Balochis of Pakistan: On the Margins of History

PAKISTAN ABSORBS THE KHANATE
The Khan of Kalat, who had expressed his enthusiasm for Pakistan
as had Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was the leader of the Muslim League
and went on to become the first Governor General of Pakistan, in his
payrolls as the legal advisor to the Kalat state, resorted to the legal
position that with the lapse of ‘paramountcy’, leased out territories around
Quetta that would return to Kalat and so also Kharan and Las Bela
would be left independent to decide to rejoin Kalat.
The British had a relationship of ‘paramountcy’ with the Indian
states or principalities. The rulers of these states enjoyed substantial
measure of internal autonomy in exchange for their loyalty to the British.
The Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmad Yar Khan, emphasized on the special
status of the Kalat State and in a memorandum to the Cabinet Mission,
in 1946, he had highlighted that the governments succeeding the British
could only inherit the states that had treaty relations with the British
Indian government and not those states whose treaty relations were
with Whitehall. As the Cabinet mission could not find flaws with the
legality of the demand, it left the issue unresolved. Ironically, Jinnah,
as the legal advisor to the Khan had prepared the case in favour of
independence of the Kalat state.
By the time the British began their preparations to leave the Indian
subcontinent, the state of Kalat had lost much of its past glory, yet it had
a functioning government responsible to a parliament, which comprised
of two houses, like the British parliament. Its council of ministers included
Douglas Fell, a British, who was functioning as the Foreign Minister. In
addition it also had Mohammed Ali Jinnah as its legal adviser. According
to Baloch nationalists, Jinnah had agreed that the position of the Kalat
State was different from that of other Indian princely states. In addition,
at a round table conference held in Delhi on August 4, 1947, and attended
by Lord Mountbatten, the Khan of Kalat, chief minister of Kalat and
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, in his capacity as the legal advisor of Kalat State,
it was decided that Kalat State would become independent on August
5, 1947. Subsequently, the rulers of Kharan and Lasbela were informed
by the British that control of their regions had been transferred to Kalat
State and the Marri and Bugti tribal regions which were under the British
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