PIIA History

The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs:
How it was established

The Indian Institute of International Affairs came into existence in the mid- 1930s, according to Sir Zafrulla Khan, at his instance. It had a formal constitution but no library, no staff and no office premises. There was an Honorary Secretary and to the office of Chairman was invariably elected a member of the Governor-General’s Executive Council. The only activity of this body were infrequent meetings, at which talks were given or papers were read. These meetings were attended by a small number of people, mostly high officials. In 1943, it was decided to have a whole time staff for the Institute and to expand its work. To select that staff, a committee consisting of Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar, Sir Frederick James, and Sir Zafrulla Khan was appointed. Sir Sultan Ahmed and Major (later Colonel) A. S. B. Shah, who were then Chairman and Honorary Secretary respectively of the Institute, were present at the meetings of this committee. Dr. Shiva Ram, Professor of Politics at Lucknow University, was selected for the post of Secretary and I for that of Director of Research. I took office on 23 March 1944. Very soon afterwards, my designation was changed to that of Additional Secretary.

The Institute was established in a two-room first floor flat in New Delhi’s Connaught Place. With Dr. Ram as Secretary, very little progress was made in building up the Institute nor was any energetic effort made to bring out the journal on which the Chairman, Sir Sultan Ahmed, placed great score. About the middle of 1944, Dr. Ram reverted to his university post and I was appointed Secretary. In February 1945, the third unofficial Commonwealth Relations Conference was to be held in London and the Institute was to send a delegation to it. A number of data papers were prepared for this Conference and I got them printed by Kitabistan, Allahabad. The delegation to the Conference was led by Sir Zafrulla Khan and I served as its Secretary. It included such eminent men as K. M. Pannikar, Sir Mahraj Singh and Mir Maqbool Ahmed. The war was still on and we were provided with facilities of air travel to London.

The Conference, which was held at Chatham House, enabled me to study the organization of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and provided me with the opportunity of meeting officials of similar institutes in other Commonwealth countries. This added to my understanding of the nature of work done by such institutions and the problems involved in it. The Conference also brought me in touch for the first time with persons who were eminent as statesmen and scholars of international affairs. After three weeks in war-time Britain, I returned to Delhi, deeply impressed with the importance of an Institute of International Affairs for the foreign policy of a country.

I was present at the Lahore session of the Muslim League at which the Pakistan resolution was passed, but there was no knowing if and when Pakistan would come into being. However, after the failure of the Cabinet Mission Plan and particularly after the massacre of Muslims in Bihar, I became convinced that there was no alternative to Pakistan. That conviction was further strengthened by my experience of dealing with Hindu leaders of the Indian community in East Africa. I had gone there in July 1946, as a member of the Government of India’s delegation commissioned to enquire into the problems of Indian settlers in East African territories.

On my return from East Africa, I decided in my own mind that when Pakistan came into existence it would need an Institute of International Affairs. I discussed this idea with my friend, Dr. Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, who agreed with me that we should prepare for shifting the Indian Institute to Pakistan when the time for it came. He mentioned the matter to Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan who was then Finance Member of the Government of India and right-hand man of the Quaid-e-Azam. Liaquat sent for me and asked me to explain to him the functions of the Institute and its likely utility to Pakistan. He also enquired about the assets and liabilities of the Institute. Having satisfied himself on all these points, he approved of our idea of shifting the Indian Institute to Pakistan when it came into being. As a first step towards it, I arranged that Dr. Qureshi should be elected Honorary Treasurer of the Institute in place of Mr. Antia, whose term was then about to end. This, of course, would not have been possible if Sir Sultan Ahmed, the Chairman, had been antipathetic to it.

In February 1947, I became almost certain that Pakistan would come into being. In the third week of May, the decision was taken to partition the Sub-continent. It was still secret, but I got to know of it thus: One hot afternoon when I was giving dictation to my Hindu stenographer, the door of my office opened and in came my old friend, Mumtaz Hasan. With him was Chaudhri Mohammad Ali whom I had not met before. They said they wanted to have a private talk with me. I dismissed the stenographer and got up and bolted all the doors of the room. Mumtaz introduced Chaudhri Mohammad Ali to me and said that they wanted me to lend them some books which dealt with problems that arose when countries were partitioned. I asked them no question but at once knew that Pakistan was coming. I picked out three books from the shelves and these they took away. The next day they came again and asked me to write for them a paper on Problems Arising Out of Partition and on Principles of Boundary Making. Since my stenographer was a Hindu, every morning Mumtaz Hasan sent his stenographer, a man called Kirmani, to whom I dictated for two hours. This I did from notes prepared during the preceding night. Kirmani would bring a rough draft the following morning and I would correct it and give it to him to fair out. The paper was ready by the appointed date and was cyclostyled.

The Partition Plan was announced on 3 June 1947. Thereafter, Chaudhri Mohammad Ali and Mumtaz Hasan came to me frequently for discussions, which embraced the preparation of maps for the Punjab Boundary Commission. These large-scale maps were secretly prepared in the back room of a bungalow on Rajpar Road in the Civil Lines of Delhi. This bungalow was occupied by a Muslim Income Tax Officer. Khwaja Abdur Raheem, ICS, who was working on boundary problems in Lahore was in touch with me. I was also consulted on a number of points of constitutional law and prepared a paper on the organization of the Foreign Office of the future Government of Pakistan.

Under the constitution of the Indian Institute, its headquarters could be at any place in India decided on by its members in a general meeting. The due date was 15 August. I reasoned to myself and to the satisfaction of Dr. Qureshi that, before that date, Karachi would still be in India and the Institute could legitimately be shifted there. I arranged with Sir Sultan Ahmed that a general meeting be called in the first week of August. By then, the Muslim members were clearly in a majority. Due to the efforts of Mumtaz Hasan, many of the Muslim officers who had opted for Pakistan had become members of the Institute. Altaf Husain also enthusiastically helped, as of course, did Dr. Qureshi. In the meanwhile, on 28 July, I had had an interview with the Quaid-e-Azam, which was largely devoted to the discussion of boundary problems. But I also mentioned to him our idea of setting up an Institute of International Affairs in Pakistan and he indicated his approval of it. Sir Sultan Ahmed met Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan and told him that the latter should take the Institute to Pakistan ‘otherwise it will be used against you’.

The general meeting of the Institute was held in the Intelligence Room of the Commerce Department which was in a temporary war-time structure in Connaught Circus. The pro-Pakistan members turned up in full strength. The item on the agenda, as it was put, was ‘The Consideration of the Future of the Institute’. The Chairman, Sir Sultan Ahmed, told the meeting that they had met to decide the future of the Institute and plainly said that some people wanted to take it to Karachi. Altaf Husain formally proposed that the Institute be shifted to Karachi. This was duly seconded. Some Hindu members started arguing against it. I was asked what my attitude was towards this proposal. I replied that I was a servant of this Institute and that I would respect whatever decision was taken by the members. Mr. Patani said that he had donated a sum of Rs. 100,000 for the building of the Institute which was to have been constructed in Delhi. Sir Sultan Ahmed said that if the resolution to shift the Institute to Karachi was passed, this sum would be returned to Mr. Patani. (This was actually done. The Honorary Treasurer, Dr. Qureshi signed the cheque for that amount). The counter arguments in which Pandit Kunzru took part continued for some time. Altaf Husain again stood up and said, ‘Sir, I have formally proposed a resolution. I demand a vote on it’. The Chairman put the resolution to vote and it was declared ‘carried’.

Immediately thereafter, I went to the house of Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan where Chaudhri Mohammad Ali was also waiting and informed them of the decision taken at the meeting. Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan then and there directed Chaudhri Mohammad Ali to provide me and my family with travel facility to Karachi and wagons for shifting the library and furniture of the Institute.

I started preparations for the shifting. The Director of Research, Dr. Bishesevari Prasad, had some months earlier gone back to Allahabad University whence he had come. The Hindu Research Assistant had also been eased out. The only Hindu now on my staff was the accountant-cum-typist, Lakshman Prasad Jain, who willingly cooperated in all that was being done. All the furniture was crated and the books of the library were packed in wooden cases which had been lined with water proof material. Nothing was left behind, not even doormats or brooms. In pouring rain at the main railway station at Delhi, Lakshman Prasad and I had the crates and cases put in the wagons which had been allotted to me. Likewise, my car and other personal belongings were loaded on one of the special goods trains to Pakistan. I left Delhi with my family on the morning of 13 August 1947 on the last Pakistan passenger special train that got through to Karachi.

On arrival in Karachi on the evening of 15 August 1947, I was allotted accommodation in the Intelligence School. But there was no accommodation immediately for the Institute nor was there any staff. A few days later, when its furniture and books arrived from Delhi, I set up in my living room the library and one-man office of the Institute, arranged the books in the shelves and started work. I had got in touch with Mohammad Ikramullah who had been appointed Foreign Secretary but who had few files and no books in his Ministry. What I had brought from Delhi proved at that stage invaluable to the Foreign Office and to some other ministries.

Largely through the kindness of Abbas Khaleeli and Dr. I. H. Usmani, who were then in the Ministry of Works, three rooms were allotted to the Institute in Frere Hall, and this remained its habitat until 1955, when it moved to its own new building. During this period, lecture meetings that we started organizing soon after we were established in Frere Hall, were held in Somerset Mess which then, and for many years later, served as hostel for the members of the Assembly. The Institute immediately became popular and its library and meetings attracted a growing number of people. Such important local personalities as Jamshed Nusserwanjee and Hashim Gazdar became enthusiastic about it. Dr. Qureshi, Mumtaz Hasan and Altaf Husain continued to lend their support. Publicity given to the meetings by Dawn was particularly valuable.

At Karachi, the Institute began its work without a constitution. I decided to have it registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and drew up the Memorandum of Association and the Articles of Association in consultation with Mumtaz Hasan and Dr. Qureshi. The legal aspect of these documents, were taken care of by Sharifuddin Pirzada, who got them registered. When this had been done, I spoke to Dr. Qureshi about the formal inauguration of the Institute. We agreed that we should request Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to inaugurate it. He consented to do so. The inaugural meeting was held in April 1948 in the large second floor room (not in our occupation) of Frere Hall. Dr. Qureshi presided; the resolution establishing the Institute was moved by Altaf Husain and seconded by Begum Shaista Ikramullah. Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan then delivered his inaugural address and Dr. Qureshi declared the meeting closed. The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs had come into being as a body corporate.