Let religion be an individual’s affair and let everyone practise it freely as he/she wishes.
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan was created for the Musalmanan-e-Hind. Islam was never in any danger in pre-Partition days. In fact, it is much more in danger now as we cannot even pray in our mosques without having security guards around! It was made for the benefit of India’s downtrodden. The Muslims of India were educated and told that they were a separate nation, apart from the Hindus of India, and as such, needed a separate country to live in and be in a position to prosper economically.
Once Pakistan was achieved, the Quaid said in his address of August 11, 1947, that the state had nothing to do with religion and that the latter was a personal issue for individuals.
Unfortunately, as the years went by, Pakistan’s ‘Islamisation’ began to take root. As the calls grew louder to impose Sharia, the question arises, under whose interpretation? Which Islamic system would be installed that would be acceptable to all sects and schools of thought? Instead of trying to impose a theocratic system, all we need to do in Pakistan is to just follow honest democracy as is being done by scores of other countries, which are successfully able to provide welfare and happiness to their people. Let religion be an individual’s affair and let everyone practise it freely as he/she wishes.
Col (retd) Riaz Jafri
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2012.
