What this blog is about

(Jan 12, 2011): Adding matters of Indian and Pakistani history to this blog.

N.W.F.P. election results 1946

Always check the facts when dealing with Pakistani liberals.

In this article on pakteahouse.net,  it is claimed

Dr Khan Sahib became the premier after the 1946 election on the basis of 30 members in a House of 50. Out of these 30 members, 12 were Hindu MLAs and 16 were Muslim MLAs on Muslims seats (not 19 as Bangash claims repeatedly).

A little bit later, the article tells us that the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, an ally of the Congress Party (which is correct).

In "Muslims, Nationalism and the Partition: 1946 Provincial Elections in India" (1998) , Sho Kuwajima provides the party-wise results (page 230) : Congress 30, Jamiat-ul-Ulema 2, Akali 1, Muslim League 17.

Since the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind was an ally of the Congress Party, it means that Dr Khan Sahib became the premier after the 1946 election on the basis of 32 members (I don't yet know about the Akali (Sikh) member).

Page 231 of the same book tells us of the Muslim seats, Congress won 19, the Muslim League 17, and the Jamiat-ul-Ulema won 2.

Thus of the Congress 30, 19 were Muslim exactly as Bangash claims repeatedly, and 11 were non-Muslim.

----
Whenever these elections are mentioned, we should note that the total electorate in the 1946 elections was 41,075,839.  The estimated population of India in 1945 was 299,621,000.  Sho Kuwajima estimates that "the proportion of the total electorate to all the population of the same age group may be roughly less than 28 per cent."

PS: Here is one of the articles of Bangash that is perhaps the source of the argument.

Article 356 of the Indian Constitution

The discretionary powers of the Governor-General and Governor of Section 93 of the 1935 act were done away with in the Indian Independence Act of 1947. But the Indian Constituent Assembly debated and introduced something similar in Article 356 of the Indian Constitution.

We are told:[1]

On August 29, 1947, a Drafting Committee was set up by the Constituent Assembly. Under the chairmanship of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, it was to prepare a draft Constitution for India. In the course of about two years, the Assembly discussed 2,473 amendments out of a total of 7,635 amendments tabled.

When it was suggested in the Drafting Committee to confer similar powers of emergency as had been held by the Governor-General under the Government of India Act, 1935, upon the President, many members of that eminent committee vociferously opposed that idea. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar then pacified the members stating:

'In fact I share the sentiments expressed by my Hon'ble friend Mr. Gupte yesterday that the proper thing we ought to expect is that such articles will never be called into operation and that they would remain a dead letter. If at all they are brought into operation, I hope the President, who is endowed with these powers, will take proper precautions before actually suspending the administration of the provinces.'

He added: 'I hope the first thing he will do would be to issue a clear warning to a province that has erred, that things were not happening in the way in which they were intended to happen in the Constitution.'

 S.R. Bommai v. Union of India, 1994, (Wiki), when the Supreme Court of India set strict boundaries,  stopped the previous abuse of this provision of the Constitution.


[1] EXECUTIVE DISCRETION AND ARTICLE 356 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA: A Comparative Critique K. Jayasudha Reddy and Joy V. Joseph, EJCL Volume 8.1, March 2004

KKS: Don't blame the Taliban

This appeared first in Pakistan Today, I believe, but I could not find it there.   Read it at The Telegraph, part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Blasphemy

No commentary necessary, situation normal....

LAHORE: An enraged mob torched dozens of houses located in a Christian-dominated neighbourhood of Lahore on Saturday, DawnNews reported.
 
The mob attacked the houses in Joseph Colony in Badami Bagh police precincts in the provincial capital following allegations of blasphemy against a Christian man. The man was booked under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

It appeared that the man had been falsely accused of blasphemy but the police was forced to register a case to placate the mob, a local police official said.  (Dawn)

The Bravest Man in Pakistan

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid may be it.

The state of Pakistani population statistics

The state of Pakistani official statistics is interesting.

After a story earlier in the year, about preliminary results from the Pakistan census 2011,  showing the population to be 192+ million, there is nothing further.

The Economic Survey of Pakistan 2011-12
http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey_1112.html

gives a figure for the population of Pakistan, 2011, as 177 million.
Their source is:
National Institute of Population Studies, Planning & Development Division, June 2010

Trying to chase that down, I find another survey, where the source for the 177 million is given as:
"P&D, Division, National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS), CIA Fact Book".
( http://www.infopak.gov.pk/EconomicSurvey/12-Population.pdf )

Their official publication depends on the CIA fact book!!!!

The last actual survey from NIPS appears to be from 2007.
( http://nips.org.pk/ )

This also appears to be the case with the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
http://www.pbs.gov.pk/population_publications

Anyway, the CIA Fact Book has in the meantime been updated.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html
Pakistan's population is:
190,291,129 (July 2012 est.)