DISTORTED HISTORY

Mughals ruled Sindh from 1592 to 1737 and appointed 67 governors to manage their control. Kalhora dynasty started during this period and they used to have ‘love and hate’ relations with Mughal Empire. During the first phase of kalhora dynasty due to a dispute with Mughal governor, Mian Yar Muhammad Kalhoro opted for self-exile in Kalat. It happened at the death of Mian Din Muhammad kalhora.

During this period one Khan of Kalat, Mir Mehrab Khan was killed by kalhora people in a local dispute in 1697 and as compensation (with the consent of kalhora rulers of Sindh at that time and the governor of Mughal Empire), Karachi port was gifted to Khan of Kalat, Khan Samander Khan. Mian Yar Muhammad was pro-Aurangzeb Mughal and his request to gift Karachi to Kalat Khans was immediately accepted by Mughal administration. So Administratively Karachi was under Khan of Kalat control from 1697-1747 and Khan was authorised to appoint local governors for Karachi.

Mughal Empire was in crisis and it was losing control over provinces, same was the case with Sindh and Mughal administration’s interests in Sindh affairs was declined and finally in 1757, a dynamic Kalhora ruler Ghulam Shah tookver Karachi from Khan of Kalat.

After 17 years, the last Kalhoro ruler Mian Abdul Nabi killed Mir Bajar and fled to Kalat for rescue. In revenge, Mir Abdullah khan Kalat s/o Mir Bajar attacked Karachi in which the son of law of Khan of Kalat, Zarak khan was killed and again Karachi port was handed over to Khan of Kalat as blood compensation. This control lasted for 1747-1795.

Talpur were fully aware of Karachi’s economic and strategic importance and they started tasking initiative to recover Karachi. Khan of Kalat were less interested in Karachi affairs they were only interested in revenue booty. So finally Talpurs took control of the coastal town of Sindh.

On October 8th, 1798, Governor general of India Lord Wellesley wrote a letter to Bombay Governor Junathan Duncan to develop economic ties and diplomatic relations with Talpurs to stop Zaman Shahs invasions from Afghanistan. British used the ‘kitchen Cabinet’ of Talpur, which was comprised of British agents Aghas and others. Talpurs were Shias so they were impressed by those Shia technocrats and mercantile giants and Talpurs wanted to have good relations with Iran, as most of the decision-makers in Talpur dynasty were immigrants from Iran. British fully exploited that religious bond and finally annexed Sindh, whom Napier called ‘I Have Sin’

My dear Zafar sahib, our history is full of funny facts, contradictions and tall claims of ownership. We are expert in destroying the facts due to our half cooked information. I think we shall focus on the existing ground realities of Pakistan as a federation of four federation units. If we start our claims then in history there were only HIND and SIND, Sindh’s outreach was from Karachi to Kashmir but now we can’t claim Kashmir. Last year when an India peace delegation under the leadership of Kuldip Nair met Prime Minister Gillani, I have heard a funny and distorted sentence from the royal mouth of Gillani that Sindh was part of Multan.

Last year in an international conference on ‘the crisis of ethnicity in Pakistan’ the present Khan of Kalat, Suleman dawoad was claiming for an independent Kalat State and when we asked a question that on the one hand Baloch nationalist leaders (Senator Sana Baloch and others) were talking for an independent and sovereign Balochistan and on the other hand prince were talking about independent Kalat State so how two spate entities will be managed. Tomorrow other tribes will start claiming independent states as per their historical claims on their land so where this struggle of an independent Balochistan was heading as half of the land is already to surrender to Pakhtoons as their historical claim. Prince had no answer.

Interestingly we had former city Nazim of Karachi, Mustafa Kamal in the conference but unfortunately he was blind about the history and background of Karachi, whom his party is ruling since 1988.