Happy Holi to our Hindu brethren Pakistanis
RAWALPINDI: It was, indeed, a welcome gesture on the part of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to participate in the Holi festival in Karachi, which must have further strengthened the confidence of the Hindu minority as being equal citizens of Pakistan. It must have also pleased Quaid-e-Azam’s spirit up above in the heavens to see his famous August 11, 1947 address coming to life where he had said, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State”.
The ceremonies started with the recitation from the Holy Quran but as the event was a purely Hindu religious one, in the fitness of the spirit of equality for all, it should have been followed by some Vedic or Bhagwat Geeta scripture, also. Happy Holi to our Hindu brethren Pakistanis.
Col (retd) Riaz Jafri
Published in The Express Tribune, March 16th, 2017.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
