Iftikhar Hussain Khan Mamdot

Mamdot was born in Lahore in 1906 into a Punjabi Muslim family, as the son of Shahnawaz Khan Mamdot. He was educated at Government College, Lahore, and thereafter joined the police service of Hyderabad State in the Deccan. He also succeeded his father in politics as President of the Punjab Muslim League between 1942 and 1944. He actively worked to encourage the wealthy landowners of the Punjab to drop their support for the Unionist Party and support the Pakistan Movement. Later that year, he was the only Muslim League leader in the Punjab who supported Muhammad Ali Jinnah's call for the voluntary exchange of the populations within the Punjab. During the Partition of India in 1947, he migrated to Pakistan, abandoning his vast landholdings in eastern Punjab which became part of the Republic of India. ==Chief Minister of West Punjab==

On 15 August 1947, he was appointed as the first Chief Minister of West Punjab in Pakistan. Having foregone his constituency in Firozepur district and extensive estates in East Punjab, Mamdot sought to rebuild his powerbase in Pakistan. Without official sanction, he created the Allotment Revising Committee to cultivate new followers amongst refugees, and allegedly siphoned off properties and cars to his followers and former tenants. It was alleged he used public funds to personally acquire about 2,000 acres of prime agricultural land at nominal rates in Montgomery District, that he awarded to his brother several hundred acres of land in the same district that belonged to Sir Khizar Hayat Tiwana and that he secretly deposited over 100,000 rupees from the Kashmir fund into his brother's account. As no one was able to form a new ministry, the Governor of West Punjab assumed direct control of the province. In 1950, he left the Muslim League to form a new party, the Jinnah Muslim League, which contested the 1951 elections against the Muslim League led by his arch-rival Mumtaz Daultana. ==Later life and death==

He rejoined the Muslim League in 1953 and was appointed Governor of Sind by Malik Ghulam Muhammad in 1954. He resigned his post in 1955 following the departure of Malik Ghulam Muhammad from the political scene, and thereafter remained in the political wilderness. == References ==