The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 174
158 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN The greater part of the Gurdaspur district being included in East Punjab, and therefore in India, was a great blow to us, and that was something that made the intervention of India in Kashmir possible. That was the only part in the plains through which India had access to Kashmir; otherwise, though India's boundary still would have run along the boundary of Kashmir for some distance, it would be over and across high mountains with no road running through. The only road that could go from India to Kashmir, and even that had to be built over a great part of its length and had to be through the Gurdaspur district. Gurdaspur district had four subdistricts: One, Shakargarh, to the west of the Ravi River; that was included in Pakistan, because at that place the Ravi River became the boundary; and three to the east of the Ravi River, that is to say, Gurdaspur subdistrict itself, Pathankot and Batala. All these three were included in India and gave India access to Kashmir through the plains. Incidentally, my own house was 11 miles from Batala in the subdistrict of Batala and that also fell within India. The modification of the award in respect of the Ferozpur and Zira tehsils, led directly to the Indus waters dispute. India having obtained control of the headworks at Ferozpur could easily turn off the water, as it did later, and that brought on that dispute. Thus the two big disputes between India and Pakistan resulted from these two portions of the award, which could not be justified on any basis whatsoever. In the Gurdaspur district the Muslims had a majority. In the subdistricts taken separately, they had a majority in the Shakargarh tehsil, west of the Ravi, and they also had a majority in the Batala tehsil and a majority in the Gurdaspur tehsil, but not a majority in the Pathankot tehsil. If Batala and Gurdaspur had gone to Pakistan, Pathankot tehsil would have been isolated and blocked. Even if it had been allotted to India it would have been possible for India to get access to Pathankot through the Hoshiarpur district, but it would have taken quite long to construct the roads, bridges and communications that would have been necessary for military movements. As part of the machinery for sorting out things in connection with the partition, a tribunal had been set up for the distribution of assets under the chairmanship of the ex-Chief Justice of India, Sir Patrick Spens, now Lord Spens. This tribunal heard the parties, sorted out the assets, assessed what was due from one side to the other, and gave its