Accession of Kalat
The Instrument of Accession was the legal decree upon which Princely States, the tributaries to the British Indian Empire, was annexed into the new states of Pakistan and India. In the case of Kalat, it was annexed by the order of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The Instrument of Accession was a legal document first introduced by the Government of India Act 1935 and used in 1947 to enable each of the rulers of the princely states under British India to be joined with the newly born nations of India and Pakistan as a result of the Partition of British India.
Background
The Baluchistan States Union was formed on 3 October 1952 with three neighboring states. The region was de facto independent from 12 August 1947 to 27 March 1948 before being acceded to Pakistan on 27 March 1948. Reports exist indicating that the Khan of Kalat wanted to accede to India in order to avoid Pakistan from occupying his state, though Nehru declined the offer.Balochistan’s Princely State status was formalized through by being leased or ceded during Colonial reign in the Indian Subcontinent. Kalat, the region that would come to be known as a province within Pakistan. Despite this final decree, the Khan of Kalat had declared declared independence in 1947 prior to its accession in 1948.
The accession process was generally a straightforward procedural process for India and Pakistan. This procedural trend however was not the case in the Princely states of Jammu and Kashmir, whose ruler opted for independence but decided to accede to India following an invasion by Pakistan-based forces), Hyderabad State, whose ruler opted for independence in 1947, followed a year later by the police action and annexation of the state by India), Junagarh, whose ruler acceded to Pakistan, but was annexed by India), and in Balochistan, in which voting rights and provincial agency was forfeit or made null.
The Shahi Jirga was stripped of its members from the Kalat State prior to the vote." The then president of the Baluchistan Muslim League, Qazi Muhammad Isa, informed Muhammad Ali Jinnah that "Shahi Jirga in no way represents the popular wishes of the masses" and that members of the Kalat State were "excluded from voting; only representatives from the British part of the province voted and the British part included the leased areas of Quetta, Nasirabad Tehsil, Nushki and Bolan Agency." Following the referendum, the Khan of Kalat, on 22 June 1947, received a letter from members of the Shahi Jirga, as well as sardars from the leased areas of Baluchistan, stating that they, "as a part of the Baloch nation, were a part of the Kalat state too" and that if the question of Baluchistan's accession to Pakistan arise, "they should be deemed part of the Kalat state rather than Balochistan." This has brought into question whether an actual vote took place in the town hall "and that the announcement in favour of accession was secured through sheer manipulation." Under the orders of Pakistan prime minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, Balochistan was forcibly occupied on 22 March 1948.
Pakistani human rights activist, Waseem Altaf has proclaimed, "On orders emanating from Mr Jinnah, Balochistan was forcibly annexed to Pakistan on 28th March 1948 when on 27th March 1948, Lt Colonel Gulzar of the 7th Baluch Regiment under GOC Major General Mohammad Akbar Khan invaded the Khanate of Kalat. General Akbar escorted the Khan of Kalat to Karachi and forced him to sign on the instrument of accession while Pakistan Navy's destroyers reached Pasni and Jiwani."
Political scientist Salman Rafi Sheikh, in locating the origins of the insurgency in Balochistan, says "that Balochistan's accession to Pakistan was, as against the officially projected narrative, not based upon consensus, nor was support for Pakistan overwhelming. What this manipulation indicates is that even before formally becoming a part of Pakistan, Balochistan had fallen a prey to political victimization.