Dr Rizwan Zeb
Almost eight decades ago, under the leadership of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the All India Muslim League in its annual session in Lahore passed a resolution which was later dubbed as the Pakistan Resolution. In his presidential address, Quaid-i-Azam eloquently explained as to why a separate homeland is the only solution acceptable to the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. He stated: “Notwithstanding a thousand years of close contact, nationalities which are as divergent today as ever cannot at any time be expected to transform themselves into one nation merely by means of subjecting them to a democratic constitution and holding them forcibly together by unnatural and artificial methods of British parliamentary statutes. What the unitary government of India for 150 years had failed to achieve cannot be realised by the imposition of a central government.” He further argued: “(Islam and Hinduism) are not religions in the strict sense of the word but are in fact, different and distinct social orders and it is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality and this misconception of one Indian nation has gone far beyond the limits and is the cause of most of our troubles and will lead India to destruction if we fail to revive our notions in time. The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and literature. They neither intermarry, nor inter dine together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations, which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their concepts on life and of life are different. It is quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other, and likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state”.
The annual session concluded with a unanimously passed resolution that, “no constitutional plan would be workable in this country or acceptable to Muslims unless it is designed on the following basic principle, namely, that geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority, as in the North-Western and Eastern Zones of India, should be grouped to constitute ‘Independent States’ in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.” This gave a direction and set an objective for which All India Muslim League under the resolute leadership of the Quaid-i-Azam struggled for the next seven years. Pakistan came into being on March 14, 1947, as an independent state. Quaid-i-Azam’s monumental speech of 11th August set the future direction for Pakistan as a forward looking, liberal, progressive and modern Muslim democracy.
Pakistan appeared on the global map in the post-World War II uncertainty in which the pre-world war order was decimated and new alignments and realities were emerging. The shameful and hasty flight of British colonial administration from the Indian sub-continent created instability, uncertainty and gave birth to conflicts that are still persistent between India and Pakistan in which the Kashmir issue is the prime case. Governor-General, Lord Mountbatten kept the Partition Plan secret. He allegedly tempered it and revealed it after the declaration of independence of India and Pakistan which resulted in a mass exodus, violence and ethnic cleansing, more than a million died and at least two million people were displaced. Indian leadership openly stated that Pakistan is unviable and would soon rejoin India. Furthermore, India refused to release Pakistan’s allocated assets and liabilities of British India. On the Western side, Afghanistan refused to accept the decision of the people of the NWFP to join Pakistan and claimed that with the lapse of the paramountcy of the crown, all agreements with British India would stand null and void. Kabul refused to accept the Durand Line as an international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan; claimed Pakistani territory till Attock (a city located in the north of Pakistan's Punjab province) and opposed Pakistan’s membership at the UNO. Internally, Pakistan had ideological and ethnic differences. All these external and internal factors complicated the nation-building project in Pakistan. A solution to these problems was found in the Islamic character of the state. Due to these national security threats from neighbouring countries, the security of the state became the primary concern for our political and military leadership. As Pakistan was militarily weak and lacked an economic and industrial resource base, it started a quest for counterbalancing the Indian threat. This ended when Pakistan’s relations with China were established on firm footings. This context must be kept in mind when analysing the Objective Resolution passed by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on March 7, 1949, which set the tone of Pakistan’s national narrative and orientation of the state of Pakistan based on Islamic values.
Pakistan has come a long way since 1947. At its independence, the country lacked a proper governance apparatus, economic and industrial resource base. What little was allocated by the British was in the control of the Nehru administration that refused to send it to Pakistan. Karachi, which became the capital of Pakistan, was an underdeveloped city. Most of the government offices lacked stationery items such as papers, pins etc. In such circumstances, the Indian Congress believed that the Muslim League would soon be compelled to rejoin India. One must also be cognizant of the efforts the Indian leadership made to fail the Pakistan project. However, Pakistan successfully not only subdued all such hurdles but also managed to emerge as a significant third world country. Nation's resilience and determination were again tested during the 1965 war. The whole nation contributed to the national defence. However, nothing illustrates the resilience of the Pakistani nation more than the East Pakistan debacle. Once East Pakistan parted ways, several regional and international observations voiced serious concerns about the future of the state of Pakistan. However, Pakistan not only came out of this stronger, but it also emerged as a leader of the Muslim world when it hosted the Second Islamic Summit Conference held in Lahore from February 22-24, 1974. During the 1970s Pakistan initiated its nuclear weapons program and proclaimed a new constitution in 1973. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the recent war against terror are the testaments of the resilience of the Pakistani nation. Pakistan suffered more losses both in men and material than all other countries put together and faced suicide bombing and massacre of innocent children like the APS attack. It is the only country to have won the war against terror. How the Pakistani nation responds to national calamities such as floods and earthquakes are other examples of its resilience as a nation.
What does this tell us about the state and nation of Pakistan? The country has completed 75 years of its independence. But it is the land that can rightly be claimed to be the land of the earliest civilizations including Mehrgarh, Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and Taxila which is home to one of the oldest universities in the world. It was in Taxila, where one of the greatest political thinkers taught and advised the rulers of the time. This city at different times in the history was home to different religions. With the advent of Islam, the majority of the people in this region embraced Islam voluntarily. Over the years, it became one of the strongest bases of Islamic teaching and knowledge. What is common in all Pakistanis, be they Baloch, Punjabis, Pathans or Sindhis? Throughout the history, all these were fiercely independent and guarded their independence. They never budged to any invader from Alexander to the British. Mir Chakar Rind, Khushhaal Khan Khattak, Hurs of Sindh, Dulla Bhatti and Nizam are but only a few of Pakistani sons of the soil who resisted these invaders. After Pakistan came into being, Sarwar, Aziz to Sher Khan and Lalak Jan, we have sons of the soil who personify the resilient Pakistani nation.
Pakistan has come a long way from where it started in 1947. Today, it is one of the strongest Muslim countries and the only Muslim nuclear state. Mohammad Abdussalam and Malala Yousufzai have been awarded the Nobel Prize. It was a Pakistani economist, named Mahbub-ul-Haq who introduced human security and the Human Development Index. The list of Pakistan's achievements is long and exhaustive. Today, the armed forces of Pakistan are fully capable of defending Pakistan's both conventional and nuclear domains. Time and again the Pakistani nation has proved its capability and resilience. It is the right time to reclaim our pride as a nation in the world and embrace our achievements and make them part of our national narrative.
23rd March is a day to celebrate our collective will and national resolve. Let’s resolve to incorporate our heroes and their accomplishments in our national narrative and revert back to the vision of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and make Pakistan a forward-looking, liberal, progressive and modern Muslim democracy.
-The author is a security and political analyst.