EACH time a government changes in Pakistan its supporters and detractors, the liberals, extremists and obscurantists alike, try to form and propagate their own version of the ideology of Pakistan.

The touchstone on which Pakistan was conceived and founded was the will of the man destined to be, for the first half century of its life, its sole statesman, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. He decided that his fellow Muslims of the subcontinent, in order to survive and prosper, must be given a homeland, which they would share with others of any creed or denomination who lived in it. This he did.

The redeeming feature is that, despite the efforts of those who have their own expedient agenda for this nation, Jinnah's words, sayings and speeches survive and hold the field, and men of learning, for the good of the country he founded, continue to write on his life, ideals and vision.

To refer once again to the OUP book published this year 'Jinnah - Speeches and Statements 1947-1948' (ISBN 0 579021 9) with an excellent introduction written by the Pakistani historian, writer and diplomat, S. M. Burke, there are certain passages which need to be quoted, particularly in the present distorted environment by which this country has been successfully invaded and under which it seems to be sinking.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah, a good Muslim, a far better Muslim, in the true sense of what being a Muslim entails, than the men who now set themselves up as their religion's saviours, carried no chips on his narrow shoulders. He was a Muslim and at the same time a man of the world, who looked to the future, who was open to ideas and to learning. As a young man, he was sent off from Karachi to Britain to complete his education. Burke relates :

"Almost immediately after his arrival in London (1892), Jinnah came under the influence of Dadabhoy Naoroji who had been elected to the House of Commons in July that year as a Liberal. Naoroji took a fatherly interest in Indian students of all denominations. Jinnah, who later won acclaim as Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity, reminisced in his presidential address at the Thirtieth Session of the All-India Muslim League at Delhi in April 1943 that he had learnt politics 'at the feet of that great man, Dadabhoy Naoroji' and that it was 'men of the character of that Great Dadabhoy who inspired us with some hope of a fair and equitable adjustment' between Hindus and Muslims.

"In fact, the Liberals at that time were very much in evidence ... Jinnah told Dr Ashraf that during the last two years in London his time was 'utilized for further independent studies for the political career he already had in mind'. Jinnah also said, 'Fortune smiled on me and I happened to meet several important English Liberals with whose help I came to understand the doctrine of Liberalism. The Liberalism of Lord Morley was then in full sway. I grasped that Liberalism, which became part of my life and thrilled me very much'."

He returned to India as a barrister, decided to live and practise in Bombay and to involve himself in politics :

"It is not surprising that Jinnah should have joined the ranks of the idealists and become a member of the Congress party (1906). After absorbing British liberalism in London he had taken up residence in Bombay which was India's most cosmopolitan city where the mores of social life were set by the highly westernized Parsee community. Jinnah found their way of life congenial to his own refined tastes and he made many Parsee friends. He later married a Parsee socialite.

"But the decisive reason why Jinnah became a member of the Congress party was that the three persons who dominated Congress at that time were his political mentors. The three in question were the Parsees Naoroji whom he had first met in London and Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, and the Chitpavan Brahman, Gokhale."

After Gokhale's death in 1916, Jinnah felt he had no place in the Congress party and that his future lay with the Muslim League. Burke writes:

"In marked contrast with Congress' arrogant policies, Jinnah persevered with his secular politics and carried on his mission to achieve Hindu-Muslim unity based on a constitutional accord between the two major communities of India. At the Muslim League session at Lahore, under his presidency, in 1924 he said :

" 'We must not forget that one essential requisite condition to achieve Swaraj is political unity between Hindus and the Mohammedans, for the advent of foreign rule and its continuance in India is primarily due to the fact that the people of India, particularly the Hindus and Mohammedans, are not united and do not sufficiently trust each other. The domination by the bureaucracy will continue so long as the Hindus and Mohammedans do not come to a settlement. I am almost inclined to say that India will get Dominion Responsible Government the day the Hindus and Mohammedans are united'.

"Jinnah followed secular politics till the experience of Hindu rule in the Congress provinces (1937-39) finally drove him to the conclusion that if the Muslims wished to practise their religion and culture freely they would have to achieve an independent homeland of their own. During his speech in the Central Legislative Assembly on February 7, 1935 he said that 'religion should not be allowed to come into politics... Religion is merely a matter between man and God ... '."

Burke naturally refers to the most famous, the most relevant and by far the most important of Jinnah's speeches, the one embodying his creed :

"Some commentators have suggested that Jinnah was too westernized to conceive Pakistan as an Islamic state. To support their argument they usually cite his speech at the inaugural session of the Pakistani Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947 (the relevant unexpurgated portions of which were printed in my column last Sunday).

"However, when this is read with Jinnah's other pronouncements it becomes quite clear that he was recommending generous treatment of non-Muslims not as a commendable secular principle but as a mandatory Islamic injunction. Only thirteen days later during the transfer of power ceremony on August 14 when Mountbatten praised the Emperor Akbar's policy of political and religious tolerance, Jinnah pointed out: 'The tolerance and goodwill that the Emperor Akbar showed to all the non-Muslims is not of recent origin. It dates back to thirteen centuries ago when our Prophet not only by words but by deeds treated the Jews and Christians after he had conquered them with the utmost tolerance and regard and respect for their faith and beliefs'.

"In his Eid Day message on November 13, 1939, he had already pointed out that 'no injunction is considered by our Holy Prophet more imperative and more divinely binding than the devout but supreme realization of our duty of love and toleration towards all other human beings'."

Finally, as says Burke : "He remained a good Muslim all his life but was too sophisticated ever to be a narrow-minded one."

There is no single word in the Urdu language into which the English word 'secular' can be translated. I am the proud owner of a facsimile of the dictionary published by Dr Samuel Johnson in 1755, "A Dictionary of the English Language: In which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers, to which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar." The adjective 'secular' therein is defined as: "[secularis, Latin; jeculier, French] Not spiritual; relating to affairs of the present world; not holy; worldly."

From a 1984 editorial in 'The Times' : "Samuel Johnson died on the evening of December 13 1784. He is a more suitable patron saint for the English than our Palestinian soldier-saint, George, or that other candidate for the role, Thomas A Becket. For one thing Johnson spoke English. More than that, his work as lexicographer and Hercules of English literature, helped to make English the world language that it has become.

"The chief glory of the English is their language; and Johnson's 'Dictionary', the only one in any language compiled by a writer of genius, had a lot to do with its rise to glory. It is an irony that might have amused him eventually, after a bear's growl or two, that his 'Life' written by his young Scottish friend is far more widely read than any of Johnson's own more literary works."

Now let us hope that no great scholar of our country comes up with the suggestion that it would be in the interests of Pakistan that the usage of the English language be banned.