The Speakers at a seminar to commemorate Defence Day and the Death Anniversary of the father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah urged civil society and media to safeguard the prestige and honour of the martyrs and national heroes for transferring the true guiding examples to the coming generations.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ-Dastoor) organised a special roundtable seminar to highlight the importance of national heroes, founding leaders and martyrs in national building. The welcome remarks were delivered by the former President of National Press Club Islamabad and President PFUJ Dastoor Haji Nawaz Raza.
On the occasion, he said the purpose of observing the two separate days together was to create unanimity among broader concepts for advocating the true essence of national cohesion and honour of their founding leaders and heroes among the youth.
He said every year he used to pay visits to the Mausoleum of Nishan-i-Haider Lance Naik Muhammad Mehfooz Shaheed but this time he invited his nephew to share his thoughts and interact with the journalist’s fraternity to apprise them of the Martyr’s life.
While opening the roundtable discussion, Journalist, Ali Jabir Malik said the country was at the crossroads of history where it was facing an onslaught of intruding ideologies creating despair and confusion among the masses to give up its true ideology of Pakistan.
He said the martyrdom of the valiant martyrs of the armed forces, law enforcement agencies, and other security agencies was a guarantee of a peaceful and stable Pakistan. The nation should not only esteem its martyrs but rather learn from their lives to seek passion for national service, he added.
“Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah gave the motto of Faith, Unity and Discipline with a deeper vision in its roots as he knew the nation in times to come would have to stand firm against mightier challenges posed by its adversaries. It demands from us to renew our pledge with the motherland and wholeheartedly embrace the advice and principles of Mr Jinnah to resurrect as a resilient nation from the ashes of the crises,” he added.
Senior Journalist, author, and historian from the Independent Urdu, Sajjad Azhar who has written Rawal Raj expressed his candid views during the roundtable. Azhar said, “We have failed to adopt and implement the ideology and teachings of Quaid-e-Azam among our nation which needs to be done on a war footing.”
He regretted that the youth was unable to associate with the history it was taught which should be improved and reinforced with major historical events with clear backgrounds.
Quaid’s first speech to the first legislative assembly of Pakistan on August 11th, 1947 devised the foundations of the true Muslim state, he added.
The government, he said needed to promote that speech and like the Objectives Resolution it should be made an unalterable part of the Constitution, he said.
Nephew of Lance Naik Mehfooz, Asad Maroof while sharing his thoughts said his martyred uncle had a soul full of inspiration and movement to do something unique and different.
“He had a different and unique personality. My father used to tell me that Shaheed Lance Naik Mehfooz used to stand out among all the siblings as a man of unmatched quality and traits. He was highly motivated and ambitious to do something big and exalted,” he said.
During the exhumation of the martyr’s grave, his coffin to another place for creating a separate mausoleum for the Nishan-i-Haider as per its decorum, the body and blood were found fresh like the day one of his martyrdom.
“I am proud to share that I belong to the family of a martyr. As it is said in Holy Quran, Shaheed, are alive and all the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country are the benefactors of the nation,” he added.
Senior Journalist, Dr Abdul Wadood Qureshi said the martyrs of this nation are our heroes and every nation has its heroes and they are proud of them. “Those nations remain alive who respect their martyrs,” he added.
Dr Qureshi said “We need to reset our course and keep our house in order and break the vicious circle of economic decline,” he added.
Secretary General of the Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA), Naveed Akbar said there was a need to review our history and learn lessons from events like the 1965 War.
“The Security Forces are rendering huge sacrifices for the motherland. The love of the nation for the Armed Forces of Pakistan is unmatched as the martyrs’ loss had created a huge impact on their families and nation,” he said.
“There is no country in the world where so many soldiers are lost on a daily basis. We have faced a prolonged conflict due to the war on terror,” he added.
He emphasised that it was high time to focus on solutions to our problems as a nation. “Nation should recall the vision of the Quaid and revitalize the passion to further strengthen the country,” he added.