Abdur Rab Nishtar

Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar (13 June 1899 – 14 February 1958) was a Pakistani independence activist and politician from the North-West Frontier Province, a confidant of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the Muslim League.¹ He was Pakistan's first minister of communications (1947–1949), the second governor of West Punjab (1949–1951), and president of the Muslim League from 1956 until his death.¹

He was born on 13 June 1899 at Peshawar into a religious household of the Pashtun Kakar tribe; his father, Maulvi Abdul Hannan, was a prominent figure who had opposed British rule.¹ Educated first in mission and Sanatan Dharam schools and at Edwardes College, Peshawar, he took his BA from the University of the Punjab in 1923 and his LL.B with honours from Aligarh Muslim University in 1925.¹ The English article describes him as a man of deep religious convictions with a deep interest in Islamic mysticism, shaped by his parents and by his associate Muhammad Ali Jauhar, with whom he took part in the Khilafat Movement of 1919–1920.¹ No source names a school for him, and his record states none.²

He sat on the All-India Muslim League Council from 1932 to 1936, in the NWFP legislative assembly from 1937 to 1945 — serving as the province's finance minister in 1943–1945 — and on the League's Working Committee from 1944 to 1947, representing the League at the Simla Conference of 1945.¹ After independence he became Pakistan's first minister of communications, introducing the use of Urdu in Pakistan Railways and the Post Office, and in August 1949 he was appointed governor of West Punjab, the first Pakistani to hold that governorship, serving until November 1951.¹

Considered a serious contender for the premiership after Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination, he went into opposition after the dismissal of Khawaja Nazimuddin's government, refusing to be involved in what he saw as an undemocratic act.¹ In 1956, when Pakistan's first constitution was adopted, he was elected president of the Muslim League against the wishes of President Iskander Mirza, a post he held until his death.¹

He died of a heart attack on 14 February 1958 at Karachi and was buried at Mazar-e-Quaid, near Jinnah's tomb.¹ Nishtar Medical College and Nishtar Hospital in Multan, Nishtar Hall in Peshawar, and Nishtar Park and Nishtar Road in Karachi are named in his honour, and in 1990 Pakistan Post issued a commemorative stamp for him in its Pioneers of Freedom series.¹

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