Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana (1900–1975), KCSI, OBE (Punjabi: نواب ملک خضرحیات تیوانہ) was the Punjab Unionist party Premier of the Punjab during the climactic period of 1942-47.

Family background

Malik Khizar Hayat's father was Major General Sir Malik Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana(1875–1944) acted as honorary aide-de-camp to George V and George VI and served as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, 1924-1934. He belongs to the Tiwana Jat clan. He was born at CHAK MUZAFAR ABAD in kalra state disst. SHAHPUR Punjab India(Now Disst. Sargodha, Tehsil Shahpur Punjab Pakistan).

Early life

Tiwana was educated, like his father, at Aitchison College, Lahore. At the age of 16 he volunteered for war service and was commissioned to the 17th Cavalry as a temporary honorary second lieutenant in the Indian Land Forces on 17 April 1918. In addition to his brief World War I service, Tiwana also briefly served in the Afghan campaign which followed, earning a mention in dispatches. He was advanced to honorary second lieutenant on 21 November 1919, and was promoted to the honorary rank of captain on 17 April 1923.

Career

Tiwana thereafter assisted his father in the management of the family estates in the Punjab, taking responsibility for them while his father was in London, 1929-1934. Promoted to honorary major on 17 April 1936, he was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1937 and immediately joined the cabinet of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, who had successfully led the Unionist Muslim League in the election, as Minister of Public Works. Tiwana remained in this post until 1942, succeeding Sir Sikander as Prime Minister of the Punjab from 1942 until 1947. He was promoted to honorary lieutenant-colonel on 12 January 1943. Appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in the 1946 King's Birthday Honors, he was a member of the Indian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1946. Tiwana resigned his premiership on 2 March 1947. Although he remained at Simla until independence, he did not thereafter seek an active part in politics and left the country, returning to Pakistan in October 1949, in order to try to put his property affairs there in order.