page_title: Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana
section_title: Premier of the Punjab
hierarchical_section_title: Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana / Biography / Premier of the Punjab
caption_attribution_description: English: Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Master Tara Singh, and w:Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana at the Simla conference hosted by Lord Wavell, June 1945
context_page_description: Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana KCSI, OBE was a Punjabi statesman, army officer, and landowner who served as the Unionist Premier of the Punjab in colonial India between 1942 and 1947.
context_section_description: In 1942 Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan unexpectedly died creating a vacancy as Premier. The position was eyed by the three dominant Muslim factions, the Noon-Tiwana, Daultanas and the Hayats. Khizar was unanimously selected as his successor on 23 January 1943.
  Khizar assumed control during the height of the Second World War. Many Punjabi soldiers had been killed, others returned maimed, and demobilised soldiers were not being immediately allotted parcels of land in the canal colonies. To feed Bengalis suffering the Bengal famine of 1943, the central government in Delhi instructed Khizar's government to introduce rationing in the Punjab and fix grain prices which in turn affected landowner's financially. A war weariness descended over the Punjab, and food shortages, fixed prices, and their support for conscription, damaged attitudes towards Khizar's government from rich and poor Muslim alike.
  Like Sikandar, Khizar was staunchly opposed to the idea of Pakistan, yet unlike his predecessor was less willing to compromise or bow to Jinnah's dictation. Jinnah increasingly sought to enforce the Sikandar-Jinnah pact and wield influence over the government claiming that as the Muslims of the Unionist party also belonged to the Muslim League, the Punjab government was a League government and should submit to directives of the Muslim League leadership. In April 1944 Jinnah demanded that the name of the Unionist Party be changed to the Muslim League Coalition Party. Khizar rebuffed these demands asserting that his government was a coalition with Hindus and Sikhs, rather than a Muslim League government Tension with Jinnah simmered until Khizar was expelled from the Muslim League later that year. This opened a rift within the Unionist Party, with Muslim members now forced to choose between Khizar and the Muslim League. Following this clash, the Muslim League waged an increasing vitriolic campaign against him, denouncing him as a 'quisling' and 'kafir'. Mock funerals were held outside his official residence and he was greeted wherever he went with black flags of protest.
  Khizar suffered a further blow in January 1945 with the death of Sir Chhottu Ram. Ram was the leader of the Hindu Jats in south eastern Punjab, a pillar of the Unionist Party and greatly respected by Muslims in the province. Jinnah increased the pressure on Khizar at the Simla Conference of 1945. Convened by the Viceroy of India  Lord Wavell, the conference was to put together an interim government in India following the war. Jinnah insisted that any Muslim nominee to the government must be selected by the Muslim League, as only they spoke for the entirety of Muslims in India. This was seen as an attempt to undermine the influence of the Unionist Party, and its ability to represent its Muslim constituency. In September 1945, Sir Feroz Khan Noon, a member of the Noon-Tiwana faction, resigned from the Unionist party and urged Khizar and other Unionists to join the Muslim League. Noon had previously been a key ally for Khizar, assuring him that he would help heal his rift with Jinnah and urging him to not divide the Punjabi Muslims - the heart of Muslim India. Noon's defection opened the gates for further defections from the party. Other defectors included Sikandar's son, Shaukat Hayat Khan and Mumtaz Daultana, who both realigned their families support towards the Muslim League.
  At the Indian provincial elections of 1946, the Muslim League won seventy nine seats to the Punjab Assembly, and reduced the Unionists to just ten. Despite this crushing defeat for Khizar and the Unionists, the Muslim League were unable to form a government as they lacked an absolute majority. Khizar struck a deal with the Congress Party and Akali Dal and was invited to form a coalition government. His cabinet included Sir Muzaffar Ali Khan Qizilbash, Bhim Sen Sachar and Baldev Singh. The coalition proved a disaster, as for the first time a predominately non-Muslim government held power. From the outset the Muslim League organised a programme of civil disobedience and disruption to the province. The Musli
caption: Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana (right), Premier of the Punjab, with Sikh leader Master Tara Singh (centre), and Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the All India Muslim League at the Simla Conference called by viceroy Lord Wavell in June 1945.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Live Photo Gallery14.0.8081.709", "Image DateTime": "2012:07:21 15:07:40", "Image ExifOffset": "2204", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "3B35F94826054D8E853BC4A3C7202175", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}