The
Partition of India was the partition of the British Indian Empire that led to the
creation of the sovereign states of the Dominions of Pakistan and India on 15
August 1947 with the division of Punjab.
The newly
birthed Pakistan faced a number of immigration and naturalization difficulties
due to the division of Punjab and Punjabi nation.
The Punjabi
Hindus and Punjabi Sikhs were displaced from the western side of Punjab to the eastern side of Punjab and the Punjabi Muslims were displaced from the eastern
side of Punjab to the western side of Punjab.
In the
riots which preceded the partition in the Punjab region, about 2 million people
were killed in the retributive genocide and 20 Million people were displaced.
The Time
Magazine of September 1947 gave killing static around one million people.
However, it was the largest genocide after the Second World War within a short span of time.
UNHCR
estimates 14 million Muslim Punjabis, Hindu Punjabis, Sikh Punjabis were
displaced during the partition; but, it was the largest mass migration in human
history too.
However,
after the death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah on 25 December 1948, the problem of
religious minorities also flared in Sindh and United Provinces of India, during
1949.
The Liaquat
Ali Khan took advantage of the situation and started to create the atmosphere
and circumstances to help the Urdu Speaking population of the United Provinces
of India and to settle them in Pakistan.
Liaquat Ali
Khan met the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to sign the Liaquat-Nehru
Pact in 1950 to protect the religious minorities on both sides of the border.
But, in particular, he started to patronize the infiltration of Urdu Speaking
communities from the United Provinces of India to Pakistan on a mass scale.
After the
Liaquat-Nehru Pact in 1950, the Urdu Speaking communities from the United
Provinces of India started to infiltrate Pakistan which polarized the West
Pakistani population, especially in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi,
Multan, Hyderabad and other parts of the Punjab and Sindh Provinces.
In a matter
of fact, the Liaquat-Nehru pact was for the settlement of dislocated Punjabis
due to the division of Punjab and not for the people of other areas. Punjab was
declared as an agreed area and other areas were declared as Non-Agreed areas
for migration, but as a Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan
manipulated the agreement to settle the people of his native province in Lahore,
Rawalpindi, Multan, Hyderabad and other parts of the Punjab and Sindh Provinces
at large scale, especially in Karachi to control the capital and port city of
Pakistan.
In 1947,
only the UP, CP politicians, bureaucracy and the establishment came in Karachi,
the capital of Pakistan, to take the charge of Pakistan. In 1948, the students
of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Darul Uloom Deoband, and Barelvi institutions in
the United Province of India and the Students of Aligarh Muslim University,
with their families were brought into Pakistan through special trains by
declaring them the Potential Immigrants from India. They were provided the
services in teaching institutions and government departments of Pakistan.
Students of Aligarh Muslim University were taken as the high-rank officers in
the bureaucracy and the establishment of Pakistan. In Karachi, the capital of
Pakistan, to settle them, the first residential colony for them with the name
of the PIB Colony was built by the Chief Minister of Sindh, Pir Illahi Bux (3
May 1948 to 4 February 1949).
In Sept
1948, first one Quota System for Pakistan was introduced by the Prime Minister
Liaquat Ali Khan and it used a Regional/Provincial model for recruitment in
Government Jobs and accordingly; Bengal 42%, Punjab 23%, Potential Immigrants
from India 15%, and Karachi had a 2% separate Quota. Other provinces [Sindh,
Balochistan and NWFP] and the Princely States had a 17% Quota. Later in Nov
49, instead of using the term Potential immigrants from India, merit was used
and the new quota was; Merit 20%, Karachi 2%, Bengal 40%, Punjab including
Bahawalpur 23%. All other [Sindh, Balochistan, and NWFP] had a 15% Quota.
Three full
provinces Sindh, Balochistan, and NWFP were given 15% Quota and Urdu Speaking
Hindustani Muhajir's alone were given 20% in the name of "Merit " and
2% for Karachi alone, that makes it 22%. Ironically, the 15% Quota of Sindh and
23% Quota of Punjab including Bahawalpur, that too normally went to Urdu
Speaking Hindustani Muhajir, due to their settlement in the cities and towns of
rural Sindh and the urban areas of Punjab from 1950.
As a result
of the infiltration of Urdu-speaking communities from the United Provinces of
India to Pakistan, in 1951, close to half of the population of the Lahore,
Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan, Hyderabad and other major cities of Pakistan were
Urdu speaking infiltrators from India.
