Introduction*
Pakistan has been a federation since independence, partly as the constitutional legacy of
British India, partly as the result of necessity from 1947 to 1971 when it comprised two
non-contiguous territorial units and partly because the provinces had developed distinct
ethnic and linguistic identities of their own as sovereign states. British India brought them
and various lesser states under the imperial control, mostly directly but also indirectly.
The former emerged as provinces, in the case of Punjab in 1849, in the case of NWFP
emerging out of Punjab in 1901, in the case of Sindh after separation from Bombay in
1937, and in the case of Balochistan in 1970 when it graduated from a Chief
Commissionerís province before its merger in One Unit in 1955 to a fully-fledged
Governorís province.
