M.A. Jinnah and the Partition of Communications Infrastructure

Sub title : Division of Posts & Telegraphs Department Assets and Liabilities

Subject: Administrative division of Posts & Telegraphs (P&T) assets | Allocation of workshops | Telegraph lines

Date of publication: 1947

Language: English

Page: 127 p.

Source: National Archives of Pakistan

Serial no: 28050

Keyword: Posts and Telegraphs Department -- P&T assets -- Workshop allocation -- Alipore Workshop -- Jubbulpore Workshop | Guaranteed telegraph lines -- Asset valuation -- Financial settlement | Expert Committee No. II -- M.A. Jinnah (as head of Pakistan administration) -- Communications infrastructure.

Abstract: A comprehensive set of reports, notes, and deliberations from Expert Committee No. II and its Communications Department Sub-Committee on the division of the Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department's assets and liabilities during the Partition. Documents detail the valuation and proposed allocation of physical assets (workshops in Alipore, Jubbulpore, Bombay; telegraph lines and cables; buildings; transport), financial assets, and stores. Key points of contention include the allocation of the Alipore Workshop, treatment of guaranteed (non-remunerative) telegraph lines, division of stores, and the methodology for financial adjustment between the two new Dominions. Includes notes of dissent and steering committee remarks.

Description: This collection comprises the official proceedings and reports related to the intricate process of dividing the vast assets of the Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department between India and Pakistan in 1947. The documents include main committee remarks, sectional reports (on stores, common buildings, lines/wires/cables), and notes of dissent. They reveal the practical and financial complexities of partitioning an integrated national utility, with specific disputes over key workshops essential for maintenance, the principles for dividing loss-making strategic telegraph lines, and the formulas for valuing and apportioning network infrastructure. These records are fundamental to understanding the establishment of Pakistan's independent communications administration under the leadership of M.A. Jinnah. SCANNED BY: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF PAKISTAN.

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