KARACHI: This year (latter half of 2017) there’s been a resurgence of interest in Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He is the only person around whom we can rally in the exercise of nation-building.

This was said by Liaquat Merchant, president of the Jinnah Society, as he gave to the media an outline of the society’s plans for 2018 on Tuesday afternoon.

Before Mr Merchant’s address, secretary general of the Jinnah Society Ameena Saiyid told journalists that the purpose of the gathering was to give information on the background of the society and its plans.

She said the birth of the Jinnah Society took place in 1997 on Pakistan’s 50th independence. Many events were held to celebrate the occasion. They included the release of the film Jinnah.When the film was launched at the Governor’s House, 2,500 people attended it. After that, a book titled The Jinnah Anthology was published. The anthology was edited by Mr Merchant and Prof Shariful Mujahid. It’s an extraordinary book because it contained a comprehensive account of the Quaid. It had articles written by renowned scholars, excerpts from Jinnah’s speeches, personal recollections and tributes paid to Jinnah by eminent people. The title of Ardeshir Cowasjee’s article in the book was ‘Bring Back Jinnah’s Pakistan’.

‘Shahbaz Sharif had announced in his meeting with the British foreign secretary that he would hold a Jinnah conference to mark Pakistan’s 70th anniversary’

Ms Saiyid said this year the plans were to establish a Jinnah chair at Karachi University, republish the book Quotes from the Quaid with additional quotes and give the Jinnah award to three people for their services to Pakistani society. She said 100,000 copies of Quotes from the Quaid had been given to students of schools and colleges across the country.

Mr Merchant gave a presentation made with the help of Oxford University Press. He said Quotes from the Quaid was a popular book. Its sale started in 2007 and it continued to be purchased by Pakistanis. The Jinnah Society was established in 1997 by a group of dedicated Pakistanis. The aim was to achieve nation-building and to spread Jinnah’s ideals and vision for Pakistan as a nation-building exercise. Three editions of The Jinnah Anthology had been published, beginning with the first launch in 1999, then in 2009 in London at an event hosted by the Pakistan High Commission, where the slogan ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan’ was first raised, and the third edition published in 2011 was launched at Oxford University Press in Karachi.

Mr Merchant said the Jinnah Society gave one award each year to a Pakistani for their outstanding service to Pakistan. The following were recipients of the award: Abdul Sattar Edhi, Hakeem Mohammad Saeed, Graham Layton, Ruth Pfau, Akhtar Hameed Khan, Ishrat Husain, Ahmed Ali Khan, Air Marshal Asghar Khan, I. A. Rehman, Adib Rizvi, Imran Khan and Ardeshir Cowasjee. The patron of the society was Prof Stanley Wolpert.

Describing the Quaid’s ideals Mr Merchant said Jinnah stood for supremacy of the rule of law, sovereignty of parliament, independence of the judiciary, equality of all citizens, freedom to practise one’s faith and belief, protection of rights of minorities and women, elimination of corruption and nepotism, the role of the armed forces in defending the country, the role of the bureaucracy as servants of the people, and a constitution for Pakistan which should be democratic in nature embodying the essential principles of Islam.

Mr Merchant said this year [2017] there had been a resurgence of interest in Jinnah across the country. Before Jinnah received the title of the Quaid-i-Azam, he was known in India as the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. That came to an end in the 1940s. The effort of the Jinnah Society was not just to spread the ideals and principles of Jinnah but also to encourage the development of leadership [in the country]. There was a lack of constructive politics in Pakistan. Of late the realisation had dawned that Jinnah was the only person around whom the people of Pakistan could rally to achieve the much-needed exercise of nation-building. Jinnah was and continued to remain highly relevant in Pakistan. Last year, Shahbaz Sharif had announced in his meeting with the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson that he would like to hold a Jinnah conference on the occasion of Pakistan’s 70th anniversary. But nothing came out of it.

Media person Ghazi Salahuddin said we needed Jinnah like an extremely unwell person needed life-saving drugs. It was a matter of Pakistan’s survival. Even if one ignored what he had said and only kept in mind the life that he had led and his personality, even then it would serve us well. Our leaders had changed his message, an example of which was the order in which he had given the slogan ‘unity, faith, discipline’ which was now officially used as ‘faith, unity, discipline’.

Ashraf Wathra and Jimmy Engineer also spoke.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2018