18 Facts About Jalal Baba

Khan Jalaluddin Khan, aka Jalal Baba, was a Muslim League stalwart and a Pakistan Movement activist who served as the 8th Interior Minister of Pakistan under the Premiership of Feroz Khan Noon.

Jalal Baba was a major figure in British Indian and later Pakistani politics, in particular in the North-West Frontier Province.

Jalal Baba was elected as the president of the Hazara District Muslim League.

Jalal Baba held office as an unopposed president for fourteen years and remained the President until 1953.

Jalal Baba was among the first ones to renounce his titles given by the British in 1946 and was widely regarded as the "Winner of Referendum" in 1947.

The courageous leadership of Jalal Baba had brought people with divergent and conflicting views and representing different castes such as Dhond, Karlal, Tanoli, Pathan, Syed, Awan, Swati, and Tareen, etc.

Jalal Baba played a vital role in unifying these scattered groups into one.

Jalal Baba's father Sheikh Ghulam Mohammad was a blacksmith who had migrated to this part of undivided India in the band of Mujahedeen under the banner of Syed Ahmad Barelvi before the 1857 War of Independence.

Jalal Baba came back to Hazara from Landi Kotal after the movement was called off.

Jalal Baba had a prominent position among the Muslim League workers who offered the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah sincere support and remained loyal to him till the end of the Pakistan movement.

Jalal Baba was among the first ones to initiate the 'Direct Action' in the struggle for Pakistan by moving a resolution in the All-India Muslim League meeting in July 1946, recommending the renunciation of titles, conferred by the British Government.

Again when in July 1947, the Muslim League launched the civil disobedience movement, Jalal Baba was among the first ones to court arrest from Hazara followed by others in such large numbers that the jails were filled to capacity with the political internees.

Jalal Baba was released from jail only after the declaration of independence and the establishment of Pakistan on 14 August 1947.

Jalal Baba joined the Muslim League in 1937, at Abbottabad in the first public meeting held at the Company Bagh, while Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman accompanied by Saadullah Khan was presiding over the meeting.

Jalal Baba held the office as unopposed president for twenty-one years.

Jalal Baba had been the vice-president of the Provincial Muslim League and a member of the All-India Muslim League Council.

Jalal Baba received support and co-operation from the middle and lower-middle-class people who then comprised the majority of the local population, as he himself had belonged to them.

Jalal Baba was a veteran leader of the sub-continent in general and of NWFP in particular.