Role of Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qaiyum Khan in constitutional reforms in the North-West Frontier Province of the British India

Abstract

This paper analyses the services of Sahibzada Abdul Qaiyum Khan in granting constitutional reform to North-West Frontier. Quaid-i-Azam of Sarhad, Sahibzada Abdul Qaiyum, after his retirement from government service in 1919, started a struggle for constitutional reforms to the North-West Frontier. The constitutional reforms introduced in British India since its inception in 1901 were not extended timely to North-West Frontier, due to which it remained a Chief Commissioner's Province till 1932. Sahibzada Abdul Qaiyum pleaded the case on all fronts, including the Bray Committee, Indian Legislative Assembly, Delhi Proposals, annual sessions of All India Muslim League, Simon Commission, Haig Committee, and Round Table Conferences held in London. After a long struggle, North-West Frontier was levelled from a Commissioner Province to a Governor Province, and a Legislative Council was formed in 1932. After the elections, Sahibzada Abdul Qaiyum was elected as the Minster of the Transferred Departments of N-W.F.P. After five years, according to the Act of 1935, the Legislative Assembly was formed, and he was elected as the first Chief Minister of N-W.F.P. in 1937. The article reviewed primary and secondary data available in the provincial archives, Peshawar, National Documentation Centre, Islamabad, British Library, London, and other libraries.