Hashim Raza, who died last week, was one of the few survivors of those fine administrators - the members of the elite Indian Civil Service.

He was the first administrator of Karachi when it became the capital of the newly born state of Pakistan, in the days when hordes of refugees were pouring into this peaceful city, when Hindus, who had lived here for generations, were being murdered, and when houses were forcibly occupied by the fledgling government - in short, when mayhem prevailed. To Hashim there was no difference between Muslim and Hindu, caste or creed, in his eyes all men were equal. And what's more, he had a sense of humour.

Had he been present at his well-attended funeral, he would have had a good laugh at an announcement made over the loudspeaker, twice, by the prayer leader. All were summoned to stand in line, in orderly fashion and those wearing kurta-pyjama were warned to keep a stern watch on their side pockets.

On one of Jinnah's death anniversaries, Hashim and I both had columns published which we had written in remembrance of the sole sane sound leader this country has had, and in which we both produced an excerpt from his famous acclaimed speech of August 11, 1947, a speech which contained his creed. Our versions differed. Hashim, an early riser, awoke me that morning to tell me I had erred in my quotation, (taken from 'Jinnah's Speeches as Governor-General of Pakistan, 1947-48' published by the government publishers, Ferozesons). From which book have you quoted, I asked. And he told me - from 'Jinnah, Creator of Pakistan,' by Hector Bolitho, the man commissioned by the government to write Jinnah's official biography.

In his 'Acknowledgements', Bolitho has listed the names of those who had checked the facts contained in the book. He listed the names of those who had read his manuscript, giving particular credit to four gentlemen, whose "vigilance has, I hope, brought my errors down to a minimum." One vigilante was "Mr Majid Malik, Principal Information Officer to the Government of Pakistan." Hashim later found out that it was the good servant Majid Malik who had provided Bolitho with the copy of Jinnah's speech of August 11, 1947, from which he had quoted, "as directed by the Government."

Both versions are reproduced below.

Before the flag of Pakistan had even been unfurled, Jinnah told his people and their future legislators:

"You are free, free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the [business of the state. As you know, history shows that in England conditions some time ago were much worse than those prevailing in India today. The Roman Catholics and the Protestants persecuted each other. Even now there are some states in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class. Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days when there is no discrimination, no distinction between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this] fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state. [The people of England in course of time had to face the realities of the situation and had to discharge the responsibilities and burdens placed upon them by the government of their country and they went through that fire step by step. Today, you might say with justice that Roman Catholics and Protestants do not exist, what exists now is that every man is a citizen, an equal citizen of Great Britain and they are all members of the nation.] Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal [and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State]."

Down the dreary years, this particular passage has been subjected to deliberate distortion and misinterpretation, inspiring the dogmatists who misappropriated the country after his death with fear and unease. It did not suit their purposes, their plans and designs. The first manifestation of this fear came with the publication in 1954 of Bolitho's book. The passage was censored, the portions in square brackets were omitted, and it read :

"You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan." [So far so good. Now comes the gross distortion, a massive slice of censorship, and the big lie] "You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State. Now, I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal....".

Bolitho was obviously ignorant of the government's deviousness, dishonesty and mendacity, for in the preceding paragraph to the quotation he wrote :

"While Quaid-e-Azam was caught up in this exasperating care of detail, he was also writing the greatest speech of his life. He would leave these fault finding expeditions to return to his desk where he worked for many hours on the presidential address he was to give to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11."

And in the paragraph immediately following the quote he states : "The words were Jinnah's; the thoughts and belief were an inheritance from the Prophet who had said, thirteen centuries before 'All men are equal in the eyes of God. And your lives and your properties are all sacred; in no case should you attack each other's life and property. Today I trample under my feet all distinctions of caste, colour and nationality'."

Professor Stanley Wolpert faced a similar problem with his book, 'Jinnah of Pakistan' published in the United States by Oxford University Press in 1984. He was not commissioned by the government, or by anyone else, and was therefore able to deal with the matter. The American historian, professor at UCLA, devoted ten years of research to the life of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and has produced by far the best, most accurate and most interesting book to have been written on the man who founded this country, and who was subsequently betrayed by both its leaders and its people.

OUP, Karachi, imported 500 copies of the book and one copy was sent to President General Ziaul Haq seeking his permission to reprint it locally. Somewhere along the line, it was perused by one of the local fudgers of facts, one of the many re-makers of the man Jinnah, who, horror-struck, pointed out that Wolpert had quoted from M. C. Chagla's memoirs, 'Roses in December', a passage in which Chagla refers to the eating and drinking habits of the man who created a nation. This did not suit the expedient requirements of the time. OUP was told to hold distribution while a letter was written to Wolpert suggesting that certain lines and passages be deleted before the book could be sold or reprinted in Pakistan.

Professor Wolpert responded: "I am sure you understand, however, that as a scholar I cannot permit commercial considerations to affect my position on a matter of basic principles, which we treasure so highly in this country as to have enshrined it in the First Amendment to our Constitution."

The First Amendment decrees: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the freedom of speech, or of the Press ......".

The imported consignment of 500 books was confiscated and sent to Zia. And what did this wily 'Mard-e-Momin Mard-e- Haq' do? He proudly presented copies to visiting foreign dignitaries.

To give credit where credit is due, it was during the first government of Benazir Bhutto that in 1989 OUP found it safe to give itself the go-ahead to reprint the Wolpert book locally and make it freely available throughout Pakistan.