KARACHI:
As we celebrate the 75th independence anniversary, we must ponder on the collective failures of those who held power since 1954, and what are the factors that landed Pakistan on the edge of a financial collapse. On 11th August 1947, Quaid-e-Azam stressed the importance of a Constitution and rule of law to achieve a modern democratic welfare state, which motivated people to join the All India Muslim League’s democratic struggle.
Unfortunately, after Quaid’s death, a constitution was delayed till 1954. Once it was finalised, it proposed 300 seats in the National Assembly with 165 seats for 56% majority in East Pakistan and 135 seats for other federating units in West Pakistan, besides a Senate where all federating units would have an equal number of seats. However, this was not acceptable to the West Pakistan-dominated bureaucracy that was unwilling to submit to the right of the majority and the Constituent Assembly was arbitrarily dismissed.
What followed was a travesty of errors. In hindsight, if we had allowed an East Pakistan political party to be at the helm, Pakistan might have enjoyed economic development. Today we are neither a democratic welfare state nor a country secure from within, haunted by terrorism and extremism as well as ethnic and sectarian divide. What we need to do is to adopt Jinnah’s vision in letter and spirit.
Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, August 14th, 2022.
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