I. I. Chundrigar

Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar, a Muhajir, was born in Godhra, Gujarat, in India on 15 September 1897.[1][6] He was the only child of his Kutchi Chundrigar family, a Muslim community in India.[7]

Chundrigar was initially schooled in Ahmedabad where he finished his matriculation and moved to Bombay for his higher studies. He attended the University of Bombay where he earned a BA degree in philosophy, and later the LLB degree in 1929.[8][9][10] From 1929 till 1932, Chundrigar served as a lawyer for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.[11]

From 1932 until 1937, Chundrigar practiced civil law, and moved to practice and read law at the Bombay High Court in 1937, where he established his reputation.[10] During this time, he became acquainted with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, sharing similar ideology, work ethics, and political views.[12][7]

In 1935, Chundrigar was chosen by the Muslim League to give a response to the Government of India Act 1935 introduced by the British government in India. Notably, concerning the role of the Governor-General as head of state, Chundrigar denied that the Governor-General enjoyed the powers supposedly granted by the Act.[13]

From 1937 till 1946, Chundrigar practiced and read law, taking several cases on civil matters where he advocated for his clients at the Bombay High Court.[14]

In 1936, Chundrigar joined the Muslim League.[7] He was elected to the Bombay Legislative Assembly from the Ahmedabad district rural constituency in the 1937 provincial elections. From 1940 to 1945, he was president of the Bombay provincial Muslim League.[1]

In 1946, he was elected to the assembly from a Muslim urban constituency in Ahmedabad.[15] He was appointed as Commerce Minister under the presidential administrations of the Viceroys of India, Archibald Wavell (1946) and Louis Mountbatten (1946-47).[9] Peter Lyon, a reader emeritus in international relations, described Chundrigar as a "close supporter" of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the Pakistan Movement.[16]

After the partition of India by the act of the British Empire that established Pakistan, Chundrigar endorsed Liaquat Ali Khan's bid for the Premiership and was retained as the Commerce Minister in the administration of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan on 15 August 1947.[17][18]

In May 1948, Chundrigar left the Commerce Ministry and was appointed as Pakistan's Ambassador to Afghanistan.[19][20] Although his appointment was favorably received in Afghanistan, Chundrigar was at odds with the Afghan government (supported by India as early as 1949) over the issue of Pakistan's north-west border with Afghanistan.[21]

Chundrigar's tenure as ambassador was short. He was recalled to Pakistan by the Foreign Office, which viewed his inability to understand the Pashtun culture as a possible factor in fracturing Afghan-Pakistan relations.[22] In 1950, Chundrigar was appointed Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a position he held until 1951.[9] A Cabinet reshuffle in 1951 allowed him to be appointed as the Governor of Punjab but he was removed amid differences developed in 1953 with Governor-General M.G. Muhammad when he enforced martial law at the request of Prime Minister K. Nazimuddin to control violent religious riots that occurred in Lahore, Pakistan.[4]

In 1955, Chundrigar was invited to join the central government of a three-party coalition: the Awami League, the Muslim League, and the Republican Party.[4] He was appointed as Minister of Law and Justice.[23] During this time, he also acted as a Leader of the Opposition, opposing the mainstream agenda presented by the Republican Party.[24]

At the National Assembly, he established his reputation as more of a constitutional lawyer than a politician, and gained a lot of prominence in public for his arguments in favour of parliamentarianism when he pleaded the case of "Maulvi Tamizuddin vs. Federation of Pakistan".[9]

After the resignation of Prime Minister Suhrawardy in 1957, Chundrigar was nominated as the Prime Minister and was supported by the Awami League, the Krishak Sramik Party, the Nizem-i-Islam Party, and the Republican Party.[25] However, this coalition of mixed parties weakened Chundrigar's authority to run the central government, and divisions within the coalition would soon hamper his efforts to amend the Electoral College.[9] On 18 October 1957, Chundrigar became the Prime Minister of Pakistan, receiving his oath of office from Chief Justice M. Munir.[25]

At the first session of the National Assembly, Chundrigar presented his plan to reform the Electoral College which was met with great parliamentary opposition by even his Cabinet ministers from the Republican Party and the Awami League.[26][25] With the Republican Party leaders—party president Feroz Khan and President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza—exploiting and manipulating the opponents of the Muslim League, a successful vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly led by the Republicans and the Awami Party effectively ended Chundrigar's term. He resigned on 11 December 1957.[26][25]

Chundrigar served the third-shortest term of any Prime Minister in Pakistan: 17 October 1957 – 11 December 1957, 55 days into his term.[5][4]