Chief Commissioner's Province of British Baluchistan | |||||||||||
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Province of British India & Pakistan | |||||||||||
1876–1955 | |||||||||||
Flag | |||||||||||
Capital | Quetta | ||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||
• 1901 | 139,396 [1] [2] km2 (53,821 sq mi) | ||||||||||
• 1903 | 140,010 km2 (54,060 sq mi) | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
• Established | 1876 | ||||||||||
• Quetta and surrounding districts placed under British administration | 1879 | ||||||||||
• Administration of Pishin and Sibi tract assumed from Afghanistan | 1879 | ||||||||||
• Bolan Pass tracts leased to British by Kalat | 1883 | ||||||||||
• Zhob and country of Khetran tribes brought under British rule from Afghanistan | 1890 | ||||||||||
• Chagai and West Sinjrani brought under British administration | 1896 | ||||||||||
• Leased Nushki from Kalat | 1899 | ||||||||||
• Leased Nasirabad from Kalat | 1903 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1955 | ||||||||||
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Former administrative units of Pakistan |
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The Chief Commissioner's Province of British Baluchistan was a province of British India established in 1876. Upon the creation of Pakistan it acceded to the newly formed state. It was part of the Baluchistan Agency. It was dissolved to form a united province of West Pakistan in 1955 upon the creation of One Unit Scheme.
The province was originally formed over the period 1876–1891 by three treaties between Robert Sandeman and the Khan of Kalat, Khudadad of Kalat. Sandeman became the Political Agent for the British-administered areas which were strategically located between British India and Afghanistan. A military base was established at Quetta which played a major part in the Second and Third Afghan Wars.
Balochistan was legally ceded to Pakistan by its rulers in 1947 and continued to be administered by a Chief Commissioner. It was dissolved in 1955 when most parts of the western wing of Pakistan became the new province of West Pakistan. West Pakistan was dissolved in 1970. Khan Abdul Wali Khan intended to transfer political power to the Pashtuns. The former Chief Commissioner's province was combined with the former Balochistan States Union and the enclave of Gwadar to form a new, larger Balochistan Province, with a Governor, a Chief Minister and a Provincial Assembly.
The population of the province was equally split between Baloch tribes in the south and west and Pashtun tribes in the north.
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The province was administered by a Chief Commissioner appointed by the Federal Government. Although there was no elected legislature the Chief Commissioner could consult the Shahi Jirga, an assembly of tribal leaders.
The province comprised three groups of areas – the settled districts, the political agencies and the tribal area. The settled areas were mainly the district around Quetta and Jaffarabad. The agencies were the Zhob agency to the north of Quetta and the Chagai agency to the west, which had a tenuous land link with the rest of the province. The tribal areas were the Bugti and Marri tribal agencies which would later become Provincially Administered Tribal Areas in the new Balochistan province.
Tenure | Chief Commissioner of Balochistan [3] |
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15 August 1947 – 3 October 1947 | Sir Geoffrey Prior |
3 October 1947 – 8 April 1948 | Sir Ambrose Dundas Flux Dundas |
9 April 1948 – 18 January 1949 | Cecil Arthur Grant Savidge |
19 January 1949 – 16 July 1949 | Sahibzada Mohammad Kursheed |
16 July 1949 – 18 November 1952 | Mian Aminuddin |
18 November 1952 – 13 February 1953 | Unknown |
13 February 1953 – 8 November 1954 | Qurban Ali Khan |
8 November 1954 – 19 July 1955 | Sardar Bahadur Khan |
19 July 1955 – 25 July 1955 | R.A.F. Hyride |
26 July 1955 – 14 October 1955 | R.A.M. Shaker |
14 October 1955 | Province abolished |
Balochistan is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-east, Punjab to the east and Sindh to the south-east; shares international borders with Iran to the west and Afghanistan to the north; and is bound by the Arabian Sea to the south. Balochistan is an extensive plateau of rough terrain divided into basins by ranges of sufficient heights and ruggedness. It has the world's largest deep sea port, the Port of Gwadar lying in the Arabian Sea.
West Pakistan was the western province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1970, covering the territory of present-day Pakistan. Its land borders were with Afghanistan, India and Iran, with a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman in the Arabian Sea.
Quetta is a district in the northwestern part of the Balochistan province of Pakistan. According to 2023 Pakistani census population of Quetta District is 2,272,290.
Nawab Nauroz (Nowroz) Khan (1868?–1965), also known by Balochs as Dada Nowroz, was the head of the Zarakzai (Zehri), a subject to the Khan of Kalat in Balochistan, British India. After his unsuccessful insurgency against the government of that time he was imprisoned in Kohlu jail where he died in 1965.
Sir Robert Groves Sandeman, KCSI (1835–1892) was a British Indian Army officer and colonial administrator. He was known for his activities in Balochistan, where he introduced a system of "tribal pacification" that endured until the partition of India in 1947.
The history of Balochistan refers to the history of the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Vague allusions to the region were found in Greek historical records of around 650 BCE. Prehistoric Balochistan dates to the Paleolithic.
Sibi is a district in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The climate and topography of Sibi District is quite varied compared to the other districts of Balochistan. It is also known as the "hotspot" of Pakistan where the temperatures in the summer exceeded 52.6 °C (126.7 °F). Until 2002 the district had two sub-divisions, Sibi and Harnai, further organized into Tehsils and sub-tehsils: Sibi, Kutmandi and Sangan. Lehri was joined with Sibi district in 2002 and Harnai was made a separate district. Sibi tehsil is predominately inhabited by Pashtun tribes of Panni, Khajjaks and Tareens. Town of sibi is chiefly built upon lands of Marghazani and Dehpal.
Sibi is a city situated in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The city serves as the administrative headquarters of the district and tehsil of the same name.
Zhob, formerly known as Mandokhail,Fort Sandeman is a city and district headquarters of the Zhob District in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Zhob is located on the banks of the Zhob river. It lies 337 kilometres away from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.
The former administrative units of Pakistan are states, provinces, and territories which mainly existed between 1947 and 1975 when the current provinces and territories were established. The former units have no administrative function today, but some remain as historical and cultural legacies. In some cases, the current provinces and territories correspond to the former units – for example the province of Punjab includes almost all the territory of the former province of West Punjab.
The Khanate of Kalat was a Brahui Khanate that originated in the modern-day Kalat region of Pakistan. Formed in 1666 due to the threat of Mughal expansion in the region, it controlled the wider Balochistan at its greatest extent in the mid-18th century, extending from Kerman in the west to Sindh in the east and from Helmand River in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south. The Khanate of Kalat lost considerable area to Qajar Iran and the Emirate of Afghanistan in the early 19th century, and the city of Kalat was itself sacked by the British in 1839.
The four provinces, capital territory, and two autonomous territories of Pakistan are subdivided into 38 administrative "divisions", which are further subdivided into districts, tehsils, and finally union councils. These divisions were abolished in 2000, but restored in 2008.
Quetta, surrounded as it is by imposing hills on all sides. It is encircled by hills Chiltan, Takatoo, Mordar and Zarghun. It is believed that the earliest Muslim inhabitants and rulers/owners of the city were the Pashtun Tribe. Quettarested here on his retreat to Pashtun, | url=https://paktourismportal.com/history-of-quetta/ | title=History of Quetta | Pakistan Tourism Portal|website=paktourismportal.com|access-date=19 October 2022}}</ref> The Ghilzai power in Kandahar at the beginning of the eighteenth century, simultaneously gave this area to be controlled by Pashtun and Baloch in Kalat. Ahmed Shah Durrani finally gave control of Quetta over to the Khan of Kalat Mir Noori Naseer Khan Baloch for helping him with his army in 1751 against the Marathas in the Battle of Panipat (1761), and against the Sikhs in 1765. Today, it is an important city in BALUCHISTAN. Quetta has a majority Pashtun population, with more than 60% of its inhabitants being Pashtun .{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}
The Insurgency in Balochistan is an insurgency or revolt by Baloch separatist insurgents and various Islamist militant groups against the governments of Pakistan and Iran in the Balochistan region, which covers the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, and Balochistan of southern Afghanistan. Rich in natural resources, this is the largest, least populated and least developed province in Pakistan and Iran, and armed groups demand greater control of the province's natural resources and political autonomy. Baloch separatists have attacked civilians from other ethnicities throughout the province. In the 2010s, attacks against the Shia community by sectarian groups—though not always directly related to the political struggle—have risen, contributing to tensions in Balochistan. In Pakistan, the ethnic separatist insurgency is low-scale but ongoing mainly in southern Balochistan, as well as sectarian and religiously motivated militancy concentrated mainly in northern and central Balochistan.
The Baluchistan Agency was one of the agencies of British India during the colonial era. It was located in the present-day Balochistan province of Pakistan.
Balochistan, also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region of desert and mountains is primarily populated by ethnic Baloch people.
The Governor of Balochistan is the head of the province of Balochistan, Pakistan. The post was established on 1 July 1970, after the dissolution of West Pakistan province and the end of One Unit. Under Pakistan's current parliamentary system, the governorship is a ceremonial position, as a symbol of the federation. The governor is appointed by the centre, whereas the principal head of the provincial government remains the elected Chief Minister of Balochistan.
Shahzada Rehmatullah Khan Durrani was a Pakistan Movement activist born on 10 October 1919 in the Sadozai dynasty of Durrani, the ethnic Pashtun Sadozai tribe, section of the Popalzai sub clan of Durrani Abdali Pashtun tribe in British India, Quetta.
Nawab Mohammad Khan Jogezai (1884–missing) was a prominent Pashtun tribal leader from Baluchistan Province and the sole representative from the province in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.