Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on his arrival in London. c. 1946. PHOTO COURTESY ARCHIVE 150
Elsewhere too, bombings, killings and all other kinds of deaths have become the norm in a country that was created as a place where people of all religions and ethnicities could live together in harmony and move towards progress.
This has certainly not happened. The Pakistan we have today is a torn and bleeding one. This is, of course, not what the Quaid-e-Azam would have wanted. If we are to save our nation, we need to move as swiftly as possible towards the vision and the dream he had laid out for this country. Perhaps, this, too, may be the best way to counter the extremism and intolerance that has blighted our society for a long time now, resulting in much bloodshed. We have done Mr Jinnah the most extraordinary disservice possible by deliberately distorting history as depicted in our textbooks to disguise what he said and removing some of his most important parts of his speeches from them entirely. As a result, few people from the younger generations really understand what Mr Jinnah had in mind when he addressed the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, promising equal rights to all citizens.
As we mark the day of his birth, we need to give him a gift. This gift can come in only one form. It must be a Pakistan restored along the lines of the image he had drawn up and containing within it the honesty, integrity and ability to accept all views that he expounded throughout his life. If we cannot find the will and capacity to conjure up this gift, we will be unable to move forward towards creating the progressive nation where all people could live together and which Mr Jinnah had devoted his life to creating.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2013.
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COMMENTS (25)
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@Fact-finder: Sorry to disappoint you but we love our dear Pakistan and our dear Quaid, may Allah bless his soul. Pakistan zindabad. From a Pathan.
@M. Emad: Pls speak for yourself. I am a Pathan and love being Pakistani. If East Pakistan was separated it was because of many reasons main reason being 1000 miles away. Its people like you who would break Pakistan not the others you mentioned.
@cupcakes: You stated - We dont need articles like this. We dont need more negativity. Specially on the birthday of our Quaid, we dont need negativity. We are PROUD Pakistanis. None of us want to go back to India. None. No matter how much the media portrays we do, WE DONT. No matter how bad this country gets, It is still OUR country. OUR country where WE make decisions. Therefore, instead of being a full-blown pessimist at Quaid-e-Azam’s birthday, we should be on our knees thanking God and then the Quaid for what he did. Pakistan Zindabad . Sir please, please, pretty please do not repeat do not come back or re-join India. We Indians have wish all Pakistanis Well and PRAY TO GOD ALMIGHTY that all Pakistanis to please, please, pretty please stay in their own country and if the want to go anywhere please let that not be to India. . Pakistan and Pakistanis are Welcome to join Afghanistan, Iran, China and even Saudi Arabia but PLEASE DO NOT ON ANY ACCOUNT JOIN INDIA. . THANK YOU PAKISTAN AND ALL PAKISTANIS IN ADVANCE. . Cheers
@M. Emad: When are Balochis, Sindhis and Pathans going to reject Jinnah's theory as was done y Benglis ?
@M. Emad: I love Pakistan. We will get it back on track. The mullahism is a temporary blip. Pakistan Zindabad...
Whether Jinnah did right or wrong in dividing British India is not to be debatable now as it has been a long while and at that time probably Jinnah thought of it as a logical solution. Having said that, Partition has created an ever lasting enmity between two parts of the same erstwhile country, owing to the violence happened during that time. An autonomous Muslim province within undivided India could have been another solution, but then congress had refused cripps report. But whatever one may say, Jinnah had a vision of a secular, non-sectarian Pakistan which has just collapsed.
Editorial has ritely pointed out the distortion of history in our curiculum. It is so ideologically deep rooted in our students that they are not ready to accept any rational argument put forward by liberal thinkers . We are not told about the atrocities that were wrecked upon bengalis. And our textbooks glorify role of religious and extremist leaders like shah waliulah and sheikh ahmed sirhindi and modudi-who was actualy antipakistan. N0w we are reaping the results of eulogising those extremists in the form of extremism, secterianism and violence. M0reover we are nt told the blood n violent coups that have crippled pakistan. Islam that was exploited to create pakistan ,n0w has become the only force that could dismember pakistan.
@ proletarian
As an Indian you should know better what the Muslims ( and other minorities in India ) are suffering in India. Justice Sacchar Commission Report has nailed the coffin of India's lies and claims of secularism once for all Go read it.
As for Bangla desh , they are Muslims with an identity unlike the Muslims in India under the hegemony of Hindu majority and the likes of Butcher Modi
Judging from most of the comments above does it surprise anyone that we are where we should be, given the national IQ! A country that two days back was held hostage to a religious commemoration of collective grief dating back to over 1400 years ago.The national economy coming to a stand still,mobile telephones jammed,millions of daily wage earners without their meals,LEA's on high alert as if the country had been invaded by the enemy university examinations postponed and a general anxiety permeating the air__beats any logic or Reason.Which country (Muslim) in the world commemorates Grief in this way?So when you create a Land in the name of Religion does it surprise anyone to see it disintegrate in the same name,Jinnah died a sad man probably regretting afterwards for what he had done.He did not understand His people whose intellect was so far removed from his upbringing and Class.I think This facade of paying him lip service on every anniversary is now becoming meaningless since whole generations have grown up being schooled in the doctored history of the land where the Real Jinnah just DOES NOT exist.
@excalibur And you think that without Pakistan we would not have an identity and a country of our own?You think the Muslims of India and Bangladesh dont have identities and countries of their own? Well whatever. You have your precious separate identity and country. Now eat of them! Drink of them.
Jinna did it just after formation of pakistan, he said "pakistan is biggest mistake of my life".
The country would definitely not be in the same state if our Quaid had been alive (even for few more years after independence). Its the absence of a true leader which resulted in all this mess. @ Noor Nabi.... I see the nation starting to mature after all the mistakes / blunders made in the last 60 years. Its unfortunate that the nation is learning its lesson the harder way. But surely there is gradual progress and inshallah we all will witness things further improving. In the meanwhile, lets remain focused on ourselves (as citizens of Pakistan) of contributing as much we can. Only a collective effort will clean this mess quickly.
Nice to see so many Indians commenting on a Pakistani website.
Jinnah gave us a preamble to what we should become...and what we became is not his fault, but fault of various rulers, self interest politicians, who instead of working for the people, worked for their pockets.
Even today I know an MNA in Punjab who are doing best to please their master, the CM, and his brother moves around the city as if he owns it...exerting his power on people and industries.
So what do we expect...
Please allow Jinnah's soul to rest in peace and move on.
We dont need articles like this. We dont need more negativity. Specially on the birthday of our Quaid, we dont need negativity. We are PROUD Pakistanis. None of us want to go back to India. None. No matter how much the media portrays we do, WE DONT. No matter how bad this country gets, It is still OUR country. OUR country where WE make decisions. Therefore, instead of being a full-blown pessimist at Quaid-e-Azam's birthday, we should be on our knees thanking God and then the Quaid for what he did. Pakistan Zindabad.
I suggest you forget Jinnah who divided a nation based on religion - a foundation which extremist have used/distorted to create violence, xenophobia, civil war and attack your neighbors. You don't need an accurate history book to start solving your problems - just a pair of glasses and a good mirror.
In 1971, 56% Pakistani rejected Jinnah's Pakistan theory and Pakistan. Balochi, Sindhi, Pathan etc are not so happy in remaining Pakistan.
Never mind if Mr. Jinnah would not be happy to see Pakistan the way it is today. First it is not the Pakistan that was created in 1947 because the majority population chose to secede under pressures of exploitation and being colonized. Mr. Jinnah's decision to thrust Urdu upon the Bengalis was not a terribly wise thing to do. He was also a confused man and at times he exploited religion to separate people and then he made speeches to portray himself as a secularist. Jinnah himself could not speak Urdu properly and was deep down a very anglicized person who started wearing a sherwani after 1947. This is not to say that he was not a good person. But let us leave him alone and not draw him into a debate re Pakistan's present conditions. The country he created is on the brink of collapse; some call it an already failed state. This, combined with a most perverse interpretation of Islam in the everyday running of Pakistan, is a lethal weapon of mass destruction. The country's focus should be on coming up with a quick strategy to dig itself out of a deep and dark hole. Otherwise a break-up of what is left of Pakistan is imminent and just around the corner.
For God's sake stop re-writing the history and create a new narrative to suit your ideological agenda. Pakistan is where it is today, precisely because of people who have never accepted the basic arguments for its creation and who have tried their level best to change its course and direction from day one.