8 September 1958: Gwadar comes under Pakistan

Pages from history: this piece tells the story of a day before the launch of Roznama Atemad (October 1970). It has been compiled from available historical sources.

Monday, 8 September 1958. For about 175 years, the flag of the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman had flown over the fort of Gwadar on the Makran coast. On that day the ship “Sirdhana” sailed from Karachi and anchored in Gwadar Bay. On board were Agha Abdul Hamid, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, and a Pakistan Navy communications team. The district records of Gwadar give this as the date on which Pakistan acquired the territory from Oman.

An Omani port on the Baloch coast

How did Gwadar come to be held by Oman? The Italian researcher Beatrice Nicolini writes that in the late eighteenth century Mir Nasir Khan I, the ruler of Kalat, gave the port of Gwadar to Sultan bin Ahmad, a prince of the Al Bu Said family. He had fled Muscat around 1784. Adnan Aamir, citing Admiral Iftikhar Ahmed Rao’s book, writes that Nasir Khan gave Sultan bin Ahmad half of Gwadar’s revenue for his upkeep. Sultan bin Ahmad became Sultan of Muscat in 1792.

Muscat appointed a wali to Gwadar, who built a fort on the sheltered shore of the bay. According to Nicolini, Gwadar remained a hub of trade moving from Arabia and East Africa towards Central Asia. The African-descended population of the old bazaar and the Ismaili Khoja community are reminders of that history.

Three years of talks

Adnan Aamir writes that Pakistan began trying to recover Gwadar in 1948. Sultan Said bin Taimur was not ready to talk directly, so the talks were held through the British government.

According to Captain (retd) Ahmed Zaheer, the matter took about four years. Aamir writes that the agreement was structured so that the Sultan would receive compensation for loss of revenue, rather than “sell” Gwadar.

How much was paid? The sources differ here, so we give what each one says. According to a 2008 Dawn article, Pakistan paid £3 million in September 1958, and some sources put the sum at half that. Adnan Aamir, citing the 14-point agreement included in Rao’s book, writes that £3 million was paid for loss of revenue. It was also agreed that if oil was found in Gwadar, Oman would receive 10 per cent of the profits for 25 years. An article and a letter in Daily Times give the sum as $3 million.

What happened next

• 8 December 1958: Gwadar formally became part of Pakistan. According to Ahmed Zaheer, the ceremony had the code name “Operation Bravo”. The wali of Gwadar handed over the papers of the territory to Pakistan’s representative on behalf of the Sultan. The Pakistan flag was raised, and PNS Babur, anchored in the bay, fired a 21-gun salute.
• 1 July 1970: Gwadar became part of the new province of Balochistan, together with the former Chief Commissioner’s province and former states.
• 1 July 1977: Gwadar became the headquarters of the new Gwadar district.
• A recommendation of 1954: After a survey of the coast, the American expert Worth Condrick recommended a deep-sea port here. The recommendation stayed in files for decades. A small port was built between 1988 and 1992, but no large ship called there.
• 22 March 2002: The foundation stone of the deep-sea port was laid. The initial estimate was $248 million, which rose to $298 million.
• 2007: The Singapore company PSA won a contract to run the port for 40 years.
• 18 February 2013: Management of the port was handed over to the Chinese state-owned China Overseas Ports Holding Company.

Does your family keep a photograph, document or memory of Gwadar in the Omani era? Please send it to us. We will add it to this page with your name.