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The exact date of Kalat's occupation
By Hussain Bux Thebo
30-03-2007
Original article http://www.balochpeople.org/eng/2007/apr/Opinions.htm
Also published at: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/balochistan-60-years-ago-the-twilight-of-independence.html
As student of history I want to share with you about
Kalat.
(photo: includes Khan Kalat and son, 1919)
The sorrowful state of affairs of Balocnistan were created because the cheat
and deceit on the part of Mr. Jinnah and weakness on the part of Mir Ahmed
Yar khan played pivotal role to put it into permanent bondage of subjugation.
In 1946 the newly elected Labor Party Government headed by Clement Attlee in
Britain decided to send a 3-member Cabinet Mission to India in a final bid
to devise the methodology for the transfer of power in India. The
Mission comprising the Secretary of State for India,
Lord Pethic Lawrence, AV Alexander and Sir Stafford
Cripps arrived in India on March 24, 1946. The Khan
of Kalat, on the advice of Mr, Jinnah the legal advisor
to the Kalat state at the time, approached the Mission
on behalf of his government to discuss the future status
of his state in the scheme of independence for India.
The Mission advised the Khan to have his case prepared
by legal experts. Eminent lawyers as I I Chundrigar,
Sir Sultan Ahmed, Sardar BK Memon and Sir Walter Monkton
were hired to prepare the case for the Kalat state,
which after vetting by the Quaid himself, was submitted
to the Mission in the form of a memorandum. This memorandum,
briefly, re-stressed the following major points:
That Kalat is an independent and sovereign state its status is different from
other princely states of British India , its relations with the British government
being based on various mutual agreements and treaties. That Kalat is not an
Indian state, its relations with India being of only a formal nature by virtue
of Kalat's agreements with the British and that with the ceasing of the Agreement
of 1876 with the Kalat government, Kalat would regain its complete independence,
as it existed prior to 1876. All such regions including Quetta Municipality
as were given under the control of the British in consequence of any treaty
will be returned to the sovereignty of the Kalat state, and resume their original
status as parts of the Kalat state. On March 22, 1947, Lord Mountbatten, the last of the
Viceroys of India, arrived in Delhi to wind up British
supremacy in this part of the British dominions. The
final partition plan of June 3, 1947 stated in respect
of transfer of power in India. Mr, Jinnah wrote to
the Khan of Kalat that since the position of the Kalat
State was different from the other Indian States, representation
on behalf of the state should be made directly to the
Viceroy in Delhi to discuss the future position of
Kalat and the return of Baloch regions hitherto under
the control of the British Government. Accordingly,
the Chief Secretary of Kalat State was sent to Delhi
with a draft of the new position of Kalat as prepared
by legal experts. This resulted in a round table conference,
held on August 4, 1947, in which Lord Mountbatten,
Mr, Jinnah, Mr Liaqat Ali Khan, Chief Minister of Kalat,
Sir Sultan Ahmed, the legal Advisor of Kalat State
and the Khan of Kalat took part in the deliberations
The following points were agreed upon:
"Kalat State will be independent on August 5, 1947, enjoying the same status
as it originally held in 1838, having friendly relations with its neighbors.
In case the relations of Kalat with any future government got strained, Kalat
will exercise its right of self-determination, and the British Government should
take precautionary measures to help Kalat in the matter as per the Treaties of
1839 and 1841."
As a corollary to the round table conference at Delhi, another agreement was
signed between Kalat and Pakistan on August 4, 1947. The points agreed upon
were broadcast on August 11, 1947, as under:
"The Government of Pakistan agrees that Kalat is an independent state, being
quite different in status from other states of India; and commits to its relations
with the British Government as manifested in several agreements.. ... In the
meantime, a Standstill Agreement will be made between Pakistan and Kalat by which
Pakistan shall stand committed to all the responsibilities and agreements signed
by Kalat and the British Government from 1839 to 1947 and by this,.... In order
to discuss finally the relations between Kalat and Pakistan on matters of defense,
foreign relations and deliberations will be held in the near future in Karachi." A
few weeks after the agreement, the Agent to the Governor-General informed the
rulers of Kharan and Lasbela that the control of their regions had been transferred
to the Kalat State. Hence they once again came under the direct influence of
Kalat. The Marri and Bugti tribal region was also returned into the Kalat fold
soon after.
Thus the whole of Balochistan came under the suzerainty
of the Khan of Kalat in the same confederacy of Baloch
tribes that Nasir Khan I, in 1666-67, was able to create.
The Kalat government made a formal declaration of its
independence on August 15, 1947, soon after the end
of British supremacy, and a day after Pakistan's coming
into being on the map of the subcontinent. Immediately,
a delegation comprising the Kalat prime minister and
foreign minister was sent to Karachi, the then capital
of Pakistan, for discussions and an honorable settlement
vis-a-vis relations with Pakistan in the light of the
mutually endorsed Standstill Agreement of August 11,
1947. To shock and grief of Khan of Kalat Mr, Jinnah
coarsely persuaded the Khan to expedite the merger.
The Khan replied, "I have great respect for your advice......
but Balochistan, being a land of numerous tribes, the
people there must be duly consulted in the matter prior
to any decision I take; for, according to the prevalent
tribal convention, no decision can be binding upon
them unless they are taken into confidence beforehand
by their Khan." With this provisional agreement, the
Khan returned to Kalat and promptly summoned the Kalat
State Houses of Parliament, the Dar-ul-Awam and Dar-ul-Umra
and proposed to the House to accord him a mandate on
the matter of Kalat's merger with Pakistan. Both the
Houses, however, contended unanimously that the proposal
of Kalat's merger militated against the spirit of the
earlier agreement arrived at between Kalat Government
and the spokesmen of Pakistan on August 4, 1947, as
also against the Independence Act of 1947. This decision
of Kalat's Parliament was forwarded to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Government of Pakistan, for necessary
processing. Shortly afterwords, the Mr, Jinnah visited
Sibi and during his stay there insisted upon the Khan
to sign the merger documents in his personal capacity.
Finding reluctance in Khan Govt: Pakistan Cabinet under
the leadership and instruction of Mr, Jinnah working
on a scheme to breakup the 500-year old state. The
nature of their scheme, as it turned out subsequently,
was tantamount to a political castration of the Baloch
people. Illegally and in violation of of 4th August
1947 round table conference declaration and agreement
made by Mr, Jinnah on the very day with Khan, Stand
Still Agreement and also Govt; of Pakistan's earlier
decion, it had decided to punish and encircle Kalat
and Baloch people cut off Kharan and Lasbela by giving
them an equal status as Kalat and obtaining their "mergers" with
Pakistan directly. Makran, which had been a part of
the Kalat State for the last 300 years, was made independent
of Kalat on March 17, 1948; and one of the three Sardars
made its ruler. Thus Makran, too, was made a part of
Pakistan. These hasty, illogical, irrational and politically
illegal and oppressive steps naturally disillusioned
the Baloch people. They rightly felt that all their
erstwhile services and sacrifices in the cause of Pakistan
were now forgotten. So deep was their despair and frustration
that several of them wanted to revolt. Meanwhile, the
wave of hatred and animosity generated by the irrational
policies of the Government of Pakistan against Kalat
was fast gaining dangerous dimensions all over Balochistan.
Feelings in the tribal areas particularly were running
high against Pakistan and the Baloch people were calling
the position of the Khan of Kalat himself into question.
Things were moving fast towards a show down.
The Government of Pakistan instructed the Brigadier
in Command at Quetta to go on full alert for action
against Kalat state and the Agent to the Governor General
began to prepare for police action. This was the situation
as it stood in the first quarter of 1948 triggered
by the illogical actions of the Pakistan. Under duress
Khan of Kalat signed the merger documents in his personal
capacity on March 27, 1948, in an effort to diffuse
the situation in Balochistan. In his autobiography,
he admits that he did not have the mandate to sign
the merger without the consent of the Houses of Parliament
of Kalat State. A fortnight after the merger, on April
15, 1948, the Agent to the Governor General in Balochistan
issued an order in the name of Mr, Jinnah, and the
legal entity of the Khan of Kalat was abolished and
within 20 hours of the order many of the members of
the Balochistan Cabinet were arrested or exiled from
Balochistan. Prince Abdul Karim's revolt and first
Baloch armed struggle started in this back ground,
Hussain Bux Thebo
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