Amin ul-Hasanat

"Amin ul-Hasanat (1923-1960), better known as the Pir of Manki Sharif"', was an Islamic religious leader the North-West Frontier Province of India (after 1947, Pakistan) during the mid twentieth century. He joined the Muslim League and was notable for his campaigning role in the referendum that saw the NWFP become part of Pakistan rather than India.He was known as Fateh-e-Refrendum 1945.Because of his saintly character and piety, he commanded great respect and influence among the Muslims of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent. Soon after joining the Muslim League in 1945, Pir Sahib of Manki Sharif toured the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to win support for the Muslim League. He invited Quaid-e-Azam to tour the Province worked indefatigably for the cause of Pakistan won sympathy of the people of the NWFP for the Muslim League.In one of Jinnah’s letter to Pir Manki Sharif in which he promised that the Shariah will be applied to the affairs of the Muslim community.So on October 1, 1945 he organized a historic meeting of the Ulema and Mashaikh at Peshawar, which passed resolutions expressing full loyalty with the Muslim League and reposing complete confidence in the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam.For his scathing criticism of the Indian National Congress he was imprisoned by the congressite Government led by Dr. Khan Sahib, the then Chief Minister of the NWFP. He played a pivotal role in securing thumping success for the Muslim League in the Referendum held in NWFP in 1947, which decided the accession of the NWFP to Pakistan.According to Maulana Zafar Ahmad Osmani, it was Jinnah himself who requested the ulama to help the League in these campaigns. Maulana Zafar Ahmad Osmani went to Sylhet and Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Osmani was assigned the Frontier referendum. Both in Sylhet and in the Frontier religion played the most important role. Muslim voters in Sylhet were told that anyone who voted for Sylhet to stay in Assam was an `unbeliever'. As regards the Frontier, as pointed out earlier, the Muslim League could not have won the referendum without the intervention of the Pir of Manki Sharif and the help accorded to it by the ulama like Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Osmani and Maulana Abdul Sattar Khan Niazi. The sort of logic that these leaders used was best summarized in one of the speeches of Maulana Abdul Sattar Khan Niazi.He retired from active politics in 1955 and died in a road accident on January 28, 1960. -->