Amir Mohammad Khan

For other uses, see Amir Khan (disambiguation).

Amir Mohammad Khan Awan (Urdu : امیر مُحمد خان اعوان)
3rd [[Governor of West Pakistan]]
In office 12 April 1960 – 18 September 1966
President	Muhammad Ayub Khan
Preceded by	Akhter Husain
Succeeded by	General Musa
Personal details
Born	1910 Kalabagh, British India
Died	26 November 1967 (aged 57) Kalabagh, Pakistan

Malik Amir Mohammad Khan also erroneously known as Nawab of Kalabagh (Template:Lang-ur) was a prominent feudal lord, politician and the seventh chief of his tribal estate Kalabagh, in Mianwali District of north western Punjab, Pakistan.

Early life and career

Amir Mohammad Khan received his college education at Aitchison College, Lahore and then went on to finish his education at Oxford University in England. He belonged to the Awan tribe of Punjab, Pakistan. He also served as Governor of West Pakistan from 1960 to 1966.

'Nawab of Kalabagh' was a courtesy title granted personally to only one Awan tribal chief of Kalabagh area in Mianwali District of northwestern Punjab, Pakistan, I.e the late father of Amir Mohammad; and is in no way generally applicable . Amir Mohammad Khan had also served as a member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab from 1956 – 1958.

History of Kalabagh

Kalabagh, on the bank of Indus River, was a territory ruled by the Awans for long. The tribe believed that:

All branches of the tribe (Awans) are erroneous in stating that they originally came from neighourhood of Ghazni to India, and all trace their genealogy to a companion of the Prophet. One fictitious Kutab Shah, who came from Ghazni with Sultan Mahmud, was also the supposed common ancestor of the Awans. It was only in the Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Shahpur districts that they became of any political importance…. In Shahpur District, the Awans held the hilly country to the north west, Jalar, Naoshera and Sukesar, where the head of the tribe still resides.

— From Sir Lepel H. Griffin, The Panjab Chiefs' (1865 Edition) p.570-571.

Kalabagh, on the bank of Indus River, was claimed to have been a quasi-independent territory, ruled over by the Awan Chief, supposedly since the time of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. It is also claimed that this area was later taken over by the Sikhs during the early 19th century, and later, during the British Raj, it was returned to the Awan Tribal Chief of the family as Kalabagh jagir (Kalabagh landholdings).

The learned author of "Chiefs and families of note in the Delhi, Jalandhar, Peshawar and Derajat divisions of the Panjab" states that, "Kalabagh, the home for generations of the local Awan Maliks, is one of the most ancient towns in this part of Panjab".

Sir Ibbetson Denzil writes in "Panjab Caste," that "Their story is that they are descended from Qutb Shah of Ghazni, who himself was a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, but by a wife other than the Prophet's daughter, who came from Hirat about 1035 A.D. and settled in the neighbourhood of Peshawar. Thence they spread along the Salt-range, forming independent clans by whom the Chief of Kalabagh was acknowledged as the head of the tribe. In the genealogical tree of the Kalabagh family which used to be the chief family of the Awan tribe, in which tree their descent is traced from Qutb Shah."

Some sources say it's doubtful that ancestors of Awans came from Arabia at the time of the Arab invasions of old India in the seventh century or even later. They theorize that it's more probable that Awans descended from the local Hindu Rajputs already living in the area who later converted to Islam.

Career

He was appointed chairman Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation with the rank of a Central Minister in 1959, and subsequently Governor of West Pakistan on 12 April 1960 by Pakistan President General Ayub Khan. Both Amir Mohammad Khan and Sandhurst trained General Wajid Ali Khan Burki were instrumental in Ayub Khan's rise to power, until today the three families retain adjoining houses in Islamabad.

His role during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 is praised as he kept the law and order, controlled the prices, trafficking of the raw material and prevented the smuggling.

He has also been described as a man of principles and traditions. He liked to remain in the national dress and his cabinet members tried to please him by doing the same also. It has been sometimes reported that he once declined to shake hands with the British Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Pakistan because he believed that Islam prohibits men from shaking hands with women. At one point in time, Kalabagh used to have one of the most modern agriculture farms. He was very knowledgeable about farming and fruits and once answering a question from a visiting Jacqueline Kennedy over a luncheon, he impressed her so much that she remarked that she would recommend him as the 'Adviser on Agriculture' to her husband John F. Kennedy.

Among the guests on his famous Kalabagh farm, over the years, has been Eleanor Roosevelt in 1952, former Presidents of Pakistan, Iskander Mirza, Ayub Khan and then foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto among many other dignitaries.

After a distinguished military career, Lieutenant General Jahandad Khan served as Governor of Sindh during 1984–87 time period under General Zia Ul-Haq regime. Earlier in 1965–66, he was Military Secretary to the then Governor of West Pakistan, Amir Mohammad Khan. He wrote a book, Pakistan Leadership Challenges, in which Amir Mohammad Khan comes across as a sound, no-nonsense administrator, firmly wedded to the values and traditions of the feudal class. British assessment of the Nawab of Kalabagh was very similar. In his book, Jahandad, Amir Mohammad Khan's Military Secretary dismisses alleged rumours about a somewhat sinister aspect of the Ayub regime. In 1963, the regime faced strong opposition from the political party Jamaat-i-Islami. Ayub himself "felt gravely threatened by its head, Maudoodi". "Some sycophants" sought to persuade Ayub that "the physical elimination" of Maulana would bring peace to the country and that Amir Mohammad Khan was to help execute this attempt. Jahandad Khan dismisses this as a baseless rumour in his above book.

Death and legacy

It was widely reported in the Pakistani news media that his youngest son Asadullah Khan killed him over a family property dispute on 26 November 1967. Nawab Amir Mohammad Khan of Kalabagh was a towering figure of the late 1950s and 1960s in Pakistan. He had a personal reputation for being a strict disciplinarian and a harsh administrator as a governor of West Pakistan.

Descendants

His son Malik Muzaffar Khan won the National Assembly seat from NW-44, Mianwali-I in the December 1970 elections. His other son Malik Allah Yar also remained the member of Majlis-e-Shoora during General Zia-ul-Haq's military regime. His grandson Malik Amad Khan won the National Assembly seat from NA-71 Mianwali-I, in the February 2008 elections as an independent candidate. His paternal granddaughter, Sumaira Malik, is still a member of the National Assembly after 2013 general elections. Since 2011, Nawab Malik Waheed Muhammad Khan is Nawab of Kalabagh. He is a grandson of Nawab Malik Ameer Mohammad Khan, former Governor of West Pakistan and son of Nawab Malik Muzaffar Khan.

See also

• Kalabagh
• Kalabagh Dam

Further reading

• Panjab Castes, by Sir Ibbetson, Denzil, p.170
• Siysat ke Firauns, (Pharaohs of Politics), by Wakil Anjam, Ferozsons Limited, 1992. p. 423–436
• Tarikh-ul-Awan, by Malik Sher Muhammad Khan Awan, Lahore.
• The Panjab Chiefs: Historical and Biographical Notices of the Principal Families in the Lahore and Rawalpindi Divisions of the Panjab, Volume 2, Lepel Henry Griffin
• Gazetteer of the Jhelum District, 1904 & Punjab Census Report, 1911
• Chiefs and families of note in the Delhi, Jalandhar, Peshawar and Derajat divisions of the Panjab, by Charles Francis Massy p. 543
• Imperial gazetteer of India, Volume 14 p. 290
• PANJAB CASTES, by : Ibbetson, Denzil, Sir, 1847–1908, p169-170