In an effort to gauge their acquaintance with the history of the region in which the Republic of Cliftonia is mercifully not located, the Cliftonia Academy of Uncivil Services Extraordinaire (CAUSE) recently conducted a secret exam for its senior cadres. From among the total number of candidates who sat for this test, only one percent identified the answers correctly; these officers were immediately transferred to the boondocks so as not to contaminate the other alumni of the Academy.

Excerpts from the multiple-choice examination were leaked to Eos and are presented below:

Who said the following in an interview given to Duncan Hooper, correspondent of Reuters, on October 25, 1947?

It’s exam time for the uncivil services

“I have repeatedly made it clear, especially in my opening speech to the Constituent Assembly, that the minorities in Pakistan would be treated as our citizens and will enjoy all the rights and privileges that any other community gets. Pakistan shall pursue that policy and do all it can to create a sense of security and confidence in the non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan.”

Lord Rothschild
M.K. Gandhi
Mohammad Ali Jinnah 

Who said the following during an address to a gathering of the Civil Officers of Balochistan of the rank of Naib-Tehsildars and above at Sibi on February 14, 1948?

“Until we finally frame our constitution which, of course, can only be done by the Constituent Assembly; our present provisional constitution based on the fundamental principles of democracy, not bureaucracy or autocracy or dictatorship, must be worked.” 

Gen President Mohammad Ziaul Haq
Gen President Augusto Pinochet
Mohammad Ali Jinnah

Who said the following in his broadcast talk on Pakistan to the people of the United States of America in February, 1948?

“Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State — to be ruled by priests with a divine mission.”

Maulana Sami ul Haq
Orya Maqbool Jan
Mohammad Ali Jinnah

Who said the following during an address to the gazetted officers at Chittagong on March 25, 1948?

“Whatever community, caste or creed you belong to, you are now the servants of Pakistan. Servants can only do their duties and discharge their responsibilities by serving. Those days have gone when the country was ruled by the bureaucracy.

It is people’s government, responsible to the people more or less on democratic lines and parliamentary practices.

…You have to do your duty as servants; you are not concerned with this political party or that political party; that is not your business. It is a business of politicians to fight out their case under the present constitution or the future constitution that may ultimately be framed. You, therefore, have nothing to do with this party or that party. You are civil servants. Whichever gets the majority will form the government and your duty is to serve that government for the time being as servants not as politicians.

…The second point is that of your conduct and dealings with the people in various departments, in which you may be: wipe off that past reputation; you are not rulers. You do not belong to the ruling class; you belong to the servants. Make the people feel that you are their servants and friends, maintain the highest standard of honour, integrity, justice and fair-play.”

Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Roedad Khan
Mohammad Ali Jinnah

Who said the following in his address to the Officers of the Staff College, Quetta, on June 14, 1948?

“I am persuaded to say this because during my talks with one or two very high-ranking officers I discovered that they did not know the implications of the Oath taken by the troops of Pakistan. Of course, an oath is only a matter of form; what is more important is the true spirit and the heart.

But it is an important form and I would like to take the opportunity of refreshing your memory by reading the prescribed oath to you:

‘I solemnly affirm, in the presence of Almighty God, that I owe allegiance to the constitution and the Dominion of Pakistan [mark the words constitution and the Government of the Dominion of Pakistan] and that I will as in duty bound honestly and faithfully serve in the Dominion of Pakistan Forces and go within the terms of my enrolment wherever I may be ordered by air, land or sea and that I will observe and obey all commands of any officer set above me…’

As I have just said just now, the spirit is what really matters. I should like you to study the constitution which is in force in Pakistan at present and understand its true constitutional and legal implications when you say that you will be faithful to the Constitution of the Dominion.”

Gen President Abdel Fattah El Sisi
Gen President Pervez Musharraf
Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Farid Alvie was born. He currently lives.
He tweets @faridalvie

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 15th, 2018

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