Early Problems Faced by Pakistan

Pakistan when came into being faced many problems. First of all it was a country
which was based over an Ideology. Secondly the country from which Pakistan was made
did not want Pakistan to remain independent. Then finally no other country wanted
Pakistan to be made although other than Afghanistan every other country accepted
Pakistan in United Nations.
The government of Pakistan had a mammoth task of making Pakistan acceptable in
the world and to survive against all odds. Some early problem which Pakistan faced in
its early years of Independence is as under: -
Dr. M. Moiz Khan
Assistant Professor
Dept. of History, University of Karachi
0322-2391591, moiz200@yahoo.com
1. Financial Assets:
Pakistan was allotted 750 million Rs. according to partition plan. India as a first
installment paid 200 million Rs. Then India refused to pay the further 550 million Rs. to
Pakistan. The case then was taken up by Gandhi who pressed on the fact that although
Congress has always worked against the creation of Pakistan but now Pakistan has
become a reality so we should accept it and pay the due share to Pakistan. He went on a
hunger strike for the right of Pakistan to get money. As a result the Government of India
paid another 500 million Rs. to Pakistan. India has not paid the remaining 50 million Rs.
to Pakistan.

2. Refugee problem:
The roots of refugee problem can be found in the 3rd June plan. In this plan the
last Viceroy to India Lord Mount Batten lessened the time allowed by Lord Attlee (the
prime Minster of England) by almost a year. Lord Attlee said in his speech in House of
Commons the British will leave India by June 1948 and in 3rd June plan the Viceroy
declared that partition would take place on 15 August, 1947.This proves that the Viceroy
totally ignored the Communal tension and the dispute over land distribution between
Muslim League and Congress.
The main cause of the refugee problem was Radcliff Awards. It was decided that
Pakistan would get Sind, Baluchistan, N.W.F.P, East Bengal and West Punjab. Muslims
had full majority in all provinces other than Punjab and Bengal where they had more than
50% population but there were other communities as well. According to the original plan
it was decided that the provinces of Punjab and Bengal would be divided according to
the population distribution. Means the area which have Muslim majority would be given
to Pakistan and the areas which have non-Muslim majority would be given to India.
The people living in Punjab were sure that their area would be included in Pakistan,
so they did not try to migrate before 14th August. The problem started when on 16th
August Radcliff Awards were announced. According to it many districts of Punjab which
had Muslim majority, like, Gurdaspur, Firozpur, Amritsar etc, were included in Indian
territories. When Muslims of these areas came to know about this foul play by the
Viceroy they left everything in India and tried to reach Pakistan. Many of them were
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killed on the way and those who reached Pakistan had no belongings.
To counter the problem Jinnah set up a “Quaid-e-Azam Refugee relief fund” and
asked people to donate money in the fund to help the refugees. Then he moved his
headquarters from Karachi to Lahore for some time to counter the problem and have a
close eye on the relief work. Dr. M. Moiz Khan
Assistant Professor
Dept. of History, University of Karachi
3. Military assets: 0322-2391591, moiz200@yahoo.com

All army officers were given the choice to join any country after the
Independence. Other physical assets were to be divided according to 5/17 ratio between
Pakistan and India.
The only problem which Pakistan faced was that there were 16 ordnance factories
in undivided India unfortunately for Pakistan all of them were located in divided India.
So India agreed to set up an ordinance factory in Pakistan. Wah ordinance factory was
established with the help of India. Dr. M. Moiz Khan
Assistant Professor
Dept. of History, University of Karachi
4. Accession of Independent states 0322-2391591, moiz200@yahoo.com

There were 562 independent states in Sub-continent at the time of partition. British
gave two choices to them, i) either to remain independent or ii) to join any country they
would like to. Out of these 562 independent states only 14 were within the boundaries of
Pakistan. The problem of accession was with only 3 of them namely Kashmir, Junagarh
and Hyderabad Deccan.
Kashmir, Dir, Sawat, Lasbelah, Bhawalpur, Khairpur, Kalat,

i. Kashmir:
Kashmir was sold to the Dogra family by British in middle of the 19 th century.
Since then they were ruling over it. The majority of its population, which was Muslim,
was not satisfied with their rulers. At the time of Independence Kashmir had the status of
Independent state, which had the right to accede to any country. The ruler of Kashmir at
the time Hari Singh Dogra wanted to accede to India, but the 75% Muslim population
wanted to accede to Pakistan.
The clash between the ruler and the ruled resulted in violence. Hari Singh ordered
the killing of anyone who was against him. In this situation Muslims living in Pakistan
on the bordering areas of Kashmir attacked Kashmir to save their fellow Muslims. Hari
Singh in reply asked for the help from India. Lord Mount Batten was the Governor
General of India at the time; he immediately sent Indian troops into Kashmir. Indian
army stopped the advances of liberation army. Since that day Indian army has occupied
Kashmir and refuse to leave and claim that Kashmir is part of India.

ii. Junagarh:
It is a maritime state which does not have a land link with Pakistan. It can be
reached from Pakistan through sea. The majority of the population in the state was Hindu
but the ruler was Muslim who wanted to accede to Pakistan. Indian government wanted

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it to accede to India. Due to this tussle the ruler and the population was in dilemma of
either joining any country or to remain independent. Finally a large force of liberation
army entered into the borders of Junagarh and forcefully took it from the ruler.

iii. Hyderabad Deccan:

The case of Hyderabad was like Junagarh. The population was Hindu majority but
the ruler was Muslim. However there was a difference in the location of this area.
Hyderabad is situated in the South of India and it is surrounded by Indian Territory from
all sides. The ruler although wanted to join Pakistan initially but realizing the
geographical handicap he decided to remain independent. The Government of India
cannot allow the most powerful and the richest independent state to remain independent.
Indian forces also entered into Hyderabad and took the area by force.

5 Canal Water dispute:

Pakistan is an agricultural economy. Still today Pakistan earns most of it foreign
exchange through agro based industry and exports. For agriculture and second most
important element after land is water. Fortunately Pakistan is blessed with every efficient
river system. Without rivers Pakistan could not progress in any field.
India took advantage of this weakness of Pakistan immediately after
independence. The five major rivers which bring water into Pakistan have their headwork
in Kashmir and India. Indus, Jhelum and Chenab have their sources in Kashmir and Ravi,
Sutlej and Beas have their source in Northern India. India stopped the water of these rivers.
Pakistan objected on it. India said these rivers start from Indian Territory that’s why we
have the right to use their water.
Pakistan argued that these rivers should be allowed to flow on their natural course
which means allowing them to flow through Pakistan. However the dispute took more than
12 years to be solved. It was finally resolved in 1960 that the three Eastern Rivers Indus,
Jhelum and Chenab would be given to Pakistan and Ravi, Sutlej and Beas would go to
India. World Bank played the role of arbitrator in this treaty and it is known as Indus
Basin Treaty.

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