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The Chronicle of Pakistan
Compiled by Khurram Ali Shafique
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1. Punjab Boundary Force abolished.

4. Massive anti-Muslim riots erupt in Delhi, initiated by the extremist Sikhs and RSSS.

9. West Punjab government appoints a custodian of evacuee property, and issues an ordinance stating that "subject to the provisions of this Ordinance it shall be the duty of the Custodian within the area placed in his charge to take possession of the property and effects of evacuees and to take such measures as he considers necessary or expedient for preserving such property or effects."

15. Jinnah calls upon the Government of India to ensure the safety and wellfare of the Muslims in Delhi and punish the agressors.

15. Train service starts to evacuate Pakistan-bound Muslims from Delhi.

17. Jinnah calls upon the Muslims of the tribal areas and elsewhere not to retaliate. "Apart from such action being contrary to Islamic teachings, it is also not in our interest to do so, and such action will serve no useful purpose as a relief to those Musalmans who happen to be minorities in Hindustan or elsewhere in the sub-continent."

30 Pakistan joins UNO

Sep Jubilee, Karachi, the first cinema to open since Independence

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1947: September

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Junagadh: Identity Crisis?

Friday 5. Governor-General Quaid-i-Azam has accepted the accession of Junagadh and Manavadar, small maritime states 300 miles south of Karachi. The total population of Junagadh is 700,000, most of whom is Hindu, and the state is surrounded on all sides by the Indian Territory. However, the ruler is a Muslim, hence the accession to Pakistan.

The Indian government has been informed of the decision of the Pakistan government to accept the accession, and the reaction is not favorable, as might have been accepted. "Such acceptance… cannot but be regarded by Government of India an encroachment on India's sovereignty and territory and inconsistent with friendly relations that should exits between the two Dominions," Mountbatten has written in his telegram to Jinnah.


Ministry of Evacuation and Rehabilitation

Tuesday 9, Karachi. A new ministry has been created to look after the rehabilitation of the refugees pouring into Pakistan from all parts of India. It will be called the Ministry of Evacuation and Rehabilitation.


Formidable Jinnah is very dignified and very sad

Thursday 11. Lord Ismay visits Karachi to apprise the Quaid-i-Azam of the efforts of the Indian Government to curb anti-Muslim violence. "He looked very dignified and very sad, and he spoke like a man without hope," Ismay observes.


Quaid-i-Azam Relief Fund

Friday 12. Jinnah has announced a special fund for the refugees and asked the nation to contribute generously: "Let every man and woman resolve from this day to live henceforth strictly on an asuterity basis in respect of food, clothing and other amenities of life and let the money, foodstuffs and clothing thus saved be brought to this common pool for the relief of the stricken. The winter is approaching and in the Punjab and Delhi particularly, it is very severe and we must provide refuge against it." The Fund will be administered by committee of 6 people including Jinnah himself, 2 ministers, President of the Sindh Provincial Muslim League and the Auditor-General of Pakistan. Sub-committees will be set up with the provincial governors (and Chief Commissioner in the case of Baluchistan).


Gathering storm?

Friday 26. Clouds of war loom over Pakistan and India. Even Gandhi seems to have given in to the hysteria, as today he was heard saying at his prayer gathering in India that he had been an opponent of all warfare but if there was no other way of securing justice from Pakistan, if Pakistan persistently refused to see its proved error and continued to minimize it, the Indian Union government would have to go to war against it.


Looking ahead

While many politicians and intellectuals in India seem to be hoping for a revoking of Pakistan - much to the irritation of the Pakistan Government, which finds it outrightly insulting - there are others, like Durga Das of Hindustan Times, who are willing to make pragmatic calculations about the future of these two dominions. However, such views are not always bright and sunny (though sometimes they are). In a series of four special articles written in the last week of this month, Durga Das has compared political conditions in India and Pakistan. The manner in which these two countries have reacted, according to him, suggest that before long Pakistan would become another Iran and India would go the way of Chiang's China. He envisions government by politicians for politicians in India, and in Pakistan rule by Civil Servants, army officers and landed aristocracy for themselves. The sanction behind the Indian politician, according to Das, is the people's trust in him and the mass base of the Congress Party. The Muslim masses, according to Das, have played a politically passive role in the final "haggling for Pakistan," and so have the Muslim politicians who had nothing on their cards except their devotion to Jinnah.


Top to bottom: Liquat Ali Khan, Jawaharlal Nehru

Nehru, Liaquat visit affected areas

Wednesday 3. In a conference held at Lahore by the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Pakistani counterpart Liaquat Ali Khan, the two premiers have reiterated "the determination of the two Central and the two Provincial Governments that law and order should be immediately established and all lawlessness suppressed and punished." It is also stated that "illegal seizure of property will not be recognized and both Governments will take steps to look after the property of refugees and restore it to its rightful owners."

Over the last few days they have carried out a joint tour of the affected areas in the now divided province of Punjab: Amritsar, Batala, Hoshiarpur, Lahore, and Shiekhupura. Most touching scenes were witnessed in the refugee camps where thousands of people from both sides are awaiting either exodus or rehabilitation. In a caravan along the road through Sheikhupura in Pakistan, an old peasant said: "This country has seen many changes of rulers. They have come and gone. But this is the first time that with a change of rulers the riyaya (subjects) is also being forced to change." An elderly Hindu woman said to Mr. Nehru, "Partitions take place in all families. Property changes hands, but it is all arranged peacefully. Why this butchery, loot and abductions? Could you not do it the sensible way families divide?"


Operation Pakistan

Thursday 4. 26 BOAC aircrafts placed at the disposal of the Pakistan Government have started carrying the Pakistani employees from Delhi to Karachi. In all 7000 passengers may be expected to reach the new capital. The most hazardous part of the journey is reaching the airport - hostile Hindu mobs in the streets of Delhi attack passengers unless the army guards them.


Valika Textile Mills

Friday 26. Pakistan must give an industrial bias to its economy. The Quaid made this statement while laying the foundation stone of the Valika Textile Mills. He said that Sind has been surplus in the production of food, and according to one estimate, if given full opportunity it can be three times more prosperous in agriculture and industry than Egypt. It is therefore important that attention should be paid to other fields along with agriculture, such as science, commerce and industry. "The real power and strength of the State lies in its capacity to produce," he said.


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