Let’s make Pakistan great

Today we are commemorating the Pakistan Resolution at a time when the spectre of fascism led by the forces of Hindutva across the eastern border is not only posing an existential crisis to the minorities in India, especially the country’s sizable Muslim minority, but threatening to throw the whole region into a devastating nuclear war. This is 80th anniversary of the adoption of the historic resolution that galvanised the Muslims of the entire subcontinent to jointly struggle for a separate homeland where they could live in freedom without the yoke of the brute Hindu majority. The unprecedented persecution of Muslims under a fascist regime in India makes us realise more than ever before the significance of the struggle of the Pakistan Movement leaders and the great sacrifices rendered by Muslims of the entire subcontinent for the creation of a separate homeland.

The need for Pakistan was felt long before 1940 as the Muslim League was founded in 1906 in Dhaka. Allama Iqbal in his address at the Muslim League session, in 1930, in Allahabad had clearly mentioned the necessity for a Muslim homeland. Muslims were treated harshly by the Congress governments in many provinces in 1937. These governments came into being after an election. This bitter experience forced Muslims to think that they could not coexist with the brute majority because of their strong predilection for majoritarian rule. This gave a new impetus to the demand for Pakistan and in March 1940 the Pakistan Resolution was adopted at a session of the Muslim League in Lahore seeking a Muslim homeland comprising Punjab, Sindh, NWFP (now K-P) and Balochistan in the northwest and Bengal and Assam in the northeast.

The Quaid had repeatedly spelt out as to what type of state Pakistan would be. He had made it clear that Pakistan would be an Islamic state on the pattern of Madina where all citizens would have equal rights. We have obviously strayed from the path that the Quaid and other leaders had set. Today we should endeavour to make Pakistan a state as dreamed by our forefathers. We should transform the present jangling discords into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. Let us make Pakistan a great nation.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2020.

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