172 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE
In June, 1947, he again made an effort at compromise,
He told the Leaguers that they were quite willing to join
Pakistan provided (i) it was on honourable terms, (ii>
in case Pakistan, after Independence, decided to stay on
under British domination,, the Pathans in the Settled
Districts or in the Tribal areas should have the power to
opt out of such a Dominion and form a separate independ-
ent State, (iii) all matters concerning tribal people should
be settled b}r the Pathans themselves, without the inter-
ference or domination of the non-Pathans, a right which
had been conceded even by the existing Constituent
Assembly.
The offer was turned down and the Partition came.
The Partition plan provided for a referendum to be held
in the Frontier Province to decide 011 the issue of acces-
sion. This was again an anomaly. In Baluchistan- a
quasi-representative body was created to order, to function
in place of referendum. In the Frontier where a body of
popular representatives already existed, to circumvent
its verdict, recourse was had to referendum on a spurious
issue. The Khan brothers declared that the issue of ac-
cession to India versus Pakistan was already dead consi-
dering that a Partition plan had been accepted in
principle both by the Congress and the Muslim League
and the Frontier Province was geographically isolated
from the rest of India. They were not afraid of a refer-
endum but it must be 011 the issue of autonomy for the
Pathans in their homelands. In the alternative, the
Pathans, said Badshah Khan, wanted absolute freedom
to manage their affairs £l in an autonomous Pathanistan
within the Pakistan State ".
The Pathan has a very strong antipathy, rooted in
history, to being dominated by men of the plains. And
accession to Pakistan, he feared, would mean domination
by the Punjabi Muslim capitalist interests. " Our province
has been swamped by the Punjabis who are trying their
level best to make the Pathans fight amongst themselves/*
observed Badshah Khan in a statement to the Press, " Hav-
ing lost a good portion of the Punjab through a communal