Baluchistan States Union

The Baluchistan States Union (Urdu: بلوچستان ریاستی اتحاد) was an administrative division of Pakistan that existed between 3 October 1952 and 14 October 1955 in southwest Pakistan. It was formed by the four princely states of Kalat, Kharan, Las Bela and Makran with the capital at the town of Kalat. The area of the Union was roughly the western half of the modern province of Balochistan. The Union was separate from the Chief Commissioners Province of Baluchistan which comprised areas to the northeast of the Union. The Union did not include the enclave of Gwadar which was part of the Sultanate of Oman. The four state rulers continued in office and retained autonomy.

The BSU was formed after the accession of four individual princely states to the new Dominion of Pakistan in 1948. The area became the Kalat Division when the Union was dissolved. The first head of the Union was the Khan of Kalat, Ahmad of Kalat. The main governing body was the Council of Rulers which comprised the Khan-e-Azam, the Jam of Las Bela and the Nawabs of Kharan and Makran. Decisions on major issues could be taken by a jirga or council of all the nobles or sardars of the Union.

Balochistan

Balochistan or Baluchistan (Balochi: بلوچستان, lit. Land of the Baloch) is an arid desert and mountainous region on the Iranian plateau in south-western Asia, northwest of the Arabian Sea and the national homeland of the Baloch people. It stretches across southwestern Pakistan, southeastern Iran, and a small section of southwestern Afghanistan. The southern part of Balochistan is Makran.

The second most populous linguistic group in the region is the Pashto-speaking Pashtun people. Brahui is spoken by the Brahui people. Punjabi and Sindhi are also spoken as first languages in Pakistani Balochistan and by Hindki in Afghanistan. Urdu is used as second language in Pakistan. Persian is used as a second language in Iran and Afghanistan.

Etymology

The Baloch people once referred to their land as Moka or Maka, a word which later became Makran. Moka might have been an adaptation of Mahi-khoran, Persian for "fish eaters," an appellation used by the Persians of the west for the people of coastal Balochistan. Arrian, in his Anabasis Alexandri, referred to the people of the region as the ichythophagi, a Greek translation of Mahi-khoran.

Balochistan (disambiguation)

Balochistan or Baluchistan or Baluchestan (Balochi: بلوچستان) is a region that covers parts of southwestern Pakistan, southeastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. It can also refer to one of several modern and historical territories within that region:

Baluchistan (Chief Commissioner's Province)

The Chief Commissioner's Province of Balochistan (Urdu: بلوچستان ,چیف کمشنر صوبہ) was a province of British India, and later Pakistan, located in the northern parts of the modern Balochistan province.

History

The province was originally formed over the period 1876–1891 by three treaties between Robert Sandeman and the Khan of Kalat, Khudadad 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. West Pakistan was dissolved in 1970. Khan Abdul Wali Khan intended to transfer political power to the Pashtuns. The former Chief Commissioner's province was combined with the former Balochistan States Union and the enclave of Gwadar to form a new, larger Balochistan Province, with a Governor, a Chief Minister and a Provincial Assembly.