Daultana joined the Punjab Muslim League in 1942 despite being from a leading Unionist family.[5] In 1944 he assisted in drafting the League's manifesto, promising civil liberties, elimination of official interference in elections and a progressive economic policy.[5] He was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1946. Daultana was of the opinion that the unity of India could not be preserved and that Muslims of the Punjab should unite with their co-religionists across India in the demand for Pakistan.[6]
In 1951, after elections in West Punjab, Daultana was chosen as parliamentary leader of the Muslim League in the Punjab Assembly and invited to form a government.[7] Daultana's cabinet, which contained just one migratee politician, was characterised as a cabinet of landlords.[8] As Chief Minister he soon banned the Urdu daily newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt which had been a supporter of Mamdot and introduced agrarian reforms within the Punjab.[7] Daultana regarded these land reforms, which in theory gave tenants full security for tenure as long as they paid their rent and took care of the land, as the most progressive in the world.[8] Critics however labelled them as merely cosmetic, as they made no reference to a ceiling for large estates and only tried to increase tenants' share of produce by ten percent.[8] In reality, the regulations had little effect and landlords instead attempted to divert attention towards the jagirs held by rival politicians who had opposed the Pakistan movement.[8] His government proposed the abolition of all jagirs made in the Punjab since 1857. This proposal met with considerable opposition, and was amended to target certain influential persons who were given grants for unpatriotic and anti-national activities in pre-independence days.[8] Grants of land to religious institutions or to the military personnel were exempted[7] The scope of the Act was further narrowed to include only grants made under the government of Unionist Premier Sir Khizar Hayat Tiwana between 1945 and 1947.[8]
^Biographical Encyclopedia of Pakistan, Biographical Research Institute, Pakistan, for International Publishers (Pakistan), 1970
^ abS.M. Ikram, Indian Muslims and Partition of India, Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 1995, p.279
^ abcJ. Henry Korson, Contemporary Problems of Pakistan, Brill Archive, 1974, p.19
^ abcAli Usman Qasmi, The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan, Anthem Press, 15 Mar 2015, p.74
^ abcdefRoger D. Long, Gurharpal Singh, Yunas Samad, Ian Talbot, State and Nation-Building in Pakistan: Beyond Islam and Security, Routledge, 8 Oct 2015, p.27
^ abcP. R. Kumaraswamy, Ian Copland, South Asia: The Spectre of Terrorism, Routledge, 18 Oct 2013, p.122
^Leonard Binder, Religion and Politics in Pakistan, University of California Press, 1961. p.295
