Daily Times

The month of March holds significant importance in the history of Pakistan because 23rd March 1940 marks the initiation of a formal movement to establish Pakistan in British India. Hence, this day is celebrated as Pakistan Day in commemoration of this event. On 23rd March 1940, a resolution was passed during the annual session of the All-India Muslim League held in Lahore, demanding the creation of a separate homeland for Muslims. The attainment of Pakistan was realized within seven years after this resolution.

The annual session of the Muslim League convened in Lahore on 23rd March 1940, presided over by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In this session, the famous Lahore Resolution, presented by Sher-e-Bangla Maulvi Fazlul Haq, called for a separate homeland for Muslims in the Muslim-majority regions of British India. The resolution was endorsed not only by the All India Muslim League’s Council but also by more than one lakh individuals from all parts of India who gathered at the meeting.

Initially named the Lahore Resolution as it was presented in Lahore, where the Minar-e-Pakistan now stands, it was later dubbed the Pakistan Resolution by Congress leaders in jest, and the name stuck. After the acceptance of the Pakistan Resolution, this resolution not only became part of the Muslim League’s constitution in 1941 but also laid the foundation for our beloved country, Pakistan, which emerged on the world map after seven years based on its principles.

Our ancestors achieved this country with great difficulties, sacrifices, and struggles.

On this historic occasion, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, addressing the Muslim League’s session, conveyed a clear message to the occupying British in Hindustan that the issue of India was not one of religious or regional nature but a global issue. He emphasized the need to address it as such because unless the units in Hindustan were taken into account, no law or constitution could succeed there.

As the Congress believed that there was only one community residing in India, and they were Hindus, Quaid-e-Azam stated that Muslims were a separate nation in every definition of the word “nation.” Thus, they deserved their homeland, region, and country where they could live according to their wishes. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah expressed his desire on this occasion that we want to live peacefully and harmoniously with our neighbours as a free and sovereign nation.

Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations with their unique religion, culture, civilization, philosophy, social, and political systems. Therefore, we want to be completely free in religious, spiritual, cultural, political, economic, and social respects and live as peaceful neighbours like Hindu-Muslims. We cannot tolerate any system that imposes permanent majority rule. Therefore, except for this, there is no solution but that the two major nations of India divide themselves into two independent countries.

Quaid-e-Azam laid the foundation of the Pakistan Resolution, demanding the division of the country according to the two-nation theory. On the other hand, Gandhi, Nehru, and all the central leadership of Congress believed that there was only one nation residing in Hindustan, and they were Indians. But Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah clarified with evidence that there are not one but two nations residing in India, and the second nation is Muslims in India, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah responded to Pakistan’s opponents that the foundation of Pakistan was laid on the day when Muslims took a step in Hindustan.

The purpose of describing this entire background is only to remind us that our ancestors achieved this country with great difficulties, sacrifices, and struggles. It was not handed to us on a plate but had to be earned through relentless struggle, including the freedom struggle against the superpower of that time, Britain.

The Pakistan Resolution, also known as Pakistan Day, signifies the day when the formal beginning of the attainment of Pakistan was made. And then the world saw that in a short period of seven years, under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the All-India Muslim League not only made the attainment of Pakistan possible but also charted a path for it, defining what laws would prevail in this country and what its constitution would be like.

And this day teaches us, as Pakistanis, that if our ancestors could achieve this country from the clutches of the British and Hindus in a short period, then surely, if we resolve, overcoming the difficult circumstances the country is facing, we will, God willing, emerge from those situations without difficulty.

The writer is an old Aitchisonian who believes in freedom of expression, a freelance columnist, entrepreneur and social activist.