Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar Khan ( ur, چوہدری محمد سرور خان; 1919–2003); was the longest serving Parliamentarian in the history of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. He served in

Provincial Assembly of the Punjab The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani provinces, Pakistani province of Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab, which is located in Lahore, the provincial capital. It was established under ...

and

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, Romanization, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower house, lower legislative house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which al ...

from 1951 to 1999 and was the longest serving member. The first direct elections held in Pakistan after independence were for the

between 10–20 March 1951. He was elected as a Member of Legislative Assembly in 1951. He was again elected in the 1962 and 1964 Provincial Assembly elections in Pakistan.

Family background

Ch. Muhammad Sarwar Khan was born in a well known Sulehria

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

family, who have

Dogra Rajput The term Dogra Rajput refers to Dogra people who are of Rajput clans found in the Jammu region and parts of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Dogra Rajput dynasty ruled Jammu and Kashmir till 1947. Hari Singh was the last ruler of this dynasty. The ...

ancestry in Rupochak, District

Narowal Narowal ( ur, ) is a city located on the western bank of river Ravi in the northeast of the province Punjab, Pakistan. The city is the capital of district Narowal, and a part of the Gujranwala division. It is the 94th largest city of Pakistan. ...

cum

Sialkot Sialkot ( ur, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Sialkot District and the 13th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined with Jammu (the winter capital of Indian administered Jammu and Ka ...

. He was a respected politician from Rupochak,

. His father Khan Bahadur Qasim and uncle Kazim Khan both served in the

British Indian army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

. Khan Bahadur Qasim won the 1937 election from the state of Kashmir and Jammu and his younger brother Kazim khan held a top bureaucratic post in

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

after retirement. Ch.Muhammad Sarwar Khan's grandfather Hashim Khan also served in the British Indian Army during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in "

58th Vaughan's Rifles (Frontier Force) The 58th Vaughan's Rifles (Frontier Force) was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1849 as the 5th Regiment of Punjab Infantry. It was designated as the 58th Vaughan's Rifles (Frontier Force) in 1903 and became 5th ...

" regiment and was awarded the Highest "Medal of Gallantry" during his service with Lord Kitchener in the

Third Anglo-Afghan War The Third Anglo-Afghan War; fa, جنگ سوم افغان-انگلیس), also known as the Third Afghan War, the British-Afghan War of 1919, or in Afghanistan as the War of Independence, began on 6 May 1919 when the Emirate of Afghanistan inv ...

. Hashim khan's father Sazawar Khan died fighting against the British during 1857

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

, his grandfather Abdul Nabi Khan was a

Nawab Nawab (Balochi language, Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب; bn, নবাব/নওয়াব; hi, नवाब; Punjabi language, Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ; Persian language, Persian, Punjabi language, Punjabi , Sindhi language, Sindhi, Urd ...

in the Mughal court (No Hazari) and was under an obligation to provide 9000 troops to the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. Ch. Muhammad Sarwar Khan has two sons, Barrister Mansoor Sarwar Khan and Tahir Sarwar.

Political career

Early politics

Khan's younger brother Ch. Ghulam Ahmed Khan was a seasoned right-wing politician of

Pakistan Muslim League The Pakistan Muslim League ( ur, ; known as PML), is the name of several different Pakistani political parties that have dominated the right-wing platform in the country. The Muslim League (a different party) was the party of Pakistan’s ...

. He was elected Member

Provincial Assembly of Punjab The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani province of Punjab, which is located in Lahore, the provincial capital. It was established under Article 106 of the Constitution of Paki ...

(MPA) for five consecutive terms dating 1985 to 1999, before that he served as Chairman Union Council Rupochak from 1961 to 1964 and then from 1979 to 1987. Ch. Ghulam Ahmed was elected as Chairman Standing Committee on Local Government & Rural Development in 1997 and was further appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Revenue in 1997 by the then

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan ( ur, , romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen cabinet, despite the president of Paki ...

. Ch. Muhammad Sarwar's son Barrister Mansoor Sarwar Khan is the first elected President of Central Punjab and Member Core-Committee and National Council Pakistan of

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...

, Central Punjab is composed of Lahore and Gujranwala divisions having ten districts altogether.

Later politics and office

He was elected as Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993 and 1997 General Elections. Despite being a stalwart of Pakistan Muslim League, Mr Sarwar accompanied Prime Minister

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth ...

for

Simla Agreement The Simla Agreement, also spelled Shimla Agreement, was a peace treaty signed between India and Pakistan on 2 July 1972 in Shimla, the capital city of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It followed the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which ...

in India in 1972 to ease the tensions between the two countries following the Indo-Pak war of 1971. On 24 December 1981, a Federal Council (

Majlis-e-Shoora The Parliament of Pakistan ( ur, , , "Pakistan Advisory Council" or "Pakistan Consultative Assembly") is the federal and supreme legislative body of Pakistan. It is a bicameral federal legislature that consists of the Senate as the upper ho ...

) was constituted by then President

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law i ...

, Its members were nominated by the President. Khan served in the Federal Council from 1982–1984. In 1997 he was appointed as chairman

Parliamentary Special Committee on Kashmir The Parliamentary Special Committee on Kashmir is predominantly composed of senior MNAs and Senators of Pakistan. Its fundamental function is to raise the critical issue of Kashmir at national and international level. Its other key feature is its c ...

by then Prime Minister of Pakistan

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Paki ...

. He led Kashmir Committee composed of 26 MNA's from May 1997 to October 1999. Following the landslide victory of Pakistan Muslim League (

PML-N The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) ( ur, , translit=Pākistān Muslim Līg (Nūn) PML(N) or PML-N) is a centre-right and liberal conservative political party in Pakistan. Alongside the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party ...

) in the 1997 parliamentary elections, Khan was nominated as the presidential candidate by the party but ultimately

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi language, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime ...

appointed Rafique Tarar as the president of Pakistan. After the 1999 coup d'état staged by General

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of the ...

, Prime Minister

was exiled to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. Following the exile, Khan was nominated as the party president, however due to old age and deteriorating health he refused the party presidency and it was passed on to Makhdoom

Javed Hashmi Makhdoom Muhammad Javed Hashmi ( ur, مخدوم محمد جاوید ہاشمی; born 1 January 1948), is a Pakistani politician, political realist, and a senior conservative thinker on the platform of Pakistan Muslim League (N). After serving ...

. Khan was referred as ''"Baba-e-Muslim League"'' by

due to his lifelong services in politics of Pakistan.

Role in Kargill War

During

Kargil War The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referr ...

, as the Chairman of National Assembly Kashmir Committee, Khan addressed the

United Nations Commission on Human Rights The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...

(UNCHR) in Geneva and asked the world powers to give Kashmiris the right of self-determination according to UN resolutions.

Death

He died in 2003, at the age of 83 years in

Sialkot District Sialkot District ( Punjabi and ur, ), is one of the districts of Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located in the Majha region of Panjab, otherwise the northeast of the province. The city of Sialkot is the capital of the district. The Sialko ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf politicians Narowal District 2003 deaths 1919 births