Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar

Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar, who was the sixth Prime Minister of Pakistan for approximately 2 months from October 17, 1957 to December 16, 1957, was born in 1897, at Ahmadabad, Gujarat. He passed his BA and LLB examinations from Bombay University and started practicing law in 1920.

I. I. Chundrigar first came to prominence when the Muslim League was to give its response to the Government of India Act 1935. He shifted to Bombay at the request of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and became President of the Bombay Provincial Muslim League in 1937. He was re-elected every year up to October 1946. That was when Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the All-India Muslim League, was asked to nominate members of the Muslim League for the Interim Government of India at the time of the transfer of power from British rule to independence. He was one of the five men nominated on behalf of the League, the other four being Liaquat Ali Khan, Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Abdur Rab Nishtar, and Jogendra Nath Mandal. In the Interim Government, Chundrigar took the portfolio of Commerce.

After the independence of Pakistan, Chundrigar was appointed as the Minister for Trade and Commerce in the first Cabinet of the newly established country. Then he was appointed as the Ambassador of Pakistan to Kabul. He served as the Governor of North West Frontier Province and then of Punjab, from November 1951 to May 1953. In August 1955, he assumed charge of the Law Ministry in the Federal Cabinet and served in this capacity till August 1957.

After Suhrawardy resigned, Iskander Mirza asked I. I. Chundrigar, a leader of the Muslim League, to establish his Ministry in the Centre. Chundrigar formed his government on October 18, 1957, with the help of the Republican Party, the Krishak Sramik Party and the Nizam-i-Islam Party.

His tenure as Prime Minister lasted for less than two months. He was forced to resign on December 11, 1957. During his short tenure, he raised his voice in favour of separate electorates.

I. Chundrigar was more of a lawyer than a politician. He gained a lot of popularity as a constitutional lawyer when he pleaded the case of Maulvi Tamiz-ud-din for the restoration of the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.

Karachi's main business street, I I Chundrigar Road, has been named after him.