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Friday April 19, 2024

Negating Khilafat heroes

It is strange that the Foreign Office is blamed for the recent visit of Nawaz Sharif to Britain during which he also attended the Gallipoli celebrations. Agreed that Nawaz Sharif’s team is not very competent but then some decisions are taken not by the Foreign Office but at an individual

By our correspondents
May 07, 2015
It is strange that the Foreign Office is blamed for the recent visit of Nawaz Sharif to Britain during which he also attended the Gallipoli celebrations. Agreed that Nawaz Sharif’s team is not very competent but then some decisions are taken not by the Foreign Office but at an individual level. What is more improtant is: should Nawaz have gone to endorse Gallipoli? Was this visit not uncalled for and unnecessary?
By attending the Gallipoli celebrations Nawaz has put a big question mark on the Khilafat Movement. This function marked the end of the First World War. It also brought to an end the Ottoman Empire. The Allied Forces not only divided the empire into two dozen new countries but also prepared the ground for the very existence of Israel. It should not be forgotten that along with Britain and France, the United States was equally responsible for this act. Turkey was also marking this event and being our neighbour and a Muslim country it would have been most appropriate to proceed there rather than to England. However, Nawaz decided otherwise.
Fauzia Qureshi
Islamabad