Militants and Mgirants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan - pg. 47

The link between migration to Pakistan and the hijra was made soon after independence. As early as September 1947, the term muhajir (one who takes part in the hijra) was used when Pir Ilahi Bakhsh, education minister of Sindh, was reported to have "revived the good old Arab memory of brotherhood between the muhajireen and the ansar ... when he took a family of Muslim refugees from Amritsar from the railway station to his house as guests." Initially the use of muhajir was used to overcome differences among social, linguistic, regional, or sectarian groups. The term had several positive connotations. It ascribed a degree of agency to the migrants that other possible terms like panahgir (refugee) lacked.