Sikandar Hayat Khan (politician, born 1934)

Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan (Urdu: سردار سِکندر حیات خان‎) (born June 1, 1934) was twice a former Prime Minister and President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He has been the longest serving Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan was born into an eminent political family of Kashmir, he is the son of Sardar Fateh Muhammad Khan Karelvi, a name synonymous with one of the first major uprisings against the repressive Dogra regime in 1931. It was Sardar Fateh Muhammad Khan Karelvi, who led the popular agitation against an arbitrary tax on salt imposed by the Maharaja's regime. Three years later in 1934, running as a candidate for the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, he was elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature, the Praja Sabha, from his home constituency of Mendhar-Poonch, an office he successfully held through the elections of 1938 and 1944. In 1948 when he was President of All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference in Mendhar, he organised the supply of arms to protect the Poonch and Rajauri area and later, he also served as a member of the State Council during 1969–70. He is remembered today by the Muslims of Azad Jammu and Kashmir as one of the pioneers of the struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their rights under the tyrannical and alien rule of the Dogras.

Education

Growing up, Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan received his early schooling in his native village of Karela in tehsil Fatehpur Thakiala, now in District Kotli and in Poonch city. Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan came to the famous Gordon College (Rawalpindi) from where he graduated in 1956 before going on to the University Law College in Lahore to obtain a law degree in 1958.

Career

He returned to Kotli to start a law practice and also formally joined the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, an association he has maintained with consistency and has come to be recognized as the hallmark of his politics. He also successfully ran for membership of the local council, a position he occupied for eight years and during this period was also elected as President of Bar Association, Kotli. In 1970, he was elected to the Azad Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly.

He has been returned to office from his constituency in every election held in Azad Kashmir between 1970 and 2001, barring the years when he was President of Azad Kashmir. His brother Sardar Muhammad Naeem Khan^[1] served as a member from that area during that period.

Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan was inducted into the Azad Jammu & Kashmir cabinet as Minister of Revenue, Forests and Finance in 1972 and retained that portfolio for the next three years. He served as acting President of the Jammu & Kashmir Muslim Conference in the 1976–78 period and was elected President in 1978, a position he held until 1988.

In 1985, he was elected Prime Minister of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and retained that office for the next five years. He remained leader of the opposition in the Assembly during the next two years, before he was elected President of Azad Jammu & Kashmir for a five-year term in 1991.

He was sworn in as Prime Minister of Azad Jammu & Kashmir on July 25, 2001 for the second time and retired from active politics in July 2006 after completing his second term. But later he played a major role in introducing PML-(N) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir which was acknowledged by giving him a position of Senior Vice President of Pakistan Muslim League (N) in 2011.

References

External links

• Prime Ministers of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
• Presidents of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
• Government of Azad Kashmir