‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎66v] (131/949)

8
jo. Turning now to the Khan’s mabats, 1 will briefly descr '^ e , the | P os 5 '°";
On taking charge of the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. in December igoo, I found that the la. . t
to the Governor-General, Sir Hugh Barnes, had passed in his letter No. 6192
of the 4th July 1900, to Government some severe strictures on Jhe K an.
administrative capacity and the state of his affairs and that Kazi Jalaluddm
the lately appointed Political Adviser, had been specially selected and deputed
to Kalat to advise His Highness and assist in bettering h,s mabat adm.nis-
tration. Nothing however had been done and there seemed no prospec 0
step in the required direction being taken. At the same time, that '^ grossest
mismanagement and corruption existed in the mabats was obvious. The Khan
never visited any of them or took any intelligent interest in their affairs. A 1
thought of was [he money he got out of them. The naibs ,00 were mostly
men'of low origin, dishonest, ignorant and incompetent. They kept no proper
accounts and what they did keep they evaded submitting as long as possible.
Thus there were no means of checking the receipts and expenditure and the
whole object of the naibs was to give the Khan as little as they thought would
satisfy him and keep as much as they could for themselves, lhat this was
the state of affairs really needs no demonstration. It was notorious and patent
to all. And the naibs being such, the internal condition o their charges can
well be imagined. Supported by a degraded and ruffianly body of the Khan s
troops the naibs did just as they liked, oppressed and extorted all they could
from the people and governed with hardly a shadow of justice or system. INor
was this all, for, taking advantage of the Khan’s loose rule, the grasping
Brahuis' were encroaching on the niabats in all directions and trie genera
confusion around them was certainly tempting them to lawlessness and causing
inconvenience.
31. Thus as already mentioned one of my earliest steps was to relieve the
Political Adviser of certain other and inappropriate duties he was performing
and get him to seriously consider a scheme for thd improvement o{ the niabats.
A scheme having been devised the Khan was approached and his full consent
to its introduction obtained.
3’2. The arrangement was that the six important niabats named in the margin
were placed in the Political Adviser’s
charge and he was authorised to draw from
the niabat revenues a certain monthly
sum about Rs: 550 from each niabat) to
meet the cost of establishment and other ex
penses. A band of trained and competent
officials (taken from Government service
in many cases) was enlisted, a regular
system of accounts was introduced and rules for the settlement of cases
were prescribed. The result has been unmistakable improvement in every
direction, conspicuously so in respect of the revenue receipts which have gone up
enormously, they have been doubled and trebled in most cases in every niahat.
The scheme encountered the most strenuous opposition from the great body of
the Kalat officials from the Khan’s brother “ the General ” downwards who saw
the goose that laid the golden eggs passing from their hold. Their chief efforts
were directed to putting the Khan against the scheme and these, it is to be
feared, met at one time with some success. Strong measures were therefore
necessary if the whole business was not to end in a fiasco. In the reorganization
of the niabat establishments the various naibs had been left undisturbed in
their position and all other officials appointed were placed under their orders
though of course their former arbitrary sway was at an end. The most powerful
of the naibs was naib Akram (one of the Khan’s slaves!) who was in charge
of the rich and important Bhag niabat. He took the lead in the secret
opposition to the Political Adviser but his zeal in this cause getting the better
of his discretion, he passed from secret intrigue to overt hostility and the
opportunity was taken to remove him—this with the Khan’s acquiescence. This
step broke the back of the opposition, but what is still more important the Khan
himself eventually came to see that the scheme was intended solely for his own
Note —
1. Mastung..
2. Bhag.
3. Dhadur.
4. Gandawa.
5. Lehri.
6. Nasirabad.
The remaining niabafs are Kalat, Khozdar and
Surab wit.h the r sub-niabats. These are unimport
ant and are not supervised by the Political
Adviser.