In 1937, soon after winning the general elections, confronted by internal pressure from many of his Muslim parliamentary colleagues and conscious of the need to maintain a balanced, equitable stance in a volatile and much-divided Punjabi political milieu, Khan decided to also negotiate with the Muslim elements under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Khan and Jinnah signed the Jinnah-Sikandar Pact at Lucknow in October 1937, merging the Muslim elements of his powerful Unionist force with the All India Muslim League, as a move towards reconciling the various Muslim elements in the Punjab and elsewhere in India, towards a common, united front for safeguarding their community rights and interests. Within the agreement, Khan announced he was "advising all the Muslim members of the Unionist Party in Punjab to join the League." He was also later one of the chief supporters and architects of the Lahore Resolution, March 1940, calling for an autonomous or semi-independent Muslim majority region within the larger Indian confederation. Sikandar Hayat Khan, however, opposed the partition of India and condemned "any reference to the 'Lahore Resolution' as the 'Pakistan Resolution'." To Khan, the "partition meant disrupting the Punjab and the Unionist Party, and he was not prepared to accept this".