Quaid’s vision and Pakistan
DURING the early and difficult months of Pakistan’s emergence, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, although in ill-health and over 70 years of age, undertook a countrywide tour aimed at building confidence and raising peoples’ spirit.
“Do not be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task,” he said in a speech at Lahore. “There is many an example in the history of young nations building themselves up by sheer determination and force of character. You are made of sterling material and second to none. Keep up your morale. Do not be afraid of death. We should face it bravely to save the honour of Pakistan and of Islam. Do your duty and have faith in Pakistan. It has come to stay.”
Jinnah’s role in creating Pakistan that had indeed come to stay is immeasurable. His people bestowed upon him the title Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader) because without him, Pakistan would not have existed at all.
His leadership of Muslims of India through the 1930s and the crucial years immediately preceding the partition, gave shape to their dreams and put their aspirations into a realistic and meaningful framework.
One of his greatest gifts as a politician was that whenever he defined Pakistan he did so in terms that the man in the street could understand, and he avoided abstract philosophical principles.
“We are a nation,” he affirmed three years before the birth of Pakistan, “with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, custom and calendar, history and tradition, aptitude and ambitions — in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life.”
Today the Quaid-i-Azam’s Pakistan is passing through a difficult time. And it is just because many among us forgot that how much struggle Muslims have made under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah for the creation of Pakistan.
After 55 years of our independence and despite being the only Muslim nuclear state, we are divided into bits and pieces on certain issues. In fact, we have diverted from the path shown to us by the Father of the Nation.
The ideology of the Quaid-i-Azam’s Muslim League was based on the fundamental principal that the Muslims are an independent nation and any attempt to get them to merge their national and political identity will not only be resisted, but it will be futile.
Quaid once said: “We are determined, and let there be no mistake about it, to establish the status of an independent state in this subcontinent.”
Time has come that we should look back to rectify our mistakes and look forward and work with unshakeable determination for a bright future. Let all of us think once on our independence day, about our actions of today. Are we performing in our daily routine matters according to the wishes and dreams of the Father of the Nation?
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
Date of independence
ACCORDING to a recent publication of the Pakistan Tutorial Group, Pakistan’s correct date of Independence is Aug 15.
The group’s publication notes that “On 3rd June 1947, His Majesty’s Government announced that two independent states, India and Pakistan, will come into being on 15th August.”
In practice, this meant that the independence would come about at midnight between the 14th and 15th. However, Viceroy Lord Mountbatten, whom the Indian government had nominated as their first governor-general, naturally decided to be in New Delhi at that precise moment.
Hence he visited Pakistan a day earlier and, on the morning of Aug 14, he addressed the national assembly of the ‘would-be’ independent state of Pakistan. The same afternoon he left. Pakistan came into being, at the same time with India, at 00:00 hour that midnight.
The dignitaries of the government, including Governor-General Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, took oaths of their offices on the morning of the 15th. That same day, the Quaid-i-Azam broadcast his inaugural message to the nation, declaring that, ‘August 15th is the birthday of Pakistan’.
The idea is not to kindle controversy and seek a cosmetic change of date, but only to appreciate an interesting and significant historical fact pertaining to our independence.
ZAHID F. EBRAHIM
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the orders given by the Executive District Officer, Education, (Aug 9) that “all the schools will remain open on Aug 14, the schools should decorate their premises with flags and buntings and hold functions to mark the Independence Day in a befitting manner”.
The government will spend millions on celebrating this day. People will also decorate their homes. But can we really celebrate Independence Day when the country is passing through a crisis? Corruption at all levels is at its peak. People are jobless. The majority of the Pakistanis is illiterate. The life of individuals is not safe. Women are openly abused. Places of worship are attacked. We are dependent on donor agencies.
Instead of issuing such orders, the Education department should concentrate on improving the quality of our education.
AKIF
Karachi
What is blasphemy?
THIS refers to Dr Fazlur Rahman’s letter (Aug 8) in response to Ayaz Amir’s article ‘What is blasphemy?’. Dr Rahman holds the opinion: “To say that the law of blasphemy is being misused hence it must be abolished is totally devoid of reason and sense.”
To begin with, this is neither an irresponsible demand nor inhuman. Anybody can register a case against anyone out of sheer animosity.
Religious zealots should not be empowered to decide someone’s fate. My humble question is: Is the demand to repeal blasphemy law totally devoid of reason and sense?
We don’t need to wash off the entire book of statutes. We just need to get the facts straight. Besides, God has given us mind and we are supposed to use it. My point is that this law should have been annulled from the statute books in the first place.
However, senseless people make inhuman demands, because some of our fellow citizens went through a highly ghoulish ordeal designed by sensible people.
Zahid Shah was stoned to death on the order of a preacher in a village near Faisalabad; an American citizen was also accused of blasphemy by an Imam; Mohammad Yousaf, a blasphemy convict, was killed in jail by a religious activist and Dr Muhammad Younus was sentenced to death for blasphemy.
These examples speak volumes of the flawed blasphemy law.
Ayaz Amir only paints the true meaning of blasphemy. Blasphemy lies in greater things. For the people to be repeatedly denied their rights in a state founded in the name of Islam is blasphemy. The miscarriage of justice is blasphemy and unconscionable gap between rich and poor is blasphemy.
Everyone has the right to protest against the laws that are unjust and could be distorted. Such laws don’t make us more religion-abiding people, frankly, they only make us more inhuman and totally devoid of reason and sense in the eyes of the world.
NADIRA RAHMAN
Karachi
Fairness of ’70 elections
KUNWAR Idris (Aug 4) attributes the “fairness of 1970 elections” to the lack of a political agenda of the then agencies.
However, many of us still remember that on the eve of the 1970 elections, the then military government had, in their pre-electoral wisdom, frozen the party funds of around Rs77 million of the Muslim League (Convention), headed by the late firebrand, Fuzlul Qader Choudhry of Chittagong, who had succeeded the ousted President, Ayub Khan.
The impact of this pre-electoral tilt had little impact on the West Pakistani Leaguers who were mostly from the landed class. But in East Pakistan, Muslim League (FQ) was the only other grassroots party with no Big Business or Zamindars to support.
The impact was tremendous. Fuzlul Qader had reportedly pointed fingers at the ClA, as was the wont in those days, for ensuring walkover for the Awami League.
Poor Fuzlul Qader was assassinated after the creation of Bangladesh.
Those of us who had witnessed the 1970 election campaign of the Awami League in former East Pakistan can recall the vast organizational and financial superiority of the Awami League over its rival. Riding the wave of Bengali nationalism, following the devastating cyclone that ripped the coastal areas of the province, the Awami League was financially supported by the West Pakistani Big Business, affluent Bengalis and Hindus besides the massive Indian fundings.
In a poor country like the former East Pakistan, this scatterbrain pre-poll measure tilted the balance in favour of the Awami League politically. What followed next is history.
In the wake of his massive mandate, Mr Mujibur Rahman even forgot to thank his benefactors. How history repeats itself!
DR SHOAIB SULTAN
Karachi
Trimming platforms
THE trimming of platforms to enable an Express train run smoothly through its maiden journey at best can be conceived as a story of the past. Certainly it does not seem to be a happening of the present day high-tech environment.
If it is true, then it is very simple to asses our technology level in comparison with some of the developed countries where magnetic trains run in tubes, designed and manufactured with accuracies in millimetres, all along hundreds of kilometres.
The railway officials should have considered delaying the event till an appropriate time and with better and more pragmatic solutions.
By delaying the launching, the railways would have also set another thing right — avoiding the inaugural journey on Aug 15.
SUMAYIA ASIF
Karachi
PML factions
PML(Z) is the latest addition to the factions of the dismembering party. Almost everybody who has been somebody in the party, now owns and leads his own brand of the PML.
During the process, the party has consumed more than half a dozen letters of the English alphabet. However, those who might wish to have their own PML should not worry — about 18 letters are still unused.
SHAHID ANWAR
T. T. Singh
Self-respect of nation
THERE has been no criticism from the Pakistani press or the authorities with regard to the remarks of EU Election Observer Group and the Commonwealth on the Presidential referendum and the forthcoming general elections in this country.
Such comments should be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan as the elections, free and fair or otherwise, are Pakistan’s internal matter.
The responsibility to remove apprehensions about them rests with the government and political leaders and no outsider should be asked for help. One should keep in his mind that the outsiders may not restrict themselves to their assigned job and start meddling in other sensitive issues.
India, despite calls from the international community, refuses to allow any foreign observer, even a foreign media man, to cover the elections in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Opposition leaders in that country don’t seek outsiders’ help either.
Pakistan must uphold the nation’s self-respect and this is the responsibility of the government, politicians and press.
ARSHAD MUGHAL
A-Messel, Germany
Graduation condition
EDUCATION, in Pakistan, is the privilege of the affluent class. The graduation condition imposed by the government will totally exclude the poor from being elected and even take away the slim chance they hitherto had.
It is a myth that a university degree makes a person wise especially in Pakistan, where the education system is corrupt to the core. People in favour of this condition contend that there is a condition of graduation for the civil servants, therefore, the legislators should fulfil the same criterion. But they forget that the government employees are selected by highly qualified people, whereas the politicians are elected by a (mostly) illiterate electorate. Why not impose a graduation condition on the voters so that the poor are excluded from the electoral system?
Most of the supporters of this condition are graduates and support it for their own selfish reasons. Another argument put forward in favour of this condition that graduates make better law-makers. If we go by this theory, then should not the parliament be reserved only for political scientists and constitutional lawyers.
RAJA ASAD KHAN
Jhelum
Halfway
IT is amazing! The only super power in the world, with all the might at its command, has shut down shop and left Karachi!
What message is this giving to the ‘terrorists’ who are yet to be dealt with?
SHUJA BAIG
Karachi
Never under British rule!
Is August 14, our Independence Day or the birthday? Pakistan was never a slave country or granted independence. It was born and born free. Pakistan as a country was never under any foreign rule. It was India, which was ruled by the British and given the independence by them.
As far as Pakistan is concerned it was created — took its birth — precisely at 2359 hrs on August 14, 1947. One minute before India was liberated at 2400 hrs the same night and the date changed to Aug 15 at midnight.
Pakistan had to be created, for legal reasons, before the liberation of India took place, otherwise who knows if an independent India would have agreed to partition the country into Pakistan and Bharat? Therefore, we should celebrate Pakistan’s birthday and not its Independence Day.
Happy Birthday — Pakistan.
COL. RIAZ JAFRI (R)
Rawalpindi
Complicating procedures
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the authorities towards the sufferings of people due to the recent withdrawal of certain powers to magistrates.
I approached a first class magistrate in Chakwal for the attestation of an affidavit for my daughter’s admission to a medical college.
The magistrates refused to attest the affidavit saying that magistrates have been stripped of such powers. Some other magistrates also gave the same reply.
I then approached a civil judge who also expressed regret with a similar reply and referred me to a senior civil judge. He, too, did not attest the affidavit and advised me to go back to the junior judge. I returned to the junior judge and got a repeat of his response.
Then I consulted a lawyer for help but without any success.
I am an expatriate and remit a heavy amount every year in foreign exchange to my country. I am also a tax payer and, therefore, I must have the right to ask the authorities: “Why are the bureaucrats driving the nation backward?”
M. B. JANJUA
Chakwal
Position counts
THIS is in reference to Amna Kaleem’s letter ‘Magic word’ (Aug 8) regarding immediate action by the KESC staff when the complainant identified himself as an army officer.
This trick works in almost all the departments.
While we had been in Jeddah, one of my friends repeatedly tried to get some information from PIA office by phone but in vain.
Finally he dialled the number and introduced himself as a Major and got the information instantly.
FEROZ SHAMSI
Karachi
Constitution & dual citizenship
SECTION-14 of Pakistan Citizenship Act (PCA)-1951 has been challenged as being unconstitutional on the ground that it discriminates between Pakistanis settled in the UK and a few other countries on the one hand and those settled in the United States on the other hand. The Lahore High Court is expected to pronounce its verdict in due course of time.
Certain countries, including the UK, permit dual citizenship and Pakistanis can continue to hold their original citizenship by virtue of an amendment to the Section-14 of the PCA-1951 introduced in 1972.
It provides: “The disqualification from Pakistani citizenship by reason of acquiring a foreign citizenship would not apply to a person who is or has been a citizen of Pakistan and is also a citizen of the UK and colonies or of such other country as the federal government may notify.”
This reciprocal arrangement relating to the dual citizenship was evidently intended to benefit the citizen in respect of facilities that may be available in both the countries.
However, it raises some questions: Can a British citizen of Pakistan origin also holding Pakistan citizenship become a member of parliament of both the countries? If so, where will the loyalties of such members of parliament lie? Can such members of parliament hold ministerial positions in both the countries.
Article 63(1) of the Constitution, which deals with disqualification from being a member of parliament, provides that a person shall be disqualified if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state.
This Article, as it stands today, is capable of construction to mean that a person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen and from being a member of parliament if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan for any reason or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state. The second part would evidently apply to citizens of Pakistan who acquire the citizenship of a foreign state but who, under a reciprocal arrangement, are entitled to retain the citizenship of both countries.
Article 63 of the Constitution will be applicable to all the candidates who have acquired the citizenship of a foreign state.
The PCA permits Pakistani citizens to hold additional citizenship of few other countries excluding the United States but the Constitution, in so far as qualification and disqualification of members of parliament is concerned, clearly provides a disqualification and the Constitution would prevail over all other sub-constitutional legislation.
While dealing with the qualification for a member of parliament, Article 62 of the Constitution prescribes that the person must be a citizen of Pakistan. Articles 62 and 63 provide that any person who ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state stands disqualified from being elected or chosen as a member of parliament.
LIAQUAT H. MERCHANT
Karachi