Dude I don’t understand how you are making this point.The book indeed is pretty much clear on what it says. It tells us that there were 101 Muslim ICS officers in undivided British India in 1947 at the eve of partition and out of them 95 chose to serve Pakistan and the remaining 6 chose to continue serving ICS/India (3 of them I know were Punjabi Muslims). Then it goes on to tell us that of those 95 officers who chose to serve Pakistan, one third were Punjabis. It further tells us that there were many Urdu-speakers as well but no numbers are given.
As for Punjabi Muhajirs, they have never identified themselves as Muhajirs. In fact, as much as one fourth of Punjab's entire population comprised of immigrants from East Punjab as per the 1951 census. When we talk about Muhajirs, we do not include Punjabi Muhajirs. The numbers/stats that have been shared on this thread are for Non-Punjabi immigrants who made Sindh their home after 1947.
Moreover, your claim that Muhajirs dominated nascent Pakistani bureaucracy is misleading in the sense that it was the quota system introduced in 1948 by Liaquat Ali that helped Muhajirs dominate Pakistan Bureaucracy in the early years of our existence. The Muhajirs couldn't have dominated bureaucracy (or economy for that matter) had it not been for Muhajir-friendly policies implemented rigorously by Liaquat Ali Khan, a Muhajir himself.
But those are things of the past. They are irrelevant now. Everyone has contributed significantly to the state of Pakistan. But you guys should not twist and distort history and facts to play victims when you clearly aren't. I know it's a bit hard for you to accept that Punjab is not the villain, as you have grown up listening to anti-Punjab rhetoric that no one bothers to verify/challenge
First, the muhajjirs never wanted quotas. We didn’t need them. We represented the educated population. 15% of the quota in 1948 was given to those without domicile. These included the east Punjabis that migrated. Only 2% was reserved for Karachi (which was where most the muhajjirs were settling). After they would get domicile, they wouldn’t even qualify for the 15% anyways.
Even assuming that 17% was reserved for muhajjirs, that doesn’t explain why the numbers in bureaucracy have never been lower than 25% until after the 1970s.
By the reference you yourself quoted, it increased to 47% in 1950. And when we probe as to what govt policy it was that gave muhajjirs this increase, we find that it is because merit allocation was increased to 20% and this favored muhajjirs because of “higher literacy.”
Alright even assuming that the quotas somehow favored muhajjirs (even thought they didn’t, because they were in actuality limiting the number of muhajjirs who were in the bureaucracy in much higher numbers), how do you turn around and say that the quotas were harming Punjabis using the same logical argument I have made for muhajjirs?
In truth, the quotas in 1948 were not enforced very well. They were not enforced very well - to disadvantage the Bengalis. You can refer to the first publication I referenced that outlines this fact.
The real point quotas that mattered were those enforced that made distinction between urban and rural Sindh. And then slowly weeded out muhajjirs from the bureaucracy since the 1970s. Good bye meritocracy. Hello institutional decline.
I hope you don’t think that I am blaming Punjabis in any ways. I am not. I am blaming the establishment- which for whatever reason has always been ethnically biased towards Punjabis. Not essentially or anything. But it does explain why the taasub ki politics party in Punjab are the blue-eyed boys. Again this is a point in Pakistani history that is hard to dispute. Not the only broad group that establishment favors- class being another dimension.
Dude the only reason this back and forth started between us was because I said quotas passed by establishment had harmed Muhajjirs and Bengalis. For me, this is not controversial. You decided to counter that point by claiming that quotas actually helped muhajjirs. And here we are.But those are things of the past. They are irrelevant now. Everyone has contributed significantly to the state of Pakistan. But you guys should not twist and distort history and facts to play victims when you clearly aren't. I know it's a bit hard for you to accept that Punjab is not the villain, as you have grown up listening to anti-Punjab rhetoric that no one bothers to verify/challenge
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