(Faiz Sahib’s editorial of the Pakistan Times dated June 29, 1947. Original title was: Baluchistan) On June, 30th the representatives of Baluchistan consisting of the Shahi Jirga (excluding the Kalat State nominees) and non-official members of the Quetta Municipality, will be called upon to record their vote in favour of joining either of the Constituent Assemblies. From all indications public opinion in that Province is overwhelmingly in favor of entering the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. Only isolated voice are heard (as one was the other day) the Baluchistan should negotiate with the Congress as well as the League, and side with that body which offers the most advantageous terms. Apart from the fact that any hesitation to choose between Muslim India and Hindu India reflects ill on the national consciousness of those who advocated this petty bargaining, did they pause to think that the Congress could now offer them nothing. The Congress no longer finds it practical politics to take a Muslim Province directly under its wing. It now knows, to its cost, that the game is not worth while; and instead of figuring as a directly interested party in the coming referendums, it encourages its stooges to discard their old labels and assume newer and ostensibly more appealing ones. The NWFP has to offer Baluchistan an object lesson. Having despaired of drawing the Frontier Province into its fold, the Congress has signalised its defeat by boycotting the referendum, under pretexts which do not invest its necessity with even a semblance of virtue. If Khan Abdul Ghaffar has broken away from the Congress on the ground that by accepting Dominion State it has betrayed its creed we would have credited him with honesty and consistent principles. His leadership was Congress-sustained and now stands exhausted of its entire dynamics. The Frontier referendum is expected to be walk-over for the League, and neutralise this plainest that other objectives are sought, and abstention from the referendum is prescribed. The example of the Frontier Khanate should not be lost upon Congress henchmen, if there be any, in Baluchistan. It is not only geography, but religion and ideology as well, that render Baluchistan’s kinship with Pakistan, all the closer. It is hoped that the Baluch Province will enthusiastically respond to the call of the great leader, who has served it and the rest of Muslim India, for ten years, with a wholehearted devotion, singleness of purpose and unrivalled sagacity. There will be efforts may be some of them determined and even ingenious to disrupt Muslim unity in Baluchistan; but it is for the Baluchis to present a solid, invincible form against all such machinations. The Muslims of Sylhet will also be faced with a similar situation and it goes without saying that they will cast their vote for Muslim solidarity. Source: viewpointonline.net
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 23:06:48 +0000
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