyallpur and that till then no action should be taken. On 31st November, the Secretary to the Chief Minister noted on the file that the Chief Minister desired that this case should be put up to him after his return from Lyallpur. The public meeting at Rawalpindi under the auspices of the All Muslim Parties Convention was held from 14th to 16th November 1952, the prominent speakers being Master Taj-ud-Din Ansari, Sheikh Husam-ud-Din, Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari, Ehsan Ahmad Shujabadi and Muhammad Ali Jullundri. Master Taj-ud-Din Ansari in his speech accused Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan of anti-State and anti-Islam activities and alleged that he would have to face a trial in Court on these charges. He said that Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan was a British agent and a murtadd, that he was not sincere to Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din and that Mirzais should be socially and economically boycotted. Ehsan Ahmad Shujabadi described the movement as a struggle between wafadars and ghaddars and between sadaqat and kufr and gave expression to the view that violence could be used for protection of Islam though not for its propagation. Hafiz Muhammad Said said that Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din was a hato (derisive term for a Kashmiri) like him and owed his position to pro-British activities and that he was responsible for the lives of 2½ lac victims of famine in Bengal. He also described Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan as a kafir. He further alleged that drinking, dishonesty, immorality and corruption were on the increase in Pakistan and that Ministers were travelling without ticket. He warned the authorities that if the unanimous demands of the Musalmans were not accepted they shall have to accompany Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on the Doomsday as surely as pharaoh shall have to ride a pig. Sheikh Husam-ud-Din alleged that the Mirzais had helped the British during the 1857 Mutiny with arms and horsemen and that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s forefathers had joined the Sikh forces against Shah Ismail Shahid at Bala Kot. Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari said that the Mirzais intended to re-unite India and Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jullundri alleged that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and all his followers were zindiqs about whom the Holy Prophet had ordained that if any one killed them he was equal to 100 martyrs in spirituality. He suggested that the epithet kazzab should be used with the name of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and alleged that 722 Muslims had become Mirzais in the Railway Department when Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan was Railway Member to the Government of India and that Mr. Ijaz Ahmad, Import and Export Officer, Karachi, and Mr. Farooqi, Chief Secretary, Sind Government, were propagating Mirzaeeat in the course of their official duties. When the case came up to Mr. Nazir Ahmad, S. P. (B), he, on 24th November 1952, wrote that a case against Muhammad Ali Jullundri had been pending investigation under section 21 of the Punjab Public Safety Act for the Speech made by him in the district of Montgomery and that he was inquiring from S. P., Montgomery, what had happened to that case because it did not help the administration to register a case against a bad political speaker and not to send it to Court for a long time. He also remarked that it was time that Muhammad Ali Jullundri, who was one of the worst speakers among the Ahrar, were prosecuted or detained under the Punjab Public Safety Act. On 25th November 1952, Mr. Anwar Ali, D. I. G., C. I. D., submitted the case to Government for information and noted that the Chief Minister had directed that on his return from Karachi he would discuss how to deal with militant sectarian speakers. The Khatm-i-Nubuwwat conference at Shujabad in the district of Multan was held on 19th and 20th November 1952, the important speakers on that occasion being Maulvi Muhammad Ali Jullundri, Mirza Ghulam Nabi Janbaz, Sheikh Husam-ud-Din, Maulvi Ghulam Ghaus Sarhaddi, Qazi Ehsan Ahmad Shujabadi and Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari. Maulvi Ghulam Ghaus in his speech remarked that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad used to get his legs kneaded by women one of whom was named Bhano, that he was fond of looking at naked women and that his son (Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad) had admitted that he used to take liquor. Maulvi Muhammad Ali Jullundri described Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as ‘ullu ka patha’ and said that the mother of Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din could consider herself to be fortunate in having her son as the Prime Minister but the country was unfortunate because the Prime Minister could not understand things. Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari again made some reference to Queen Victoria. The case came up to Mr. Anwar Ali who recorded the following note on it on 8th December 1952:—
The Home Secretary marked the case for information to the Chief Minister saying that a meeting of officers to review and consider the whole question had already been fixed. When the file was received by Mr. Anwar Ali, he required S. P. (A) and S. P. (B) to speak to him with a view to drawing up a list of points which were to be placed in the meeting of officers that was to come off in the next few days. In compliance with this, Mr. Nazir Ahmad, S. P. (B), wrote the following note:—
The meeting was held on 24th December 1952 in the Chief Minister’s room in which Mr. Qurban Ali Khan, Inspector-General of Police, Home Secretary and Mr. Anwar Ali, D.I.G., C. I. D., took part. The only decision taken was that where a speech offended against a provision of law, legal action should be taken and that it was not necessary to take any further action. In compliance with this order a letter was written to S. P., Sialkot, pointing out to him that as Manzur Ahmad, Karamat Ali and Bashir Ahmad, whose prosecution had been recommended by him and the District Magistrate for speeches at the Gulu Shah Fair were petty persons, it would not be useful to prosecute them on this occasion. A conference under the auspices of All Muslim Parties Convention was again going to be held in Sialkot on 9th and 10th February 1953. Though the conference was advertised by one Allama Muhammad Yaqub Khan, the Ahrar were at the back of the whole show. On 6th November 1952, Mr. Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Deputy Commissioner, Sialkot, wrote to the Commissioner saying that though Government instructions contained in D. O. letter No. 8469-84-BDSB, dated the 5th June 1952, were clear on the point that section 144, Criminal Procedure Code, should be promulgated, it had been subsequently decided in a conference of officers held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary in his office on Saturday, the 5th July 1952, that the Convention called for the 13th July 1952 in Lahore was not to be interfered with and that he took this decision to mean that no interference with such meetings was called for by the district authorities. He pointed out that such conferences were held at Gujranwala and Lahore and no action was taken and inquired whether the same policy was intended to be followed in the district of Sialkot. A copy of this letter was forwarded demi-officially to the Chief Secretary to Government, Punjab, which was placed before the Home Secretary on 9th November 1952. The Commissioner forwarded the Deputy Commissioner’s reference to the Chief Secretary on 9th November 1952, with the opinion that the action proposed to be taken by the D. C., Sialkot, in not interfering with the conference appeared to be right. The Home Secretary noted that Government had no desire of issuing orders contrary to what the District Magistrate intended to do and that, in view of the last sentence of the District Magistrate’s letter, no action was necessary. |