By: Aasef Chauhdry
By February 1948, the discussions between
Kalat and the Government of Pakistan were coming to a head. The Quaid wrote to
the Khan of Kalat: I advise you to join Pakistan without further delay and let
me have your final reply which you promised to do after your stay with me in
Karachi when we fully discussed the whole question in all its aspects. On
February 15, 1948, the Quaid-i-Azam visited Sibi, Baluchistan and addressed a
Royal Durbar, where he announced that until the Pakistan Constitution is
finally written in about two years time, he would govern the province with the
help of an advisory council that he would nominate. However, the main reason
for the Quaid’s visit to Baluchistan was to persuade the Khan of Kalat to
accede to Pakistan. As it transpired, the Khan failed to turn up for the final
meeting with him, pleading illness. In his letter to the Quaid, he said that he
had summoned both Houses of the Parliament, Dar-ul-Umara and Dar-ul-Awam, for
their opinion about the future relations with the Dominion of Pakistan, and he
would inform him about their opinion by the end of the month.
While the Dar-ul-Awam, met on February 21,
1948, decided not to accede, the Dar-ul-Umara asked the Khan to seek three
months to consider this request. An intelligence report on the proceedings of
the meetings reported that copies of the Instrument of Accession were
distributed at the Dar-ul-Awam and Dar-ul-Umara before the members cast their
votes, and that the Kalat State National Party was propagating that accession
meant restriction on their forces and armament, undesired freedom for their
women and migration of Muslim refugees into the State which will weaken the
voice of the original residents. The Khan of Kalat, the report said, made a
brief speech before the Dar-ul-Awam, in which he emphasized the need to have
friendly relations with Pakistan, and also said that the intentions of the
Quaid towards Kalat were good. The Prime Minister of Kalat spoke next, and said
that since this House had voted for Kalat’s independence, he went to see the
Quaid in January and had a two-and-a-half hour meeting. He said the Quaid was
prepared to help the State in every way, and while independence of the State
would remain intact, the only way forward for Kalat was to accede to Pakistan
in the matters of Defence, Communications and Foreign Affairs.41 The Prime Minister argued that with
accession in respect of the three subjects, the internal independence of Kalat
would not be affected. But Mir Ghauos Bakhsh Bizenjo spoke against accession to
Pakistan, and he argued that if Pakistan wanted friendship with Kalat, it
should restore its leased territories as well as Kharan and Las Bela.
Meanwhile, prior to the meeting of the Dar-ul-Awam, on February 25, Agha Abdul
Karim, the brother of the Khan of Kalat, met the members of the Kalat State
National Party at Dhadar to discuss the issue of the accession of Kalat to
Pakistan, and it was here that a resolution was drafted rejecting the
accession.
On March 9, 1948 the Khan received
communication from the Quaid announcing that he had decided not to deal personally
with the Kalat state negotiations, which would henceforth be dealt with by the
Pakistan Government. So far there had not been any formal negotiations but only
an informal request made by the Quaid to the Khan at Sibi. This request was
placed before the Council of Sardars of the state, which asked for three months
to consider the matter. The Khan was, however, under pressure from the Afghan
government, which would have liked to negotiate an agreement on their own
terms. On March 17, 1948 the Pakistan Foreign Ministry sent a telegram to
London announcing that Kharan, Las Bela and Mekran had applied for accession to
Pakistan and their accession had been accepted. The Khan of Kalat objected to
their accession, arguing that it was a violation of Kalat’s Standstill
Agreement with Pakistan. He also said that while Kharan and Las Bela were its
feudatories, Mekran was a district of Kalat. The British Government had placed
the control of the foreign policy of the two feudatories under Kalat in July
1947, prior to partition.
The ruler of Las Bela too had been lobbying
with the Quaid-i-Azam to let his state accede to Pakistan. On September 5,
1947, Mir Ghulam Qadir wrote to the Quaid, saying that he had already written
to the Pakistani Prime Minister offering accession of Las Bela to the Pakistan
Dominion. The letter also mentioned the dire economic conditions of the people
of Las Bela as its supplies seem to have been cut off by Kalat. On March 17,
1948, Las Bela too acceded to Pakistan along with Mekran and Kharan. However,
by this time the Kalat Government had heard a Radio Pakistan announcement that
the Government of Pakistan had accepted the separate accession of Las Bela,
Kharan, and Mekran, and wanted this report denied. However, on March 18, 1948,
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan issued a press note that the States
of Kharan, Las Bela and Mekran had applied for accession to Pakistan, which was
granted to them. The offer of accession was accepted by the Pakistan Cabinet
when Jam of Las Bela, Chief of Kharan and Nawab Bai Khan of Mekran met the Quaid
on March 17, 1948 and told him that if Pakistan was not prepared to accept
their offers of accession immediately, they would be compelled to take other
steps for their protection against Khan of Kalat’s aggressive actions. This was
seen as a blow to the Khan as head of the alliance.
What finally forced the Khan of Kalat to
accede was the furor caused by news on the All India Radio that the Khan had
been negotiating with India. As a consequence of these developments, a report
on March 20, claimed that the brother of the Khan, who was also the Governor of
Kalat, was leaving for Afghanistan with his wife, who was from the Royal Afghan family.56 However, on March 28, the Reuters news
agency carried a story filed from Karachi that Gateway State Joins Pakistan.
The Khan issued a communiqué, which said, “On the night of March 27, All India
Radio, Delhi announced that two months ago Kalat State had approached the
Indian Union to accept its accession to India and that the Indian Union had
rejected the request. It had never been my intention to accede to India. It is,
therefore, declared that from 9 pm on March 27th, the time when I heard the
false news over the air, I forthwith decide to accede to Pakistan, and that
whatever differences now exist between Kalat and Pakistan be placed in writing
before Mr. Jinnah, the Governor-General of Pakistan, whose decision I shall
accept”. The UK High Commissioner, commenting on the Khan’s denials, wrote,
“Khan’s public denials of rumours about offers made to him by India and
Afghanistan conflict with his own statements in earlier discussion with
Pakistan representatives, when he used these offers as a blackmailing argument.
There is good reason to believe that he has been flirting with both India and
Afghanistan”.
While
the Instrument of Accession was signed by the Khan of Kalat on March 27, it was
placed before Muhammad Al Jinnah on March 31, 1948, who accepted it. There was
no kind of resistance to the accession till the middle of July 1948, when the
brother of the Khan returned from Afghanistan, where he had fled with a body of
armed followers. The Pakistan Army engaged this band and the majority of his
followers arrested.
As this account makes amply clear, the story
of the accession of Kalat was a long drawn out process. And although
Pakistan came into being on August 14, 1947, the accession of Kalat did not
take place till March 27, 1948. The three feudatories, two of which Las Bela
and Kharan, which were recognized by the British as independent, played a key
role in forcing the Khan of Kalat to accede to Pakistan. The issue of the
accession of Kalat has been clouded in argument and folklore, because little or
no research has been done on the subject. One scholar has described the
annexation as, a nine month tug of war that came to a climax in the forcible
annexation of Kalat. The reality is quite different. Khan of Kalat had no
choice but to accede after Kharan, Las Bela and Mekran’s acceded to Pakistan, cutting
off Kalat from the sea. The announcement on All India Radio that Kalat had been
negotiating with India, which Nehru was at pains to deny in the Indian
Parliament, caused such an outcry within Baluchistan and outside that the Khan
acceded immediately to Pakistan. That was the time from where this controversy
abetted by Bizenjo started. And since last few recent years BSN has started
observing 27 March every year as black day on alleged annexation of Kalat state
with Pakistan in 1948. Why these announcements of shutter down strikes in
small and far-flung areas of Balochistan, demonstrations of small attendance by
exiled BSNs and activities by a handful miscreants on social media are made, is
no more a secret after the arrest and confession of RAW’s agent Kulbhushun
Yadav.
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