When our first Constituent Assembly – which comprised elected members of the 1946 general elections – was dismissed, the demise of the Jinnah legacy became inevitable. This is because the assembly had members who never adhered to Quaid-i-Azam’s vision of democratic welfare state. Following the dismissal, Ayub Khan became the defence minister and a chain of tragic events followed. These events led to the dismemberment of Pakistan and – within less than two decades – the emergence of Ziaul Haq. The latter buried Jinnah’s legacy and gifted this country disunity, fanaticism, fundamentalism and indiscipline. Pakistan became a sanctuary for terrorists of all shades, nationality and ethnicity.
Education institutions were systematically eroded and instead of teaching subjects like science, economic and arts, madressahs – in the words of the COAS – became breeding grounds “for propagating extremism or terrorism”. The Frankenstein’s monster that Zia created by involving this country in the 1979 Afghan war and creating madressahs where jihad was fed to young minds in concentrated dose without context or explanation was ultimately used as a weapon to destroy this country from within. Zia died but his legacy managed to survive.
Malik Tariq
Lahore
