Abdullah Haroon
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Abdullah Haroon (Urdu: عبد اللہ ہارون) or Haji Sir Abdullah Haroon (b. 1871 - d. 1942) was leading businessman, distinguished philanthropist and was involved in Pakistan's freedom movement.
Abdullah Haroon was born in Karachi, Sindh and began his career as a merchant in 1896. In 1901, he became interested in politics. Abdullah was member of the Karachi Municipality from May 1913 to September 1916. Sir Abdullah Haroon presided over the seventh Sindh Provincial Conference (1920) and remained the president of the Sindh Provincial Muslim League from 1920 to 1930. Again he became member of this Municipality from 1st May 1921 to 21st August 1934. In 1917 he joined the Congress and participated in the civil disobedience and Khilafat movements. From 1919 to 1923, he was president of the Sindh provincial Khilafat Committee and appointed as secretary and treasures Halal-e-Ahnar Sindh Society on 8th October 1911. Abdullah Haroon brains and wealth brought about the publication of Al Waheed in 1920, a newspaper promoting ideas of independence. He also established and published the Sindhi news paper Alwahid in 1920. He encouraged Maulana Deen Muhammed Wafai to publish in 1921 Tawhid a monthly journal which started campaign against Syedism, Pirism and Mullaism and continued for next 30 years.
The Muslim League branch in Sindh was established by Ghulam Muhammad Bhurgari in 1918. Abdullah Haroon joined Muslim League in 1918 was elected the president of the provincial Muslim League in 1920. Sir Abdullah Haroon presided over the seventh Sindh Provincial Conference (1920) and remained the president of the Sindh Provincial Muslim League from 1920 to 1930. He played host to Bi Amman -- the revered mother of the Ali Brothers -- in 1921, when they were being tried in Khaliq Deena Hall, Karachi. In 1923 he became a member of the Bombay Legislative Assembly (Sindh was part of Bombay Province). He demanded a separate provincial status for Sindh in the Muslim Conference at Aligarh (1925) and in the Leaders' Conference at Delhi (1926). Between 1926 and 1942 he was elected thrice to the membership of the Central Legislative Assembly, gaining the second highest number of votes in all of Sindh, the highest number of votes being secured by Sardar Wahid Baksh Bhutto until his untimely death in 1933. He was president of the Khilafat Committee for 1927-28 and attended the 1928 All Parties Conference as a member. In 1930 he attended the all India Muslim Conference.
In 1930 he formed the Sindh United Party on the pattern of the Punjab Unionist Party but his party could not win the 1936 elections; it succeeded, however, in 1938. In 1938 he organized the Muslim League in Sindh. He was the man who piloted the partition of India resolution in the Sindh Provincial Muslim League Conference in October 1938 under the presidentship of the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Sir Abdullah Haroon presided over the Punjab Muslim Students' Conference at Faisalabad in 1941. He donated ten thousand rupees to the League at Allahabad in 1942.
He was very active in social welfare projects throughout his life. Abdullah Haroon died on April 27, 1942 in Karachi, Sindh.
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