Khuhro alone can’t be blamed for One Unit......
Kazi Qutbuddin, Former PA to KB Khuhro

Mr. Kutbudin Kazi, remained attached with KB Muhammad Ayub Khuhro as his personal assistant from 1948 to 1961. Thus, he became the family member of KB Khuhro. He became so chummy to him that he had an advantage to discuss and pointout any thing with him fearlessly.

Mr. Kutbudin Kazi, is now 84 years old & lives in Karachi. I held an interview with him to get first hand information about the life of Mr. Khuhro. Excerpts of interview are given below:

What did you know about Mr. Ayub Khuhro?

KB Muhammad Khuhro had a big heart. An amendment was made in Indian Government Act 1935 in which PM was given powers to dislodge the Chief Minister of any province.

Punjab was fearful from Khuhro even after the one unit was formed. During Ayub’s Martial law he was sentenced for five years. In this case his driver and my self were also made accused. I took the driver and escaped. I was witness to past practices of the rulers. I was also witnessed to Allah Bux Soomro murder conspiracy case in which Khan Bahadur Khuhro was falsely implicated. His brother Muhammad Nawaz Khuhro (Nisar’s father) was arrested & was subjected to third rate degree torture by the police to divulge information against his brother. He used to be lied on a ice bar for days & nights.

So I decided to escape before they could catch us & extract information of their choice in the manner they did with Nawaz Khuhro.

Some Kamdars of Khuhro Sohib were also arrested and were made hostile against their master under coercion.

He was just and a pious fellow. He was very strict ruler. Bureaucrats were scared about him.

There was a secretary of irrigation named Muhammad Moosa. He once brought some files to Chief Minister’s office requesting for extension of leave for one Mr. M. Soleh Kathio, who was then working in Washington DC. The time he referred the file & saw the Secretary and ordered the Secretary should be reverted. I entered into office & saw the Secretary with tremours in his whole body. I immediately offered him a chair before he would have fallen on the ground.

There was one gentleman named Bhavani. He once visited District Council Larkana & recorded his observation on the file regarding the creation of post of supervisor. Raheem Dino, who was the inspector and belonged to Pano Akil was closed to Khuhro Sohib. He brought the matter on the notice of Khuhro Sohib, who invited him to visit him in Karachi office.

How did Khuhro confronted the post partition events?

Before the partition Hindus were fearful from him and after the partition the entire Punjabi and Muhajir lobby & the bureaucrats were terrified from him.

After the Indo-Pak partition the Central government issued an order saying that the emigrants who wish to carry along their machinery to Pakistan would be welcomed and no tax etc, would be levied viz a viz the Hindus, who wished to leave Sindh & migrate to India.

Khuhro realized that if the Hindus began uprooting their machinery & were allowed to shift it to India, the natives would face a grave situation in the shape of shortage of flour & other commodities manufactured locally. He withheld the said order and stopped Hindus taking away machinery to India to which India government complained to the central government. The central government invited Khuhro & was made to explain his position. Khuhro steadfastly pleaded the case of his people and termed such orders of the central government as absurd and asked that the authorities they must have consulted him before issuing such order.

Prime Minister Ghulam Muhammad and Abdul Rab Nishter acceded to Khuhro Sohib’s point of view and expressed their regrets over the inconvenience caused on the issue. He always used to confront with central government on one or the other issue to provide comfort to his subjects.

Before all this, a case was prepared against Khuhro Sohib. The details incorporated in the case were that the goods (including the machinery) confiscated by the customs authorities were usurped by Khuhro himself. The chief secretary RA Muhammadi  & the Collector of Karachi Altaf Hussain were both united in the conspiracy. They claimed that the 72 carriages containing goods were meant for Kashmir front which were confiscated on the orders of the Chief Minister Khuhro supposing them Hindus’ property to be transported to India.

Khuhro was a man made of steel nerves. He was once sentenced to five years with rigorous labour. Had there not been Justice Muneer, it was likely that Mr. Khuhro would have to undergone the same sentence.

He was give class C regard to his high position & the power he enjoyed. Khuhro was always welcoming to public. His doors always used to lie open for the general public.

How Mr. Khuhro used to deal with the petitions or the petitioners?

Khuhro Sohib used to live in Yardly house where only one police cop was deputed to stand guard. He was not suppose to stop any body to enter into it or meet with him.

Khuhro used to refer those complaints to respective DCs or the SSPs with clear cut instructions to decide the same issue with in 15 days.

These two lines were enough for any DC or any of the official to comprehend its meaning without doubt.

After two weeks when ever the same petitioner had ever to return back to Khuhro Sohib with the same complaint stating that no decision was yet done by the concerned official.

Then his simple correspondence to the same official was used to be that, “You don’t know how to derive work from your subordinates, why you may not be posted in his off sheet & such note be kept in your service book”, was usually enough to pass him sleepless nights.

As opposed to him, Kazi Fazlullah was in habit of excessively using telephone instead of putting his remarks on files or sending letters to officials. His house used to remain open till 10:30 pm.

How would bureaucrats used to respond to his queries?

There was a full fledge meeting of all the DCs of Sindh going on in the Chief Minister’s house. During the meeting Chief Minister Khuhro, came out of the meeting for some matter. All of a sudden a petitioner from Sanghar drew his attention. He immediately asked the then District Magistrate of Sanghar, Mr. Enver Adil to give patient hearing to the complainant and redress his grievance immediately.

After hearing the petitioner, he immediately left for his district without informing to the Chief Minister. During the meeting the Chief Minister took notice of the absence of DC and enquired about. He was informed that he had left to his district along with the said petitioner to get his matter resolved.

Despite his extraordinary engagements he had a very quick disposal of office dak. Files and official papers sent to the Chief Minister’s house were bound to return to concerned departments after perusal the very next day. During his checking of the files he used to be assisted by his younger daughter Hameeda Khuhro (Dr.) who was then hardly an school going, who used to browse the files and oftenly make correction of proof errors or the punctuation mistakes. He then used to refer those files & point out those corrections to his sons & make them realize how his great daughter has done.

How did you see the events that led to the imposition of One Unit and led Mr. Khuhro to impose the same?

It was a scheme launched by the Punjabis and for the Punjabis. Deen Muhammad Shaikh was made the governor of Sindh. He was a great conspirator & intriguer, who according to an scheme got all the Sindhi leaders: Khuhro, Peerzada, Fazlullah Kazi etc, engaged into a sort of rivalry and shattered their ideal unity after creating differences among them. Punjab wanted to usurp the agricultural lands of Sindh. Khuhro Sohib was totally against the scheme of One Unit. But Mumtaz Doltana put him under pressure to get the bill passed through the provincial assembly.

He was the ardent opponent of the scheme. Series of meetings of high officials ensued to seek their feedback. At one point Pir Ali Muhammad Rashdi got to know about the scheme & came to see him. He asked Mr. Khuhro about the reasons of his opposition to one Unit. Khuhro told him that this scheme was bound to bring bad name and miseries for Sindh & the Sindhis and would eliminate Sindh from map. To which Rashdi told him convincingly that which Sindhis he wanted to support. “Minussing ethnically Baloch Sindhis, you would have hardly 20% original Sindhis”, are you going to support that limited section at the cost of national interest and our collective “nokri” (employment)? Rashdi asked.

Later on a formal meeting was convened at Khuhro Sohib’s office to convass & seek approval for the One Unit. All the members of the assembly or the prominent leaders who were either fell ’politically sick’ and got admitted in the hospitals or fled out of the country, suddenly came back and joined the meeting.

I asked Ghulam Rasool Kehar and Sadiq Ali Memon (Thatta) that don’t you feel shy to attend this meeting which meant to destroy the image of Sindh or the Sindhis. To which one of them remarked why don’t you stop your boss (Khuhro) to support this.

I replied, “If you would have resisted to come over here he was bound to turn down this scheme.”

When the things began coming into process, Peerzada (Abdul Sattar), Fazlullah (Kazi), Pirs & Mirs call on governor Deen Muhammad and asked him that they were in majority & they may be allowed to form government in place of Khuhro and get the Bill of One Unit passed in the assembly.

Deen Muhammad Shaikh snubbed them and asked them to go away as Khuhro was competent to do all that.

No body remember this event?!! 

- By Momin Bullo