Every year on 25 December, we celebrate Quaid-e-Azam’s birth anniversary, but our political leaders don’t learn any lesson from the life of founding father of Pakistan. Even all his adversaries admit that M A Jinnah was highly honest, incorruptible, brilliant lawyer, and a politician. He had the courage to call a spade a spade, especially while addressing the people; Jinnah was a visionary leader and statesman. He always led by example. As a Governor General, he cancelled the orders for a car and aircraft because the national exchequer could not afford them.
Jinnah had a clear vision for Pakistan: a democratic, progressive, modern, and secular country where every citizen had equal rights, personal liberty and social justice. Every citizen was a proud Pakistani and the state had nothing to do with the religious beliefs of citizens. Unfortunately, those responsible to implement the Quaid-e-Azam’s vision after his death joined hands with small religious ideologue groups that were in the forefront in opposing the very idea of Pakistan’s creation as an independent state. Later, they raised the slogan of “Pakistan ka matlub kya la illahha illallah” for political purposes.
Unfortunately, today we Muslims are praying in our mosques under heavy police security and are afraid of being bombed by fellow Muslim suicide bombers. Instead of competing on the basis of political and economic front with other nations, we are declared by the world a dangerous country. All those who have been ruling the land of the pure have betrayed the Quaid by projecting religious identities that have degraded our global status.
