page_title: Qazi Zafar Hussain
section_title: Muslim League
hierarchical_section_title: Qazi Zafar Hussain / Muslim League
caption_attribution_description: English: A certificate issued by Deputy Commissioner C.H. Atkins of District Shahpur to Zafar Hussain
context_page_description: Khan Sahib, Qazi Zafar Hussain came from a qadi's family which had, since the 16th century, been prominent among the landed aristocracy of the Soon Valley. He belonged to Awans tribe of ancient repute. He was awarded the title of Khan Sahib by the British Crown. This was a formal title, a compound of khan and sahib, which was conferred in Mughal Empire and British India. Although his father, Qazi Mian Muhammad Amjad forbade his descendants to establish Dargah, he was considered Sajjada Nashin by the people of his area. "Sajjada nashins" David Gilmartin asserts, "claimed to be the descendants of the Sufi, 'saints', intermediaries between the Faithful and their God, and this cut against the grain of Islamic orthodoxy ... in kind, of their special religious status, these sajjada nashins had become men of local standing in their own right." However he never claimed to be a Sajjada Nashin. In the Punjab, the sajjada nashin or pir families were not so rich in terms of land as the great land lords of Punjab but these sajjada nashin or pir families exerted great political and religious influence over the people.
context_section_description: When, in May 1936, Sir Muhammad Iqbal appealed to the Muslims of Punjab to support Muslim League, he started thinking about the support of Muslim League, and when in 1937 Sikander-Jinnah pact was signed he started supporting Muslim League.
  In 1943, when Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah came to Lyallpur and addressed a gathering of over 2 million in the Dhobi Ghat Ground, he arranged a cavalry for the political rally and provided horses for the cavalry of Muslim students, led by his elder son Qazi Altaf Hussain. His second son Qazi Fiaz Hussain sat next to Quaid-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
  He was one of those Muslim rural elites who during the 1946 Punjab Provincial Assembly Election, supported Punjab Muslim League, and, without its victory in Punjab in that election", in the words of Ian Talbot, "the Muslim League would not have gotten Pakistan".
  He supported Khwaja Qamar ul Din Sialvi, who was president of District Shahpur Muslim League. He was also very influential in his region. They appealed to their people to vote against Tiwanas who were trying to defeat the Punjab Muslim League candidates in their constituencies. It was their efforts that Muslim League candidates won 100% seats in the constituencies of their area. Ian Talbot, writes
  "Another leading Chisti, sajjada nashin, Pir Qamaruddin of Sial Sharif held a meeting on the outskirts of the Kalra estate in which he publicly challenged Khizr and Allah Baksh to come to terms with the Muslim League. 'I have never begged for anything in my life before', he declared, 'but today I have come out of my home to beg for votes, believing God is present here (the meeting was being held in a mosque) it is Islamic to ask for vote and "religious" to give them. 
  The Muslim League is purely a religious movement in which all the rich, poor, Sufis and scholars are participating. Not as a pir but even as a Muslim, I have repeatedly advised Nawab Allah Baksh who is my Murid not to desert the Muslims at this critical time."
  He died in 1968 at Hazel Pur, Renala Khurd, and was buried in Naushera, Soon Valley.
caption: A certificate issued by Deputy Commissioner C.H. Atkins of District Shahpur to Zafar Hussain
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