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Friday March 29, 2024

Jinnah’s Magna Carta

By Wajid Shamsul Hasan
December 25, 2015

It was 800 years ago that the roots of the democratic system that we see prospering in the UK today were laid with the signing of Magna Carta by King John - perhaps the founding document that changed the course of British history.

It brought to an end long catalogue of wars among kings/queens, confrontation with the church, intrigues for succession to the throne to put this Island Kingdom onto an evolutionary course to gradually develop a system of human management for the greatest good of the largest number as manifested in the concept of social welfare state. It has come to be an exemplary democratic polity that Britain has today in the form of parliamentary system resting on the pillars of the sovereignty of the people and supremacy of law.

The purpose of this article to celebrate the birth anniversary of Pakistan’s founder Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah is to show that democracies, rule of law and constitutionalism do not get established overnight. They have to go through a long evolutionary process and yet at the end, there is much room for change and improvement. MAJ - a barrister from Lincoln’s Inn - had his initiation in politics in the land of Magna Carta.

It was conceived out of the revolt of the English barons against their exploitation by the monarchs with their arbitrary powers to levy taxes as well indiscriminately powers to arrest. The Magna Carta for the first time incorporated the writ of habeas corpus in the statute books.

While MAJ’s political grooming took off in England, even as a youngster he believed that democracy and social justice were the guiding principles in Islam.

According to him, democracy and social justice are in our bone marrows and in our blood as manifested in the concept of human rights in Islam well-laid in the Huqqoqul Ibad. MAJ’s critics and some historians believethat Jinnah was an elitist politician backed by the Muslim feudal class. It is far from truth. Being a visionary, Jinnah had a clear idea of Pakistan. He saw his strength in Islam’s social justice system in establishing principle of equality for all its citizens.

Indeed, one could describe his speech of August 11, 1947 in the mother legislative assembly of Pakistan as the Jinnah’s Magna Carta. Pope at that time opposed Magna Carta and tried to subvert it by declaring it “illegal, unjust, harmful to royal rights and shameful to the English people” and declared it “null and void of all validity forever”. This Papal edict had no impact and subsequently Magna Carta came to be recognised as the bedrock for all democracies.

Much in a similar manner Jinnah’s August 11 speech establishing the fundamentals of the Pakistani statehood, has been opposed by the clerics and radical elements to the extent that his declaration that in his state of Pakistan all citizens will be equal, Pakistanis first and last, irrespective of their caste, creed, colour or gender - was subjected to first case of censorship. MAJ’s vision was to make Pakistan into a nation-state “in the course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state.”

To assert it more categorically he had added that “Hindus would be free to go to their temples, Muslims to their mosques, Christians to their churches etc.” He had also assured equality in job opportunities. As Magna Carta emphasised on the law of habeas corpus -produce the body-his Pakistan had no room for missing persons nor suo moto interference.

MAJ’s secular philosophy rested on the very fact that that Holy Prophet (PBUH) was sent as Rehmatul Lil Alameen - blessing for all humankind irrespective of caste, creed, colour or gender - and not for just Muslims alone-shows that the Creator’s dictate was essentially secular.

That is why he declared categorically that religion shall have nothing to do with the business of the state. It is high time we dispel the lethal perception that Pakistan was created in the name of religion. Islam nor any other religion was under threat during the Raj.

Pakistan’s raison de etre as such was essentially economic combined with autonomy in governance in the Muslim majority areas. This whole misconception is the mother of all miseries.

Time and again Pakistan’s national interests were sacrificed over the issues related to religion rather than welfare of its people. Quaid wanted Pakistan to be citadel of Islam and its social justice but not to serve few kings or unrepresentative Praetorian juntas. He saw democratic polity as the saviour and he sincerely believed that Pakistan can at best serve the Muslim world by becoming a democratic, liberal and secular role model for them.

Writer is the former high commissioner of Pakistan to UK