BAHAWALPUR: The 49th death anniversary of Nawab Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi (the fifth) is being observed here on Sunday.

The district administration declares a local holiday every year as a mark of respect for the 13th emir of ex-Bahawalpur State but this time round the day falls on Sunday.

Besides private remembrance, the Sadiq Public School and other institutions have drawn up plans to pay a tribute to Nawab Sadiq by recalling his services to the then state and philanthropic endeavours.

Born at Daulatkhana on Darbar Road (Bahawalpur) on Sept 30, 1904, he ruled for 31 years and died in London on May 24, 1966 at the age of 62. He was buried at Abbasi family’s graveyard near Derawar Fort in Cholistan, about 70 kilometres from here.

Literature on the history of Bahawalpur before and after the Partition remembers him as one of the remarkable men who studied from Aitchison College, Lahore during the Khilafat Movement and returned to Bahawalpur. He accessed the throne on March 8, 1924 and as he was inspired by the Khilafat Movement, he could only bring back the ousted ‘Turki Topi’, an entity of Islam for thousands of years, to his small realm of Bahawalpur. He ordered ‘Turki Topi’ to be the state headgear both for the defunct Bahawalpur Army and civil servants.

He restored the glory of the Bahawalpur Regiment, raising the Bahawalpur State Force (BSF) to a full-fledged army division in the late 1930’s. The BSF took part in the World War 2, capturing some Japanese guns at the Assam Front.

The Nawab had close relationship with the Quaid-i-Azam much before the creation of Pakistan. Both had been staying before 1947 in the Malir (Karachi ) palace “Al-Qamar” which had been the centre of political activities in connection with the creation of the new country.

According to many books, the Nawab spurned Jawahar Lal Nehru’s incentives including a blank cheque to side with the Indian state and the world saw Bahawalpur State annex with the newly-established Muslim country of Pakistan on Oct 3, 1947.

The Bahawalpur State under the Independence Act and Partition declaration attained the status of an independent state with complete sovereignty and independence on Aug 14, 1947 and later Pakistan Postal Department issued a commemorative stamp having photographs of the Quaid-i-Azam and Nawab Sadiq.

With the establishment of One-Unit under new Constitution, he announced on Oct 14, 1955 state’s merger with West Pakistan but with a guarantee from the then government that whenever the scheme would be dissolved, the former Bahawalpur State would be revived as a separate province. But after the dissolution of One-Unit by Gen Yahyah Khan under martial law order on March 30, 1970, Bahawalpur was made part of Punjab province. This triggered a wave of protest and the movement for the restoration of Bahawalpur province was launched in three districts of former state of Bahawalpur.

He summoned Capt Alfred Massey at the Sadiqgarh Palace and accommodated him as a major in the Ist Bahawalpur Light Infantry of the Bahawalpur State Forces (BSF). Capt Alfred had been dismissed from service, court-martialed and jailed at Attock Fort for disobeying Gen Dyer’s illegal command to open fire on unarmed poor Indian at Amritsar’s Jallianwala Bagh. He had embraced Islam during his confinement in Attock Jail.

The late Nawab during his rule introduced reforms for the general public particularly in education with the establishment of Jamia Abbasia and Sadiq Public School. The historic 102-mile Bahawalnagar-Sammasatta railway track linking New Delhi via Bhatinda was laid during Nawab’s era in 1926.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2015

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