The history of mankind shows that the people who change the course of events by shaping the destiny of their nation are taken as heroes and leaders. And Quaid-e-Azam was the one who spent his whole life in shaping the destiny of our country. A united Pakistan was his vision, irrespective of the religion, race and creed of its citizens. Once he said, “The foundation of our Islamic code is that we stand for liberty, equality and fraternity.”
It is heartbreaking that today we have torn his vision of unity and turned into die hard Punjabis, Baloch, Pathan and Sindhi. It’s deplorable that we don’t strengthen each other’s hands as Pakistanis rather keep pulling each other’s legs in the name of our provincial rights.
Another important and worth mentioning point is that he always talked about religious rights of Christians, Sikhs and Muslims. At the time of independence he said, “You are free, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed; it has nothing to do with the business of the State. We are starting with the fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.”
He wanted to make Pakistan for all those people, whether they were Christians, Sikhs or Muslims, who wanted deliverance from a Hindu majority country. And what have we become today? A Punjabi, a Baloch, a Pathan and a Sindhi. Though the Pakistan he tried to make shows great tolerance for other religions yet we have to work on many fronts. His vision of an Islamic society which would be equitable, compassionate and tolerant and from which the ‘cancer’ of corruption, nepotism, mismanagement and inefficiency would be eradicated, unfortunately exists nowhere. In order to make Pakistan what our leader wanted to make it, let’s promise that from now onwards we will serve this country as Pakistanis and only as a Pakistanis.
ASMA HUSSAIN MORIO
Larkana
