Sons of the soil: Death anniversary of Allah Buksh Soomro today

Allah Buksh was born in 1900 in Shikarpur and went to its famed Hopeful Academy. He matriculated in 1918. At the young age of 23, he was elected to the Jacobabad Municipal Committee and Sukkur District Local Board.

From 1926 to 1936, Allah Buksh represented upper Sindh in the Bombay Legislative Council up to the separation of the province from Bombay and helped initiate the huge Sukkur barrage project, which brought about an agricultural revolution in Sindh.

The Government of India Act 1935 introduced provincial autonomy and separated Sindh from Bombay. Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, Sir Abdullah Haroon and Khan Bahadur Allah Buksh formed the Itehad (Unity) Party to fight the elections to the Sindh Assembly. The party won 24 of the 35 Muslim seats in a House of 60. But both Bhutto and Haroon lost the election. The governor invited an old British favourite, Sir Ghulam Hussain, though he had the support of only five members, to form the government.


However, early in 1938, the government fell and the Ittehad Party leader, Allah Buksh Soomro, at the early age of 38 became the prime minister of Sindh. His cabinet ministers drew low salaries and he withdrew magisterial powers from the waderas. Nominations to the local bodies were ended. He lifted the externment orders on Obaidullah Sindhi (1872-1944), a leading revolutionary in exile in Saudi Arabia. His ministry lasted less than two years but the very next year Allah Buksh returned to office.

Allah Buksh became famous for his simplicity, honesty and efforts to improve the lives of the citizens of the province. He habitually wore khadi, never used the official flag on his car. He saved the city of Shikarpur by diverting the flood waters to his cultivated agricultural lands. When nationalist Muslims called the All India Azad Muslim Conference at Delhi in 1940, they choose him as its first president.

Allah Buksh was awarded a Khan Bahadur. As prime minister, the viceroy nominated him to the Defence Council of 30 and made him an OBE (Order of the British Empire).

In September 1942, he resigned from the Defence Council and relinquished his titles to protest against British policies. His letter to the viceroy stated that his action was against the forcible entry of India into World War II, the repression of the Indian freedom movement, the government policy in engineering communal clashes and in British policy of “divide and rule”. This lead to his removal from office by British governor, declaring that he no longer had confidence in him the assembly’s confidence notwithstanding on October 10, 1942.

Allah Buksh was assassinated by four assailants in Shikarpur at 9 am on May 14, 1943, while travelling in a tonga with Wadero Nabibux Khan and Ghulam Rasul Jhulan.

As a mark of respect, the government offices, schools, markets were closed throughout Sindh and the Union Jack flew at halfmast.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2012.