Chaudhry Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan was one of the leading Founding Fathers of modern Pakistan. He was politician, statesman, diplomat, international jurist, and a prominent scholar. He was famous for drafting the Pakistan Resolution, being the first foreign minister of Pakistan, for his persuasive representation of Pakistan and the Palestinians at the United Nations ,and for being the first Muslim, Asian and only Pakistani president for both the UN General Assembly and also the International Criminal Court.
He was born in 1893 in Sialkot and acquired his early education in American mission school Sialkot. Sir Zafarullah Khan was very close to his mother and inspired by her courage and devotion to her religion and even wrote a book called “My Mother”. He studied at Government College, Lahore and received his LL.B. from King’s College London, in 1914. He practiced law in Sialkot and Lahore, became a member of the Punjab Legislative Council in 1926. He presided at the Delhi meeting of the All-India Muslim League in 1931, where he advocated the cause of the Indian Muslims through his presidential address. He participated in the Round Table Conferences held from 1930 to 1932 and became the Minister of Railways in May 1935. In 1939, he represented India at the League of Nations. He was appointed the Agent General of India in China in 1942 and represented India as the Indian Government’s nominee at the Commonwealth Relations Conference in 1945, where he spoke on India’s cause for freedom.
In September 1941, Sir Zafarullah Khan was appointed a Judge of the Federal Court of India and this position he held until June 1947. At the request of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he represented the Muslim League in July 1947 before the Radcliffe Boundary Commission and presented the case of the Muslims in a highly praiseworthy manner. In October 1947, Sir Zafarullah represented Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly as head of the Pakistani delegation and advocated the position of the Muslim world on the Palestinian issue. That year, he was appointed Pakistan’s first Foreign Minister, a post he held for seven years. Between 1948 and 1954, he also represented Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council where he advocated the liberation of occupied Kashmir, Libya, Northern Ireland, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, and Indonesia. In 1954, he became a Judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a position he held until 1961. He was the Vice President of the International Court of Justice from 1958 to 1961. Between 1961 and 1964, he was Pakistan’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations. From 1962 to 1964, he was also the President of the UN General Assembly.