Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
Sixty-five years after our independence, where do we stand as a nation and as a member of the comity of nations? Are we living in ‘a democratic and progressive’ Pakistan as envisioned by its founders?
Can we genuinely claim to be ‘upholders’ of fundamental values of freedom, democracy and human dignity? Have we been able to make Pakistan ‘a bastion of inner strength, political stability, economic self-reliance, social cohesion and national unity’ that our leaders, over the years, have been showcasing to their people as their destiny? These are indeed painful questions warranting honest self-reappraisal.
The Quaid-e-Azam did not live long to personally steer Pakistan to be what he thought and aspired will be ‘one of the greatest nations of the world.’ A full generation’s life-time is now behind us as an independent nation.
Many of us who belong to the first generation that saw and experienced the formative phase of Pakistan and its creation as a dream of its founding fathers, are indeed discomfited at the thought of what Quaid-e-Azam had envisioned this country to be and where we actually stand today as a nation and as a state.
Within the first year of our independence which woefully happened to be the last of his life, Quaid-e-Azam had presciently foreseen the coming events. He was disillusioned with the scarcity of calibre and character in the country’s political hierarchy which was no more than a bunch of self-serving, feudalist and opportunistic politicians who were to manage the newly independent Pakistan. Political bankruptcy and moral aridity were writ large on the country’s horizon. Quaid’s worries were not unwarranted.
Less than a month before his death, the Quaid addressed his last message to the nation on August 14, 1948 in which he reminded his people: ‘the foundations of your State have been laid and it is now for you to build and build as quickly and as well as you can.’ On his own part, to quote Richard Symons, ‘in accomplishing the task he had taken upon on the morrow of Pakistan’s birth, Jinnah had worked himself to death, but had contributed more than any other man to Pakistan’s survival.’ Indeed, he died by his devotion to Pakistan.
With the Quaid’s early demise, Pakistan was orphaned in its very infancy and lost the promise of a healthy youth with acute systemic deficiencies and normative perversities restricting its orderly natural growth. After the Quaid, it was left without any sense of direction and in a state of political chaos and confusion. The real Pakistan disappeared with its tragic dismemberment, and whatever was left has been converted into the ‘spoils of power and pillage.’
We are still not decided on some of the fundamental questions related to our statehood. Pakistan came into being in the name of Islam and democracy but it has lived without practising the essence of both. A country, which was considered ‘twentieth century miracle’ of a state and which was fought and won entirely through democratic and constitutional struggle now itself struggles haplessly for democracy and constitutional primacy. Perhaps it is time for us as a nation to look back on our country’s chequered history and do some real soul-searching, however agonising it may be.
Sixty-five years after our independence, where do we stand as a nation and as a member of the comity of nations? Are we living in ‘a democratic and progressive’ Pakistan as envisioned by its founders? Can we genuinely claim to be ‘upholders’ of fundamental values of freedom, democracy and human dignity? Have we been able to make Pakistan ‘a bastion of inner strength, political stability, economic self-reliance, social cohesion and national unity’ that our leaders, over the years, have been showcasing to their people as their destiny? These painful questions are enough for our self-indictment.
Among his known qualities of intellect and character, Quaid-e-Azam also had a unique ability to see far ahead of his times. Addressing the army officers at the Quetta Staff College on June 14, 1948, he reminded the armed forces of their constitutional responsibilities, urging them ‘to understand the true constitutional and legal implications of their oath of allegiance’ to the country’s constitution. He warned them not to meddle in country’s politics. But ours is a sordid tale of broken oaths and military take-overs.
During the last year of his life, Quaid-e- Azam addressed almost every segment of our society, including legislators, armed forces, civil servants, educationists, students, business community, workers, lawyers, and the public, providing guidelines on every aspect of national life for building up Pakistan into a modern and democratic welfare state, while drawing their attention to what the nation expected of them.
In his address to Pakistan’s first Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, the Quaid reminded the legislators of their ‘onerous responsibility’ of framing the future constitution of Pakistan and functioning as a full and complete sovereign body like a federal legislature in any parliamentary system. But it took our politicians nine years and several governments to frame our first Constitution in 1956 which was abrogated in less than three years.
Since then, we have had two constitutions, one promulgated by a Field Marshal president in 1962, and the other adopted by an ‘elected’ group of people who had no constitution-making mandate and were in fact responsible for creating a parliamentary gridlock leading to the breakup of the country in 1971. The flawed 1973 constitution they authored for the truncated Pakistan has since been amended twenty two times leaving very little of the original text in its essence. It is a different Constitution altogether.
In his August 11, 1947 address to the Constituent Assembly, the Quaid had given us a roadmap of what he believed were the biggest challenges for the country’s government and lawmakers. According to him, the foremost duty of a government was “to maintain law and order and to protect the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects. He also warned against the “evils” of bribery, corruption, black-marketing, nepotism and jobbery which he wanted to be eradicated with an ‘iron hand.” We not only ignored his advice but are in fact living remorselessly with these ‘evils’ as an “integral” part of our society.
In our country today, the culture of “power and privilege” is thriving on patronage, graft, bribery, extortion, nepotism, cronyism, influence-peddling, fraud and embezzlement. No other country is familiar with the practice of forgiving as a matter of rule the elite loan-defaulters and the known highly placed plunderers of the national exchequer. The plunderers, profiteers, and the looters, murderer and the killers could not have a safer haven anywhere else in the world. No wonder, the Supreme Court’s NRO verdict still remains unimplemented and our parliamentarians are legislating only to perpetuate their own power and privilege.
The Quaid believed in religious freedom and communal harmony. He urged the nation to shun sectarianism. We, however, had a different approach. Intolerance and fanaticism led us to violence with no parallel anywhere in the world. Pakistan is today seen as the hotbed of religious extremism and obscurantism. Sectarian violence has ripped our society apart. Terrorism-related problems afflicting our country have placed us on the global radar screen as the most violent and dangerous country in the world. How painful it would have been for the Quaid to see his Pakistan burning from within.
The Quaid also believed in the importance of the role of women in nation-building as equal citizens of Pakistan. But women in our country continue to be denied their basic rights and fundamental freedoms, and are targets of gruesome forms of violence.
Customary gender norms remain at the root of pervasive political, legal, economic and social inequalities that perpetuate women’s lack of access to resources, education, health care, employment, decision-making and participation in public life.
Quaid-e-Azam had a prophetic message for our educationists. He told them that “the future of our State will and must greatly depend upon the type of education and the way in which we bring up our children as the future citizens of Pakistan.” Unfortunately, with misplaced priorities, we never focused on developing education as a pillar of nation-building which receives only a little fraction of our national attention and resources.
Alas! Quaid-e-Azam did not get to know us well. Had he lived longer, he would have only been embarrassed to see how miserably we and our successive leaders have failed to live up to his vision of Pakistan, and to protect and preserve our national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity. On our part, we are not even ashamed of what we have done to his Pakistan.
