Self-proclaimed liberals in our country are also the self-appointed guardians of Jinnah’s liberal political philosophy. Imran Khan does not fit in their grand scheme of things, therefore he is fair game. He cannot do anything right. As long as he was a cricketer and a philanthropist, he was a saint, but ever since his mammoth Lahori jalsa, he has become a sinner, with no chance of repentance. Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are sparingly criticised for being closet fundamentalists who are in cahoots with the lunatic fringe on the political right, i.e. the Taliban. Imran Khan, to them, is simply a facilitator for the imposition of Sharia through the ballot. These are mere accusations of course, but due to the serious nature of these allegations, those who are making these deserve a better scrutiny of their liberal credentials! There are three main misconceptions that the liberals have about themselves in Pakistan. That since they believe in the roti, kapra, and makan (bread, clothing and shelter) manifesto, therefore they are entitled to be called liberal; that they bash Imran Khan, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Jamaat-i-Islami, the Taliban and the like, therefore they must be liberal, and that since their politics is on the left of the political scale therefore they have earned the title of liberal. A closer look at the doctrine, which came out of the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, however, rubbishes their claim. The liberal doctrine at the minimum envisages a system in which individuals are of equal worth and the seat of moral value. An individual is free to choose his/her own course of life, without unlawful state interference. The doctrine is also morally neutral in the sense that it allows individuals to define their own relationship with God; however it is not neutral when the state unwarrantedly interferes in that man-made relationship. For our purposes, a liberal, in the classic sense, would not only accept or at the minimum tolerate a mullah but also the choices that he makes, i.e., his way of life. The same liberal would also agitate when the state interferes in the mullahs’ way of life. While we may interchangeably use the terms ‘liberal’ and ‘leftist’, it is however pertinent to remember that the biggest critics of liberalism have always been the Marxists. For them, liberalism is fatally flawed because of its association with capitalism. The roti, kapra and makan ones, going by this logic, are not liberals. The life of Mohammad Ali Jinnah binds both his friends and foes on one single point that he was liberal to the core. Jinnah defended to the hilt in a court of law both Bal Gangadhar Tilak (a Hindu-nationalist politician) and Ghazi Ilmuddin Shaheed (Mahashay Rajpal’s assassin, who had published Rang De, allegedly a blasphemous book on Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)). He did not support their actions or belong to their schools of thought, yet Jinnah’s world was big enough in which both the Tilaks and Ilm Dins of their time could live and thrive, in peace and harmony. As both were Indians, they deserved the right to be defended for their actions, and Jinnah made sure that this right was properly exercised in his clients’ favour, despite having divergent views on life with them. M C Chagla, an associate of Mr Jinnah for years, who would later become chief justice of the Bombay High Court, recalled the Jinnah-Tilak comradeship in the following terms: “I might mention here that during my long association with him, I found that Jinnah always showed the greatest respect and regard for Tilak. Even when he was in the process of changing his political stand and becoming more and more communal. I never remember his ever saying anything which was derogatory to Tilak. Two persons in public life for whom Jinnah showed the greatest respect were Gokhale and Tilak.” Jinnah, in short, was a bridge builder, adept at making the impossible possible! Could we today expect the same from our liberals? Is their world big enough in which both the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA—whose members are often labelled as liberals) and Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC — whose members are often labelled as conservative and even fundamentalist) could live and thrive in peace and harmony? If not, then do they still have the right to call themselves liberal? Only my liberal friends could answer this question. Mind you, Jinnah himself set the bar for being a liberal not just in Pakistan but in the rest of South Asia as well and unfortunately for some and fortunately for others, it was set very high. The writer is an advocate of the high court