Ahmad of Kalat


Mir Sir Ahmad Yar Khan Ahmedzai was the last Khan of Kalat, a princely state within British India and the Dominion of Pakistan, serving from 10 September 1933 to 14 October 1955.
Mir Ahmad Yar assumed his throne in 1933, and was decorated by the British in the 1936 New Year Honours as a Knight Grand Commander of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire.
He declared Kalat's independence from the British Empire on 15 August 1947, hoping British Prime Minister Clement Attlee would honour his pledge to respect the self-determination of the Princely States. Yar Khan had served as an agent of British intelligence services in the 1920s, reporting on Russian influence and the spread of pro-Marxist sympathy among the poorer Baloch subjects. He appointed Douglas Fell, a Briton, Foreign Minister of Kalat in an effort to curry favour with the British government. Despite his nationalist aspirations, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was Yar Khan's legal adviser in the early 1940s. Jinnah persuaded Yar Khan to accept Pakistani rule but the Khan stalled for time. After a period of negotiations, Khan finally decided to accede to Pakistan on 27 March 1948. Yar Khan signed a treaty of accession, submitting to the federal government. His younger brothers, Prince Agha Abdul Karim Baloch, revolted against his decision. Abdul Karim took refuge in Afghanistan to wage an armed resistance against Pakistan. The Prince fought a lone battle without support from the rest of Balochistan. As a result, the Prince surrendered to Pakistan in 1950. Jinnah and his successors allowed Yar Khan to retain his title until the province's dissolution in 1955.
He briefly declared himself Khan again in defiance of the Pakistani state from June to October 1958. On 6 October 1958, the Pakistani government arrested and imprisoned Yar Khan on sedition charges during the coup d'état against President Iskander Mirza but later released and briefly restored his title in 1962. His arrest triggered an insurgent uprising led by Nauroz Khan in 1959.

Legacy

Yar Khan's eldest son, Mir Suleman Dawood Jan, assumed the title of Khan of Kalat upon his father's death in 1979. On Dawood Jan's death his son Suleman Daud Jan became new Khan of Kalat. He has lived in exile in London since the death of Akbar Bugti in 2006. Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch and Sanaullah Zehri have asked him to return to Pakistan. Yar Khan's younger sons, Prince Mohyuddin Baloch and grandson Umer Daud Khan, are both politicians in Pakistan.

Books