Mian Muhammad Shafi

Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi (10 March 1869 – 7 January 1932) was a Lahore barrister and politician, a founding member of the All-India Muslim League and the organiser of its Punjab branch. ^{1 2}

He was born at Baghbanpura, near Lahore, on 10 March 1869, son of Mian Din Muhammad, into the Arain Mian family of Baghbanpura, landowners and hereditary custodians of Lahore's Shalimar Gardens. ^{1 3} Educated at Government College and Forman Christian College, Lahore, he went to London in 1889 to read for the Bar at the Middle Temple — where he presided for a term over the London branch of the Anjuman-i-Islamia — and returned in 1892 to practise at Hoshiarpur and before the Allahabad and Lahore High Courts, rising to be counted among India's leading lawyers. ¹

He organised a Muslim association in early 1906, sat on the Simla Deputation of October 1906, and was among the founders at Dhaka on 30 December 1906 who proposed and adopted the name All-India Muslim League. ^{1 4} In November 1907 he established the League's powerful Punjab branch, the Punjab Provincial Muslim League, as its general secretary. ¹

Nominated to the Provincial Legislative Council in 1909 and 1912 and a member of the Imperial Legislative Council in 1911, 1914 and 1917, he joined the Viceroy's Executive Council in 1919 and served until 1924 as member for education — a tenure that saw the setting up of Aligarh Muslim University — and later for law, also acting as the council's vice-president in 1922–1925; he was appointed CIE in 1916 and knighted KCSI in 1925. ¹ After his term he returned to Muslim politics, playing a part in the Simon Commission visit and the first Round Table Conference of 1930–1931. ¹

He died on 7 January 1932 and was buried in his ancestral graveyard at Baghbanpura, Lahore. ^{1 4} His daughters included Jahanara Shahnawaz and Geti Ara Bashir Ahmad, both prominent in the Pakistan Movement. ¹