Jinnah’s Pakistan after seven decades

Addressing to the Indian Students in England on June 28, 1913, at the Caxton Hall Westminster, Jinnah moved a resolution for the establishment of a Central Association for Indian Students called the “London Indian Association”, in an effort and the view of the rise of Indian Nationalism and making the Indian students a part of it. It was resolved that to maintain unity and encouraging friendship among Indian students, a forum to be established where they can exchange their thoughts and ideas by holding social gatherings and debating on various topics of interest. Jinnah shared his student life experience in England with the students and based on his observation called the Caste system as the main reason for the backwardness of India. In fact, it was only possible when students will come out of their exclusiveness which was based on their different socio-economic backgrounds and other circumstances. Although the purpose of establishing such a central society was an interaction and awareness of what is happening in India but taking a direct part in the active politics was not encouraged to avoid any disturbance in completing their education and degrees.

After two years, Jinnah interacted with the “Bombay Muslim students’ Union” on February the 13, 1915. This time he emphasised the students to keep in mind the value of discipline if they wanted to make their Union useful and successful. He further emphasised that “students must learn to practise self-resilience as their main objective should always be co-operation, unity, and goodwill, not only among different sections of Muslims but also Muslims and other communities of this country.” Jinnah despite all difficulties asked students to be true patriots of the country and they must understand the current affairs of India. He was of the view that we often learn people saying that they did not take interest in politics. It is beyond his expectation when an educated man says he takes no interest in politics? It does not mean taking part in the politics means taking part in the agitation and even, if so, it does not mean he is going to destabilise the government. He added, “in India, politics had become the life-blood of the people and it was, therefore, no use shutting their eyes to it.”

The above account and the statements of Jinnah give a clear picture of his brilliance and farsightedness in the middle of Indian politics where Muslims demanded the right of a separate electorate and weightage for them through Simla delegation led by Sir Aga Khan in 1906. And Congress was going to agree on this demand in the Lucknow Pact in 1916 because of Jinnah’s painstaking efforts to build dialogue, cooperation, harmony, and goodwill between communities. Thus Jinnah was given the title of Ambassador of Peace and Unity between Hindu and Muslims.

Today, many of the dreams of Jinnah are waiting to be true in the real sense as even before the word “Pakistan” was coined, it was Jinnah who came with the Delhi Muslims Proposals and highlighted that the reforms should be introduced in NWFP and Baluchistan, making them full provinces. Where NWFP could gain its identity after the 18th Amendment, some 60 years after the establishment of Pakistan, and where Baluchistan still seems to be the most deprived province of Pakistan in the view of ground realities. It seems we still could not understand the messages of Jinnah that was given to students “that keep in mind the value of discipline” and, the other taking part in the political agitation does not mean pulling down the governments.

Jinnah’s other brilliance about the right of communities can be seen in his fourteen constitutional points, 1929 where he stated, “Full religious liberty i.e liberty of belief, worship, and observance, propaganda, association, and education shall be guaranteed to all communities.”

After the declaration of Partition and in the making of Pakistan, it was Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah who made it loud and clear in his historic speech of August 11, 1947 that “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”

Here it is very interesting that the above speech is famous for his remarks about the right of minorities in Pakistan, but he also touched the very important issues that Pakistan has been facing for the past 70 years, and the whole society seems to be a hostage to these practices such as, he added: “Black-marketing is another curse. Well, I know that black-marketers are frequently caught and punished. Judicial sentences are passed, or sometimes fines only are imposed. Now you have to tackle this monster, which today is a colossal crime against society, in our distressed conditions, when we constantly face a shortage of food and other essential commodities of life. A citizen who does black-marketing commits, I think, a greater crime than the biggest and most grievous of crimes. These black-marketers are really knowing, intelligent, and ordinarily responsible people, and when they indulge in black-marketing, I think they ought to be very severely punished because they undermine the entire system of control and regulation of foodstuffs and essential commodities, and cause wholesale starvation and want and even death.”

Every year we commemorate Jinnah on his day and give citations of his speeches and vision, but it seems the very next day forget it. Since the Zia’s era, student unions are banned; students at public colleges and schools are asked to submit an affidavit that they will not take part in the politics and yet, we are talking about the country is not producing good politicians. We must learn from the societies that had an excellent record of human development after the Second World War. Money and efforts spent on education, health, and infrastructure will guarantee our future. Pakistan is still lacking in establishing a state-based functional primary education system and providing clean drinking water to its citizens. We have to fight a war with poverty, oppression, nepotism, and inflation, without this, our performance will be limited to give just positive statements about our country. Surprisingly we have seen a cut in the higher education budget that has brought an immense financial burden on students and parents as in fact, public sector fees are lower than private-sector institutions but, the percentage of increase of fees in public Institutions is alarming. We can imagine that our graduate starts his career between Rs 25 to 50 thousand per month at the age of 24 years and when they will be able to buy a two-bed apartment in future, while the present value of housing starts from 10 million minimum and so where and how we are securing the future or our youth? This is high time that we set our priorities right to secure a safe future for our next generations.

—The writer is Asst Professor at the Department of History, University of Karachi and teaches

Anthropology and South Asian History. He can be reached via email at ajkhan77@yahoo.com