The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 171
155 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN by villages, where the majority on one side ended and on the other side began. Or one could take a police station as a unit, but even that would be too small and the boundary line based on that unit would not be a practical one at all. One could take a subdistrict, as we did, or one could take a district as a unit. The choice was a difficult one. If a district were taken as a unit, then the notional partition which had already been put into effect for purposes of administration ad interim, would have to be confirmed, and that would give the whole of the Gurdaspur District to Pakistan. But the risk was that if we confined our case to districts, it might be assumed that we were happy with the notional partition and our claim might be whittled down further to our serious prejudice. Adopting the tehsil as a unit whould give us the Frozepur and Zira tehsils of the Ferozpur District, the Jullundur and Rahon tehsils of Jullundur district and the Dasuya tehsil of the Hoshiarpur district. The line so drawn would also give us the State of Kapurthala (which had a Muslim majority) and would enclose within Pakistan the whole of the Amritsar district of which only one tehsil, Ajnala, had a Muslim majority. It would also give us the Shakargarh, Batala and Gurdaspur tehsils of the Gurdaspur district. Or we could take what in the Punjab are known as Doabs, that is to say, the areas between two rivers as the units. If the boundary went by Doabs, we could get not only the 16 districts which had already under the notional partition been put into West Punjab, including the Gurdaspur District, but we would also get the Kangra District in the mountains, to the north and east of Gurdaspur. Or one could go by Commissioners' divisions. Any of these units being adopted would have been more favourable to Pakistan than the present boundary line. The tehsil was the most favourable unit. In actual fact the boundary line was drawn much to the prejudice of Pakistan. It was known in advance that there would be no unanimous or majority report. The non-Muslim commissioners took one view; the two Muslim commissioners took another view; and consequently the umpire had to make his award. After the umpire had studied the records he had discussions with the members of the Boundary Commission in Simla. We were told by the Muslim commissioners that while Sir Cyril was not quite definite and clear with regard to the Gurdaspur District, he was quite clear that two subdistricts of the Ferozpur District - the subdistrict of Ferozpur itself and the subdistrict of Zira - being Muslim