‘Pakistan was inspired by Islam but was not meant to be theocracy’

Ideologies are not static and change with time. They have to change because that is the reality. The Holy Quran, for instance, was not revealed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) in a single instance or within a short span of time such as one month or one year. It spanned over 21 years because the Prophet (PBUH) was going through a change and the area was changing as well. The very root of Islam is to acknowledge change.

This perspective was shared by former senator and federal minister Javed Jabbar during a talk titled ‘What is Ideology of Pakistan?’ at the Karachi Gymkhana on Thursday evening.

At the start of the discussion, he deplored Wednesday’s shameful vandalism of churches in Jaranwala, saying, “The Muslims make up for 97 per cent of the country’s population, yet they don’t tolerate three per cent non-Muslims.”

Explaining the ideology, Jabbar said Pakistan was formed on a religious basis, but it was different from all other religion-based states for a number of reasons. “We have no pope or church because we don’t need an intermediary between God and the faithful in Islam; non-Muslims can be granted citizenship here unlike Maldives where only Muslims can be citizens; we have no historical link with the land like Israel has with the land as their prophets walked on the land and many of them are buried there. If Israelis were not so barbaric against Palestinians, they do have the historical right to exist,” he expounded.

“We have no monarchy like Saudi Arabia. We are a flawed democracy, but a democracy and not monarchy, despite the fact that certain parties have created dynasties and we vote for them.”

Additionally, the former senator pointed out that Pakistan was a unique country in many ways as it possessed an invented name because there was no mention of the coined term ‘Pakistan’ before 1933 unlike Egypt and Russia. Interestingly, the name was absent from the Lahore Resolution and even Jinnah was not using it, he said, adding that Pakistan’s uniqueness was further underscored by its East and West wings with nearly equal population.

Javed Jabbar, highlighting why the mid of August was chosen for Partition, said Mountbatten arrived in Delhi on 2nd of March and took ten to eleven weeks to study the problems, met the people and leaders and then arbitrary decides on 3rd of June 1947 for Partition, giving ten weeks’ notice.

“Why was the mid of August was chosen? School books won’t tell us and the reason was pure ego and arrogance of one man. Mountbatten wanted to celebrate the fact that almost exactly two years earlier the supreme commander of allied forces has taken surrender of Japanese in Singapore. He said that exactly two years later he desired to preside over independence of two new states and it was immaterial for him if he gives notice of ten weeks or ten months and went out in blaze of glory but his decision resulted in bloodshed, panic, violence and no one knew what is going to happen and opposite was achieved.”

Javed Jabbar outlined five distant kinds of ideologies, saying Iran’s was a theological ideology where a non-elected figure like Ayatollah can veto decisions of an elected parliament because he is the epitome of religious interpretation. So was Saudi Arabia, the custodian of holy places and monarchy, and then regressively the ugly emergence of Hindutva in India, which was rooted in some negative narrow exclusivism. There are also countries with capitalist and socialist ideologies and there were also hybrid ideologies which incorporate more than one element like in Pakistan and India, he added.

The senator said Pakistan was rooted in ideology that was multifaceted rather than singular. The country’s largest province was even ethnic diverse encompassing Siraikis, and northern and central Punjabis.

He said there was no document that defined the ideology of Pakistan. However, the state was defined and when elected representatives take the oath they pledge ‘I shall protect Islamic ideology which is the basis of creation of Pakistan’ and a hostile national in-between.

“We have to conclude that it is compiled of different material starting with the Holy Quran and Sunnah that define the principles of equity, the rights of women to property, rights of orphans, principles of justice, which shape our ideology,” he added.

Jinnah often said Pakistan would not be a theocratic state and yet he also said Pakistan would be based on Islamic principles. Some people try to find contradiction in that but I don’t see that because the man was evolving his thinking.

“Pakistan was inspired by Islam but it was not meant to be a theocratic state and is democracy, however, flawed it is.”