“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”.
This is what Charles Dickens wrote about Paris and London in his “A Tale of Two Cities” in 1859 describing the political and social conditions leading to the French Revolution and the reign of terror (La Terreur in French). But, Dear Quaid, this, unfortunately, reflects what our twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been going through since you breathed your last leaving your dreamland rudderless.
Yes, dear Quaid, you gave us a large and beautiful country. We failed to appreciate its value as a nation. Many challenged your decision demanding a separate country for the Muslims. You were showered with disparaging titles – the enemy of motherland Bharat, a megalomaniac, a stubborn narcissist, an egoist, Kafir-e-Azam and whatnot. Your opponents included rightists, leftists, Marxists, nationalists, unionists and Islamists. You had undertaken this huge task on behalf of the common Muslim populace. All stakes were against you. You had no vibrant political organization to drive home your political ideal. You had to bank on the disorganized, undisciplined, factionalized, depressed All India Muslim League beaten to a pulp in the general elections of 1937 by the arrogant, strident, well-organized and well-led National Congress.
Though the democratic dispensation we have had after many years of our wanderings in the political wilderness was not ideal, it was better than any autocracy.
Only you, dear Quaid, had discerned the hidden and hypocritical agenda of the Indian National Congress leaders who talked in the same vein of secular and democratic dispensation and Ram Raj through their affiliates including the Shudhi Movement of Swami Dayanand Saraswati and his disciple, Swami Shradhannd working for the promotion of Hinduism in North India especially Punjab in early 1900. The movement was followed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founded by K.B. Hedgewar in 1925 to build on the work of the Shudhi Movement. These purely Hindu organizations aimed at converting the lowest class from other religions to Hinduism and integrating them into the mainstream Hindu community leading to Ram Raj. You envisioned a bleak future for Muslims in such a biased, dogmatic and intolerant society. You took the cause of the Muslims as a distinct nation living alongside Hindus in the Sub-continent. This was in stark contrast with Congress’s stance on Muslims considering them as the largest minority.
Earlier, you had worked with the Hindu leaders squandering your time and energy to foster unity between the two larger communities to preserve the unity of the Sub-continent. You were decorated with the flattering title of the “Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity”. However, these Congress leaders felt overawed and overshadowed by your well-reputed parliamentary etiquettes, vast knowledge, matchless eloquence and sound arguments, and surreptitiously kept undermining your sincere efforts. Their arrogance, grudge and jealousy were further heightened when K.M. Gandhi abandoned his adopted country of South Africa and returned to India to hijack the vibrant freedom movement under the banner of the National Congress in which you, my Quaid, had played a prominent role.
The All India Muslim League (AIML) after a humiliating debacle in 1937 needed a determined leadership undaunted by the odds in his way. You took the cudgels at the behest of the disenchanted Muslims. You reorganized it in every nook and cranny of the Sub-continent undertaking long travels despite your fragile health and presiding over marathon sessions, collecting and cataloguing the excesses committed against the Muslims by the Congress provincial administrations. Within three years, you were miraculously able to have the Pakistan Resolution passed in March 1940 in Lahore.
You transformed AIML into the premier political party of the Sub-continent Muslims. It captured almost all the Muslim constituencies in the general elections of 1945-1946 notwithstanding the opposition of the Unionists of Punjab and the nationalists of the erstwhile NWFP. And, dear Quaid, you realized your cherished dream of a separate and independent country for the Muslims comprising North Western provinces and Bengal. We remained a nation as long as you were there. We lost our moorings the day you bid adieu to us. The adventurists were just waiting for the day.
The Constitution-making and nation-building were pushed to the back burner; the Prime Minister was assassinated; a race for the capture of state positions and resources ensued; timid, sick and disabled were catapulted to the helm and then brought down by the more scheming operators; we were governed by the colonial act of 1935 for nine years; the ill-advised One-Unit was enforced abolishing the geographical position of the smaller provinces to merge them into the larger entity of West Pakistan in 1954 at the behest of Iskandar Mirza and General Ayub Khan to offset the advantages of the numerically larger Bengal.
The new Constitution enforced in 1956 was abolished within two years by the Chief Martial Law Administrator General Ayub Khan; the parity scheme was adopted for the division of the state’s financial resources and federal jobs between both wings of the country to the disadvantage of the bigger Bengal. Ayub Khan was followed by another bunch of Generals who failed to honour the verdict of the people delivered in the general elections of 1970 denying power to the majority party. We lost half of your Pakistan, dear Quaid.
Following your footprints, this nation staged an amazing comeback and started building the remaining Pakistan. We have had a new Constitution, and parliamentary democracy; regained our lost position in the Muslim world and among the comity of nations; we had a better system for the division of the state resources among the smaller provinces. Though the democratic dispensation we have had after many years of our wanderings in the political wilderness was not ideal, it was better than any autocracy. But we forgot our ordeal, humiliation, defeat and pain of 1971 and indulged in the same unwise and harmful adventures.
(To be concluded)
The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books.