Jinnah’s Pakistan: Where Has it Lost?

Muhammad Ali Jinnah to Students: Let me give you this word of warning: you will be making the greatest mistake if you allow yourself to be exploited by one political party or another

Had Jinnah been alive today, would he have been steering Pakistan to really a progression that he intensely yearned for? I often think about Pakistan from this perspective. Then mostly I am persuaded by my own sense of judgment and justice that had Jinnah been alive today, yes, Pakistan would have been, at least, a country of people espousing the unity, faith and discipline in its true spirit. It does not necessarily mean that Pakistan would have been like as happy and jolly as a sandboy, and that there would have been no obstacle on the road to progression. Problems are naturally constitutional for individuals and for a nation. But Jinnah, really-truly, would have shown her second, and perhaps most dearest daughter, Pakistan, a direction had he been alive today.

From the common people to students and politicians, yet army, the unity, faith and discipline of Jinnah is scarcely seen. Who, in literal sense, talks about bringing back Jinnah’s Pakistan in the midst of national turmoil? Among the lot of the mainstream politicians, I can see not a single one who is a stern advocator of Jinnah’s principled political system. Instead, the de facto “national interest” and “doctrine of necessity” is inundating in the political culture and social system of Pakistan. The version of “Quaid” has taken a new shape which highlights the personality cult factor sweeping over the people’s conscience. From the students and youth, by and large, what I see is the obsession with the party politicking. While reminding myself the message of Jinnah to the students, I found him cautioning the students to not exploit themselves by one party or another. The actual message of Jinnah to the students was delivered on March 21st, in Dhaka. He said:

“My young friends, students who are present here, let me tell you as one who has always had love and affection for you, who has served you for ten years faithfully and loyally, let me give you this word of warning: you will be making the greatest mistake if you allow yourself to be exploited by one political party or another…. Your main occupation should be – in fairness to yourself, in fairness to your parents, in fairness to the state – to devote your attention to your studies.”

For the politicians, Jinnah was emphatic of the idea that elected leaders must realize their obligations and liabilities in a prudent way. During the Presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11th August, 1947, he said:

“The first and the foremost thing that I would like to emphasize is this – remember that you are now a Sovereign Legislative body and you have got all the powers. It, therefore, places on you the gravest responsibility as to how you should take your decisions.”

To the armed forces, Jinnah’s message was quite clear and well-defined briefly. On August 14th 1947, he addressed the armed forces of nascent Pakistan, saying:

“Do not forget that the armed forces are the servants of the people and you do not make national policy; it is we, the civilians, who decide these issues and it is your duty to carry out these tasks with which you are entrusted.”

Today, Muhammad Ali Jinnah only lives in the books and portraits. How sad it is that his depiction is used – on notes – to gratify our appetite as well.

To bring back Jinnah’s Pakistan, we must come out of our shells of idleness. On this decisive phase today, happen as well to be the 14th August – the 64th Birthday of Pakistan, we be forbidden to wait for a wake-up call from our affiliated political parties or groups or other mentors. Jinnah’s amount of supporters were little than Congress activists but his supporters were sincere. The advocators of Jinnah’s principled politics are maybe little, but they should be sincere likewise – followed by the unity, faith and discipline – in order to bring back the Jinnah’s Pakistan which was meant to be sovereign and not protectorate, which was meant to be progressive and not regressive, which was meant to be united and not divided.

Book Review — Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths -- by Karen Armstrong

This is a review of the book “Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths” which I’m reading these days. The book is sure interesting and written unbiasedly by Karen Armstrong.

Karen Armstrong is an Oxford Graduate in Literature. She has served as a Nun for 7 years in Roman Catholic Church. The best thing about her way of explaining things in the book is that it’s completely free from any favoritism or bias in regards with any religion which are the subject of the book — Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

Karen Armstrong, in her book “Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths”, rejects the idea of Jews who claim that Jerusalem is more holy for them than it’s in any other religion. She argues, which is rightly so, that it’s difficult to trace who were the real inhabitants of the city when it was populated thousands of years ago. On the other hand, she highlights the significance of the Jerusalem in regards with all three religions — all of them asserting that the city is more holiest to them than any other religion.

To be sure, Karen Armstrong suggests that the book is merely an attempt to find out what Jews, Christians and Muslims have meant when they have said that the city is “holy” to them and to point out some of the implications of Jerusalem’s sanctity in each tradition. You might feel to be one from the ancient times while reading it.

At one place she argues that she understands why the city is holy for Christians, because it’s the place where Christianity was born, and it’s the place where Hazrat Esa AS was crucified. Then she argues that Islam was born a thousand miles away from the Jerusalem in the deserts of Arab; whereas Judaism was born a thousand miles away from the Jerusalem in the deserts of Sinai, in Egypt. She raises the question that why Jews believe other mounts as more holy than the Mount Sinai where the holy book was bestowed on Hazrat Moosa AS. Later, she argues that the city is equally holy for the Muslims and for the Jews like it’s for the Christians. The Prophets sent to the Jerusalem — Hazrat Suleman AS, Hazrat Dawood AS, Hazrat Esa AS and so on — are equally respectable for each of the three religions.

To learn more about the history of Jerusalem and the historical facts on it regarding all three religions, this is a good book to read.

Recalling The Pakistan Resolution

Working Committee Of Pakistan Resolution

Few individuals significantly alter the course of the history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three.

Hailed as a “Great Leader” (Quaid-e-Azam) of Pakistan, Jinnah virtually conjured that country into statehood by the force of his indomitable will.

23rd March is celebrated in Pakistan as a day when Pakistan Resolution was passed by hundreds of thousands of Muslims of British India. The name of “Pakistan” wasn’t used by Jinnah during the Lahore Resolution. It was only declared that a new nation for Muslims is the only solution and everyone there concurred. The Lahore Resolution became the “Pakistan Resolution” at the later stage.

Prior to the passing of Lahore Resolution, this is to be noted that Jinnah was advised by his doctors to have a bed-rest for at least fortnight. He was suffering from extreme pleurisy, as diagnosed by the doctor. In the words of Jinnah: “What bad luck, it’s an important session and my presence is essential. And here I’m, confined to bed.” After two restless days, Jinnah was up and back to his usual work.

On 19th of March, 1940, Punjab saw another worst day after the Jallainwala Bagh catastrophe. It was that, the activists of Khaksaar Tehreek were peacefully protesting, asking the Viceroy to lift the ban on their Tehreek. The march was intercepted by the police, but the activists kept marching on. Police started the baton charge (lathi charge), and then there was the act of indiscriminate firing on the marching activists. 10′s of Muslims were mercilessly butchered by the Punjab Police. Mian Muhammad Shafi, the prominent leader of Muslim League, recalls this catastrophe saying the event temporarily converted the gay city of Lahore into a political graveyard.

On the morning of 22nd March 1940, Jinnah silently arrived in Lahore — despite that he was advised by his doctor to have a relentless bed-rest for two weeks — and visited the hospital where he visited the wounded activists of Khaksaar Tehreek. Mian Muhammad Shafi recalls this event, insisting that “this had a soothing effect on the lacerated hearts of the people of Lahore.” As a whole, however, the Khaksaars were anti-Jinnah, anti-Muslim League, anti-Congress, anti-Sikhs, and in the latter years they did try to assassinate Jinnah a number of times.

On the eve of Lahore Resolution (23rd March) in 1940, closed to 100,000 Punjabis, Sindhis, Bengalis, Pathans, and Baluchis gathered inside the gigantic tent erected in Minto (now Allama Iqbal) Park, within view of lofty marble minarets of the beautiful Badshahi Masjid and Shah Jehan’s Great Fort. Lahore, a teeming center of Muslim power in South Asia since the eleventh century, capital of the Punjab and cultural heartland of Mughal India, was about to give birth to the League’s “Pakistan Resolution”. A horde of people, said to be 100,000, were present to hear the voice of their Quaid-e-Azam. Quaid-e-Azam wore an ackham and chooridar pyjamas.

Deafening shouts of “Zindabad” welcomed Jinnah as he rose to walk to the microphone. He spoke in Urdu as the reception committee who introduced him had done, but shifted to English, apologizing to the mass audience as he gestured toward the press corps: “The world is watching us, so let me have your permission to have my say in English.” Jinnah spoke for nearly 2 hours, his voice was deep and trenchant. Such was the domination of his personality, that despite the improbability of more than a fraction of his audience understanding English, he held his hearers and played with palpable effect on their emotions. On that day, it was his highest audience to listen to him, and it was his greatest performance ever. He must have seemed no less than a Mughal emperor resurrected. Thanks to Associated Press International, Reuters, and UPI, Jinnah’s message at Lahore was cabled that evening all over the world. The Pakistan Resolution was especially perused with tea that same day in London’s Atheneum, studied and underlined at Whitehall and Downing Street, discussed in the City, and debated in Westminister. This day on the 23rd March 1940, the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity, the Jinnah, had totally transformed himself into Pakistan’s great leader.

The prominent Muslim from every Muslim majority state were there, including Liaquat Ali Khan, Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman, Sir Shah Nawaz, Sikandar Hayat Khan (CM of Punjab), A.K. Fazlul Huq (CM of Bengal), Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Qazi Esa from Baluchistan, Sir Abdullah Haroon from Sindh etc.

After nearly 7 years since the Lahore Resolution was passed, Pakistan came into being. And today, perfectly after the 7 decades of Lahore Resolution and nearly after 6 decades of the independence of Pakistan, the country is still contemplating — baffled and feeble. The great leader like Jinnah is lost in the shadow of past. His words, advices, actions, principles — all are now restricted to only literary work, media projections and academics. The implementation of his dreams is yet to be fulfilled — to make Pakistan one of the greatest nation in the world.

Some of the excerpts are taken from “Jinnah Of Pakistan” by Stanley Wolpert.

Road To Revolution

Road To Revolution

On March, 24 1976, a military dictatorship came to power in Argentina. The US backed regime ruled the country for a decade. 30,000 mostly young Argentinian were disappeared by the military. Millions more fled into exile.

Then there was the economic crisis hit the country during the last decade of 20th Century. People were already sick and tired of the economic and political uncertainty — they became hellishly more fed up with the prevailing problems.

On December 19 and 20, 2001, millions of Argentinians took to the streets. “Everyone must go”, they chanted, demanding the resignation of the entire government. 32 protesters were killed, 200 wounded, but they held the streets. President resigned under the pressure. In one week, 4 governments resigned in succession. How much interesting it’s for you to value now the real power of Awaam?

For decades now, our so-called best governments — the holy dictators and holy democrats — have tried to erase and denied the power of our existence — the power of awaam. For decades now, they’ve stolen our rights. For decades, they’ve tried to bury our wishes under the ground. The same happened to the people of Argentina. But they won when they found that they’ve no other choice than to get out on roads and demonstrate the people’s power.

Somehow, we also get out on roads, but under a banner of the affiliated political party and demonstrate protests solely for the party’s cause. We know the length and breadth of our country, but what we don’t know is the edges of our country — the edges from where the problems arise. Divided we stand today. I daresay when United we’ll stand someday, we sure will create an example like Argentina did and today stands on the verge of progression.

Any Winston Churchill Here?

Looking For Peace

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject — said by Sir Winston Churchill. The reason I liked him is parce que his positive role during the World War II.

It was September 1939 that shook the whole Europe when Hitler attacked Poland. Hitler wanted to invade the whole of the Europe and other countries in Central Asia and further to South Asia. The Allied Forces — France, Great Britain and Poland — came in to being soon after Germany’s attack on Poland.

At that time, Soviet Union asked the Baltic Countries to allow stationing Soviet troops in their countries which Finland rejected and it was invaded by Soviet Union successfully. France and Great Britain was of the view that Soviet invasion on Poland is one reason inasmuch as it wanted to embark in World War II. No one knew that one of the deadliest fights between Soviet Union and Germany — the famous Operation Barbarossa which is also considered to be the biggest military offensive in terms of manpower, logistics and other resources — would take place later during World War II. Anyone of you who have read Operation Barbarossa in detail would be known to its appalling events.

Sir Winston Churchill wanted to have peace in Europe. The statesman would do every possible thing he could to stop Hitler from pursuing his evil aims. But then Great Britain was embroiled in the world war II as it became imperative — in order to help protect Europe from getting in the evil hands of Hitler’s Nazis.

There’s a reason to reminisce the World War II that, in all seriousness, jolted the whole of the Europe once. An alien down to earth yet won’t believe once knowing what Europe was during 1939 to 1945 and what it’s now: the amity amongst the nations prevail there, yet between the belligerent countries of World War II.

The reason to jot down about World War II is to trot out this fine example under the limelight that peace is always possible despite past wars and feud, just in the circumstance that we’re really willing to win the peace.

At present, India and Pakistan stands at the same point where the Axis Forces and Allied Forces stood thus far 1945 — the end of world war II — and sought for peace after hellishly busy and bloody wars. India and Pakistan have fought three wars to this day. Have we not yet learned enough of the lessons after three wars that we start seeking for true peace in a bona fide way?

Both the countries, tout de suite, need to stop railroading other country and come to the negotiation table and resolve all the long standing issues.

What do you think India can invade Pakistan, huh? No! So why such an attitude of infant?

What do you think we can resolve the Kashmir Issue under such circumstances? Resolving the violation of Indus-basin treaty issue under such circumstances?

What do you think we can resolve the issue of uncalled for heavy presence of India in Afghanistan overtly/covertly aimed to destabilize Pakistan?

What do you think we can resolve the issue of India’s unwarranted involvement in Baluchistan under such circumstances?

Are all the issues to be decided with the help of war?

Why do we always talk about banning Indian TV channels and Indian movies in Pakistan? If that’s the case, we should be banning American and Brit channels and movies as long as they’re killing our innocent people in drone attacks and abducting our Pakistanis and transporting them to Gitmo. Why just one flavor of patriotism, I ask again?

This isn’t because I’m a Pakistani so as I’m saying that, but it’s also quite apparent that India is unsubmissive to have peace between both countries and often we see unprovoked act of aggression from India’s side. For heaven’s sake, stop over. Both sides of the borders need to shun the hawkish attitude — and India needs to reconsider its behavior more than Pakistan. We, both the countries, are ineffectually squandering our each day and making a big lot of humans suffer on account of morbid hawkish attitude.

Repeating the history often remind us to take prudent decisions regarding present and future. By ill hap, there’s no ruling leader today on both sides of the border of India and Pakistan who’d raise the hunt of the prudent ideologies of the statesman Winston Churchill.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it — Sir Winston Churchill