On the Quaid’s birthday
Pakistan’s enduring national pastime: arguing about what Jinnah wanted. This has continued incessantly since the death of the leader and people from all ends of the ideological spectrum have co-opted the father-figure to gain some easy credibility. There may not be consensus on what Jinnah wanted this country of ours to be – did he want it to be
secular, did he want it to be Islamic – but there is consensus
that this is not what he would’ve wanted. Let alone
Jinnah, this crisis conglomeration called Pakistan has
turned into something that no one could’ve wanted and it
is a comment on the state of affairs that ‘what-the-Quaid-
wanted’ has been reduced to mere legitimising cop out.
This 25th December as we remember the man and our country trundles through crisis after crisis, the debate will go on. For each of our crises, we will look to Jinnah’s words as guiding principles. And what bigger crisis than the civil-military imbalance that continues to plague our system and is, to state the obvious, the biggest structural issue faced by our republic. Despite our many squabbles over his ideological bearings, it is clear what Jinnah would’ve wanted in this case: civilian supremacy over the khakis. Back in his day, when some senior officers in the army complained to him about being led by British officers even after independence, they were given a stern reminder that they were to keep their reservations to themselves as appointment of these commanders was the job of the civilians and they should not question it. With our pick-and-choose national memory about people and places, this is one of Jinnah’s lessons amongst many others – such as those of pluralism and tolerance – that we have forgotten or, at the very least, some of us would like to forget.
It’s time we put our longest-standing national argument abut Jinnah’s real intent to rest and agree to move beyond it. As we celebrate Quaid-e-Azam Day this year, we are engulfed by troubles. But this is a day when cynicism should be put on hold, so maybe these crises should be looked at as possibilities. Our democratic dispensation is still surviving and we have a stake in ensuring that it does. The man is gone but we can work for the mission that lives.
