Partition of Defense Department & Ancillary Offices: Asset Division Reports

Sub title : Expert Committee No. II Reports on Furniture, Funds, Estates, and Disputed Items

Subject: Defense Department | Asset Division | Military Estates | Office Furniture & Equipment

Date of publication: 1947

Language: English

Page: 75 p.

Source: National Archives of Pakistan

Serial no: 28047

Keyword: Expert Committee No. II -- Defence Department -- Asset division -- Furniture inventory -- Stationery list -- Military estates | Pension liabilities -- Treadle machine dispute -- Library division -- M.A. Jinnah

Abstract: This collection comprises the reports and ancillary documents from Expert Committee No. II concerning the division of assets and liabilities for the Defence Department Secretariat and related offices (Pensions Branch, Ecclesiastical Organisation, National War Academy, etc.). It includes detailed, itemized lists of office furniture, typewriters, duplicators, and vast quantities of stationery, complete with valuations and proposed allocation ratios (often based on a 70:30 split for military assets). The reports outline principles for dividing funds, handling estates of deceased military personnel, and resolving specific disputes, such as the allocation of treadle machines for color printing from the Publications Division. The file also covers the Steering Committee's decisions on library division and reflects the intricate, bureaucratic process of dismantling and distributing the material infrastructure of the colonial state between two new dominions.

Description: This document set provides a granular, behind-the-scenes look at the logistical partition of the Defence Department and its ancillary bodies. Moving beyond high policy, it reveals the monumental administrative task of cataloging and splitting everything from officer's tables and steel safes to pencils and carbon paper. Notable elements include the handling of sensitive assets like funds for the National War Academy and the estates of deceased British and Indian officers, as well as minor but symbolic disputes over items like printing machinery. The accompanying notes from the Steering Committee show the ratification process for these technical recommendations. These records are crucial for understanding the practical challenges of building two independent state administrations from one bureaucratic corpus, directly informing the operational setup of the defence and civilian infrastructure that would serve the governments of India and M.A. Jinnah's Pakistan. SCANNED BY: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF PAKISTAN.

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