Abul Hassan Isphani

Abul Hassan Isphani
Member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly
In office 1946–1947
Preceded by	Abdur Rahman Siddiqui
Constituency	Muslim Chamber of Commerce
In office 1937–1945
Succeeded by	Khwaja Nooruddin
Constituency	South Calcutta
Personal details
Born	1902 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency
Died	1981 (aged 78–79) Karachi, Pakistan
Political party	All-India Muslim League
Parent	Mirza Mohammed Ispahani (father)
Relatives	Mirza Ahmad Ispahani (brother) Farahnaz Ispahani (granddaughter)

Mirza Abul Hassan Ispahani (Persian: میرزا ابو الحسن اصفهانی; 1902–1981) was a Pakistani politician and diplomat who served as an ambassador of Pakistan to the United States.

Early life and family

Ispahani was born in 1902 to the Perso-Bengali Ispahani family of Kolkata. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. He completed his Bar-at-Law in 1924 of the All India Muslim League held in Madras in April 1941.

During the 1990s, Mirza Zia Ispahani, the youngest son of Mirza Abul Hassan Ispahani, served as Pakistan Ambassador in Switzerland and Italy and is currently Ambassador-at-large with Minister of State status and visited Bangladesh on the instructions of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. His granddaughter, Farahnaz Ispahani, served as a member of Pakistan's parliament and is the wife of Pakistan's former ambassador to United States, Hussain Haqqani and lived for some time in the same house in Washington as did her grandfather.

Career

Ispahani was a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly starting from 1937. He also became a member of the Indian Constituent Assembly in 1946 and represented the Muslim League at the New York Herald Tribune Forum the same year.

Ispahani was a prominent Muslim Leaguer in Bengal with close ties to Leader of the All India Muslim League Muhammad Ali Jinnah and represented the interests of the Calcutta non-Bengali business class. Ispahani in 1936 invited Jinnah to revive the Muslim League in Bengal. He was a treasurer of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and was the de-facto representative of Jinnah in Bengal. In 1946, he was dispatched by Jinnah to present the case for Pakistan on an international scale.

Ispahani founded Orient Airways in 1946 which would later become Pakistan International Airlines in 1955.

After independence, he became Member Pakistan Constituent Assembly in 1947. Mr. Isphani toured the United States as personal representative of Jinnah and was ambassador to the United States from September 1947 to February 1952. He was Deputy Leader of Pakistan Delegation to UNO on Trade And Development in 1947. He was Vice Chairman Pakistan Delegation to U.N. Security Council on Kashmir issue and was High Commissioner to the UK from 1952 to 1954. He was Federal Minister for Industries and Commerce from 1954 to 1955. He was an Ambassador to Afghanistan in 1973–74.

Grave of Abul Hassan Isphani

Ispahani died in Karachi in 1981.

Books

He authored a number of books which include:

• The Case of Muslim India (1946)
• 27 Days in China (1960)
• Leningrad to Samarkand (1962)
• Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah, as I Knew Him (1967)