User:Khan Makhad

Having logged onto the Google Earth and Wikipedia's page on Makhad, my hometown, I considered it right to create an account so that I may add a few lines about the place and the family that has owned it for over 400-years or so. I quote from the "Gazetteer of the Attock District 1930" compiled and published in 1932, under the authority of Government of Punjab, as under: "The second peculiar tract is the south-west corner of Pindigheb Tehsil (currently Jand Tehsil), the Makhad ilaqa (area), a wild and mountainous country. A range of hills extends along the bank of the Indus from the Soan on the south to the Reshi on the north, and in places rises as high as 2,000 feet above sea-level. Cultivation is carried on the top of stony plateaux, or in deep valleys banked up at the lower end to catch the soil washed down by the floods. Wells are few and small in area. In the days when Makhad was the terminus of the Indus Flotilla, a direct road ran from Makhad, through Thatta, and on to Attock. In 1904, except for the portion Thatta to Chhoi Gariala, it had fallen out of use, and in the succeding decade this portion too became an impassible track. South of the Kala chitta (Range) in the south-western corner of the Pidigheb Tehsil lie the Narrara or Makhad hills. These hardly deserve the name of hills, being simply a thick cluster of high pebble ridges on the bank of the Indus. The highest point is only 1,822 feet above the sea. The general trend of the ridges is from east to west. The range on the other side of the Indus river in the Khattak country is well marked, but on this side there are only low ridges and deep ravines covered with boulders and water-worn stones. The track is very bleak and wild, it bears little or no wood and is covered only with stunted bushes and coarse grass. in the Narrara ilaqa there are some comparatively fertile valleys, but most of them are poor and inferior. The best Urial shooting in the district is to be had in this vicinity. Urials have become extinct due to incessant poaching, which became possible with vast tracts of lands resumed by the government of Pakistan). In 1927 a bridge near Chhoi was commenced on the cart road from Attock to Makhad. This road was constructed to connect Makhad with Attock, at the time when the former town was a terminus of the Indus Valley Flotilla. Revenue was collected by appraisement, and only at a later date were leases given. The country remained off and on under the management of Bhai Mahn Singh till annexation. But the rest of the district, after the breakup of the Mughal empire, and until Maharaja Ranjit Singh was firmly established as ruler of the Punjab, was the battle-ground of the strong tribes which still own it. The Sagri Pathans from Kohat drove the Awans out of Makhad and the other tribes, Jodhras, Ghebas, and Khattars settled down to the limits which substantially form their boundaries to this day. The Makhad ilaqa was always leased to the Khan, who collected by appraisement from his tribesmen. The town of Makhad itself always held a Sikh garrison, but in the villages around the Khan was left to himself. As early as 1789 Sardar Maha Singh, father of the Mhaharaja Ranjit Singh, gave a lease of the whole Talagang, all Pindigheb, except Makhad and the Gheba ilaqa of Fatehjang to Malik Amanat khan for Rs.6,900. .....when it (appraisement) was refused by the Jodhras (Malik Nawab Khan refused the lease in 1978), and the Sikhs had to administer directly, the large owners in the Gheba, Jodhra and Makhad country had to be placated by grants of chaharam (one fourth) or remissions of one-fourth of the whole revenue collections. During the second Sikh War, 1848-49, all the tribes of the district threw in their lot with the Darbar (the Crown) and the British. Makhad in particular was a place of importance. The Khan resisted all attempts of the Sikh and Afghan leaders to win him over. Not only did he maintain himself in Makhad and Shakardarra, but he also succeeded in an attack on the fort of Jabbi, then garrisoned by the Sikh insurgents. All tribes, except of the Pathans of Makhad ilaqa and Attock, repudiate any custom of bride-price, although, as will be seen, marriage everywhere involves both families in much expense. The inhabitants of the Makhad ilaqa are Sagri Pathans, and speak the pushto of Kohat.......Many of the Makhad Pathans speak the Punjabi of the surrounding country and a very broken Urdu, but Pushto is the tongue they use among themselves. along the hills above the Indus river are the Sagri Pathans of Makhad. Unlike the Sagri Pathans of Makhad the Attock Pathans did not wholly dispossess the former inhabitants. The Pir of Makhad occupies a peculiar position (collecting alms and gifts from his disciples given to the shrine of Pir Nuri Badshah Gilani, an historic figure linked with the line of the Naqib of Baghda). Pir Ghulam Abbas constructed a mosque and school; and endeavoured to obtain an enormous grant of land for its maintenance (but failed to get the same). Pir Ghulam Abbas stood by Government loyally throughout the (First World) War..............His enemies accused him of wringing land from his disciples; and his accretion of wealth and the methods and policy he pursued brought him into conflict with the family of the Khan of Makhad. In 1923-24 he fell foul of the local authorities but was acquitted of the criminal charges brought against him. He died in 1929 and was succeeded by his son Pir Lal Badshah. The provisions of the Descent of Jagir Act have been accepted by Khan Bahadur Malik Muhammad Amin Khan Khan, Khan Bahadur Nawab Ghulam Muhammad Khan, Khan Sher Muhammad Khan of Makhad, Lieutenant Sardar Muhammad Nawaz Khan of Kot Fateh Khan, the late Sardar Dost Muhammad Khan of Bahtar and Sardar Mehr Singh Chhachhi, Jagirdar of Dhadhumber. Blue pagris (Indian hats) are (were) common in Chhachh and Makhad.......................The Pathans of Chhachh and Makhad have of course distinctive names, but there is nothing peculiar about them.