BALUCHISTAN (CHIEF COMMISSIONERS PROVINCE)

The 'Chief Commissioners Province of Baluchistan' was a former province of British India located in the northern parts of modern Balochistan province.

Contents

History

Demographics

Government

See also

External links

History

The province was originally formed over the period 1876-1891 by three treaties between Robert Sandeman and the Khan 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.
The province became part of Pakistan 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. When that province was dissolved in 1970, the former Chief Commissioners province was combined with the former Baluchistan States Union and the enclave of Gwadar to form a new larger Balochistan Province with a Governor, a Chief Minister and a Provincial Assembly.

Demographics

The population of the province was equally split between Pashtun tribes in the north and Baloch tribes in the south and west.

Government

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 Baluchistan
15th August 1947 - 3rd October 1947	Sir Geoffrey Prior
3rd October 1947 - 8th April 1948	Sir Ambrose Dundas Flux Dundas
9th April 1948 - 18th January 1949	Cecil Arthur Grant Savidge
19th January 1949 - 16th July 1949	Sahibzada Mohammad Kursheed
16th July 1949 - 18th November 1952	Mian Aminuddin
18th November 1952 - 13th February 1953	Unknown
13th February 1953 - 8th November 1954	Qurban Ali Khan
8th November 1954 - 19th July 1955	Sardar Bahadur Khan
19th July 1955 - 25th July 1955	R.A.F. Hyride
26th July 1955 - 14th October 1955	R.A.M. Shaker
14th October 1955	Province abolished

See also

★ Balochistan province

★ Baluchistan States Union

★ Politics of Pakistan

★ History of Pakistan

★ Robert Groves Sandeman

External links

★ Government of Balochistan

★ Government of Pakistan