- Mark the difference
Prime Minister Imran Khan has praised the Father of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohamad Ali Jinnah, as a role model several times before and after coming to power. More recently,Mr Khan reiterated his desire to “turn the country into what my leader Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had dreamed of.” While cognizant of his identity as a Muslim, Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a modern state where nationhood was not to be defined in religious terms as explained in his address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11,1947 when he observed “You may belong to any religion, caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”
The Quaid was wooed by several ulema and leaders of religious parties in the Muslim world. Imam Taimudin of Shanghai addressed him as Amirul Momineen. The Grand Mufti of Palestine, Amin al-Husseini, was among his fans. Sheikh Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, sent several letters and a delegation to meet Jinnah. The Quaid however stuck to his stance of Pakistan being a non-sectarian, pluralistic and inclusive state. Disregarding local ulema, Jinnah appointed a Hindu and an Ahmadi as federal ministers. Sir Zafarullah Khan held the post of Foreign Minister for seven years.
In his interview with the Reuters news agency in May 1947, the Quaid debunked Pan-Islamism, maintaining that the idea had long been exploded. He wanted Pakistan to maintain friendly relations “with the Near and Middle East as well as Far East”. In the same interview he underlined his unfaltering belief in parliamentary democracy. In Pakistan, he said, Cabinet would be responsible to Parliament while both would be responsible the “electorate and people in general without any distinction of caste, creed or sect.” The Quaid abstained from making use of religious terms in politics. Throughout the Pakistan Movement or afterwards he never used the term “Riasat-e-Madina.”
Jinnah succeeded in creating Pakistan amidst widespread riots and bloodshed. Both Bengal and Punjab were partitioned. The new country was required to settle millions of refugees. India refused to pay Pakistan’s share of federal reserves. Soon Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru was to deny Pakistan its share of water in rivers flowing down from India. Jinnah and his successors faced the problems with fortitude without shifting the burden to others.