The Quaid-e-Azam founded the country on the basis that the rights of the minorities will be protected
RAWALPINDI: The Quaid-e-Azam founded the country on the basis that the rights of the minorities will be protected. The white of the national flag is to represent the minorities in the country. Yet today religious intolerance has grown so much that it has become one of the biggest problems of the state. Each passing day we hear stories of oppression, torture, forcible conversions and kidnapping, but we ignore them as if they are occurring in some other country that is of no concern whatsoever to us.
Pakistan was formed because of the oppression of the Muslim minority in the subcontinent and the Quaid worked for the protection of oppressed minorities in India. Now the situation is being repeated. Minorities of Pakistan are being oppressed. This would harm the country. Minorities are and would always be a part of Pakistan.
Dividing ourselves into groups on the basis of religion, class or status is weakening us from within. This is not the country Iqbal envisioned. This is not the country Jinnah fought for. This is not the country thousands lost their lives for. While it is easy for us to blame the government or people in power for the sorry state of affairs, change starts from within. Do not discriminate against Christians, Hindus, Sikhs or any other minority. Treat them with the same respect you want yourself to be treated with.
It is imperative that we become more tolerant, more loving and more approachable by people of all communities in order to rise from the pit of moral degradation that we have fallen into.
Umaima Nasir Abbasi
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2018.
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