Shaukat Hayat Khan

Major Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan (1915-1998) was a leader of the All India Muslim League from the Punjab province of British India, later Pakistan; and he worked as a close assistant to Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the Pakistan Independence Movement from circa 1942/43 to 1947.

Shaukat Hayat Khan as a Captain during World War 2

Background

He was the eldest son of the former Punjabi statesman and leader, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan. As a young man, he joined the British Indian Army and served up to the rank of Major before resigning in 1942, on his father's death.

Pakistan Movement

From 1942 to 1947, Khan was active as a leading Punjabi member of the All India Muslim League and assisted the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in the efforts to obtain a separate Muslim nation-state when the British left India. In 1946, he was given the title of Shaukat i Punjab (The pride of the Punjab: a play on his name) by Jinnah himself.

Later politics

After 1947, for quite some time he remained an active political figure and member of parliament. However, gradually between the 1960s and 1980s he became increasingly disillusioned by the corruption and dishonesty of politics in Pakistan and finally quit. He died in September 1998, at Islamabad.