Forum Pakistan

Fourteen Points Of Quaid-e-Azam Ali Jinnah
These were the proposals presented by M.A. * Jinnah at the ession of the *All-India Muslim League Council at Delhi on 28 March 1929, to be incorporated in the future Constitution of India. The Fourteen Points represented a reunification of Muslim politiciansparticularly the All-India Muslim League, which had split over co-operating with the *Simon Commission. The break had not been merely communal or even loyalist. Sir Mohammad *Shafi, President of the All-India Muslim League, was joined by Allama *Iqbal as Honorary Secretary and Maulana Hasrat Mohani as As ociate Secretary in their resolve to co-operate with the Simon Commission. M.A. Jinnah, Sir Mohammad Yaqub and Dr Saifuddin *Kitchlew had formed another AIML to boycott the Simon Commission. The *Nehru Report, which resiled from the *Delhi Muslim Proposals of 20 March 1929, vindicated the Shafi League and underlined the necessity of separate electorates. M.A. Jinnah had at that time written a history of the Fourteen Points in which he plainly characterized the Nehru Report as Hindu counter proposals to the Delhi Muslim Proposals. The Delhi Muslim Proposals had been formulated as an alternative to Separate Electorates. With their experience of the accepted Delhi Proposals subsequently being rejected, the Fourteen Points incorporated both the Delhi Proposals and Separate Electorates these were:

1. The form of the future Constitution shall be federal, with the residuary powers vested in the provinces.

2. A uniform measure of autonomy shall be granted to all provinces.

3. All legislatures in the country and other elected bodie shall be constituted on the definite principle of adequate and effective representation of minorities in every province without reducing the majority in any province to a minority or even equality.

4. In the Central Legislature, Mussalmari representation shall not be less than one-third.

5. Representation of communal groups shall continue to be by means of separate electorates as at present, provided it shall be open to any community, at any time, to abandon its separate electorate in favour of joint electorate.

6. Any territorial re-distribution that might at any time be necessary shall not in any way affect the Muslim majority in the *Punjab, *Bengal and NWF Province.

7. Full religious liberty i.e., liberty of belief, worship and observance, propaganda, association and education, shall be guaranteed to all communities.

8. No bill or resolution or any part thereof shall be passed in any legislature or any other elected body if three-fourths of the members of any community in that particular body oppose such a bill, resolution or part thereof on the ground that it would be injurious to the interests of that community or in the alternative, such other method is devised as may be found feasible and practicable to deal with such cases.

9. *Sindh should be separated from the Bombay Presidency.

10. Reforms should be introduced in the NWF Province and *Balochistan on the same footing as in other provinces.

11. Provision should be made in the Constitution, giving Muslims an adequate share along with the other Indians in all the services of the State and in local selfgoverning bodies, having due regard to the requirements of efficiency.

12. The Constitution should embody adequate safeguards for the protection of Muslim culture and for the protection and promotion of Muslim education, language, religion, personal laws and Muslim charitable institutions and for their due share in the grants-in-aid given by the State and by local self-governing bodies. 13. No Cabinet, either Central or Provincial, should be formed without a proportion of at least one-third Muslim ministers.

14. No change shall be made in the Constitution by the Central Legislature except with the concurrence of the States constituting the Indian Federation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.M. Burke and SAD. Quraishi, 'Quaid-eAzam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: His Personality and his Politics', Karachi, 1997; Durga Das, 'India From Curzon to Nehru and After', 2nd ed., New Delhi, 1977; Dwarkadas
Kanji, 'India's Fight For Freedom 1913-1937'-Bombay, 1966; Saad R. Khairi, 'Jinnah Reinterpreted, Karachi, 1996; Stanley Wolpert, 'Jinnati of Pakistan', Karachi, 1989.