LONDON, July 30 Everyone from the media to civil society, from politicians to government servants and from students to soldiers, is asking for “Jinnah's Pakistan” as the country is hurtling towards becoming a failed state because it had forgotten the vision of its founding fathers, declared Barrister Liaquat H. Merchant, grandson of the Quaid at the launch of “The Jinnah Anthology” here on Wednesday.

Authored by Mr Merchant and Prof Shariful Mujahid 'Jinnah Anthology' is a compilation of essays, articles and views about Quaid-e-Azam as well as his speeches and quotes.

Founder of Jinnah Society which promotes and propagates Quaid's vision, principles and ideals, Mr Merchant made a power-point presentation of the salient features of the anthology highlighting Quaid's views about the kind of state he envisioned for Muslims of the subcontinent, his understanding and commitment for upholding human rights particularly a clear emphasis on the rights of women and minorities and wide-ranging aspects of Quaid-e-Azam's personality and his qualities as a leader.

Pakistan's High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan said in his address that the anthology had successfully brought out Jinnah's real personality, his vision and his way of life as a towering personality, the way, he was.

The book's review by Ashfaq Bokhari which was circulated on this occasion, says that “There has never been so great a need to revisit Mohammad Ali Jinnah's legacy as now under the changed circumstances to renew our resolve to adhere to his ideals, his principles and his vision of Pakistan. Nor has there been so much urgency to disseminate and popularise the political philosophy of Quaid-e-Azam.”

Professor Ian Talbot of Southampton University who has authored a number of books on partition and post-partition history of Pakistan paid rich tributes to the personality and vision of Quaid-e-Azam. Ms Rachel Goode, the director communications of Oxford University Press; the publishers of the book, shed light on various features of the anthology.

The first section of the 14-section anthology contains original essays on the father of the nation.

The contributors include Stanley Wolpert, S.M. Burke, Kuldip Nayar, Ayesha Jalal, A.G. Noorani and Pervez Hoodbhoy. Their write-ups cover critical aspects of his politics and leadership such as the constitutional structure of the country visualised by him, his relationship with the princely states and his role in institutionalising civil liberties and women's empowerment.

The book also includes impressions of notable figures about the Quaid. They include Beverley Nicholas, Edgar Snow, Lady Wavell and Aga Kan III. Lady Wavell considered Mr.Jinnah to be 'one of the handsomest of men I have ever seen; he combined the clear-cut, almost Grecian features of the West with Oriental grace of movement. To the Aga Khan, of all the leaders he met and worked with, including Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Lord Curzon and Mahatma Gandhi, 'Jinnah is the most remarkable'.

The anthology includes the obituary published in The Times of London on September 13, 1948, two days after his death. It noted that 'Mr Jinnah was something more than Quaid-e-Azam, supreme head of the state, to the people who followed him; he was even more than the architect of the Islamic nation he personally called into being...Few statesmen have shaped events to their policy more surely than Mr. Jinnah. He was a legend even in his lifetime.'