Daily Times

The making of Pakistan is wrapped in myths purposefully weaved into the history of the struggle of the Muslims to carve out a new country in the Sub-continent. These myths have hindered us from determining the kind of state we want to have.

Did we want an Islamic country with a system of governance as prevailed during the four pious Caliphs or the one that existed during the latter two Muslim dynasties – Umayyad and Abbasid; an authoritarian autocracy or a democracy with a parliamentarian or presidential forms of government, a homogeneous nation rallied around the ideology of Islam or a heterogeneous federation comprising geographical entities which were nations before the advent of the British empire. While toying with these myths, Pakistan unobtrusively slipped into a garrison state.

The biggest myth is that the concept of a separate homeland for Muslims in this part of the Sub-continent was conceived by Allama Muhammad Iqbal in his often quoted Allahabad address of 1930 in which he propounded that the North Western provinces of the Sub-continent may be amalgamated into a separate political and geographical entity for the Muslims. The Allama had extensively dilated on the subject in his address and given this idea. But he himself repudiated it after four years while responding to Professor Thompson who had criticized the idea in his review of the Allama’s book “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”.

The most obnoxious situation that emerged in that flux period was the nexus between the Punjabi and Mohajir politicians and bureaucrats.

While appreciating Professor Thompson’s review on his book, the Allama had hastened to clarify that “You have made one mistake which I hasten to point out as I consider it rather serious. You call me a protagonist of the scheme called Pakistan. Now Pakistan is not my scheme. The one I suggested in my address is the creation of a Muslim Province – having an overwhelming population of Muslims in the North West of India. This new province will be, according to my scheme, a part of the proposed Indian Federation. Pakistan scheme proposes a separate federation of Muslim Provinces as a dominion. This scheme originated in Cambridge”.

The Allama’s letter – available in the India Office Library in London – has been quoted by many writers including Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Dr Amanat, Zahid Chaudhry and Fazal Qazi. This letter is conspicuous by its absence in the Pakistan Study Books.

The Punjab Unionist and many other Punjabi political leaders announced their support for Pakistan in the last months of 1946 after their electoral defeat by the All India Muslim League at a time when the creation of Pakistan seemed inevitable. They remained indifferent to the concept of Pakistan during the preceding decade enjoying power and pelf in Punjab.

The All India Muslim League was founded by Bengalis in 1906. What the Bengali leaders conceived was to have the undivided Bengal and Muslim majority Assam as a separate country. The AIML as a political party was supportive to this scheme. The scheme was thwarted by wily Mountbatten and Nehru only a month before the partition.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, having been disillusioned with the communal politics of M.K. Gandhi, drifted to AIML in 1920s and formerly accepted its leadership just months before the crucial 1937 general election. He did not have time and resources to re-structure it as an effective political organization to fare well in the electoral battlefield. After the electoral debacle of 1937, Mr Jinnah put his political reputation, health and wealth at stake to win the last battle of Pakistan in the general elections of 1945-46.

The All India Muslim League in Sindh was wonderfully active in the epic movement for a separate homeland. The AIML Sindh in its annual session of 1938 passed a resolution demanding an independent country for the Muslims. This resolution, with minor alterations, was adopted in the historic session of the AIML in Lahore in March 1940 as quoted by Pir Ali Muhammad Rashdi in his three-volume memoirs. Later, the elected Provincial Assembly of Sindh passed a resolution in favor of Pakistan in March 1943.

The mover of this resolution was GM Syed. He was an ardent Muslim Leaguer and a loyal soldier of Mr. Jinnah. He fell out with his leader on the distribution of League tickets for the December 1945 elections. He wanted to accommodate his fellow leaguers from middle class where as Mr Jinnah favored established electable class comprising landlords. He didn’t want to take any risk in the general elections.

Pakistan finally came into being in August 1947. This was the first phase of national struggle for the emancipation of the Muslims. In this crucial phase, the role of Bengalis and Sindhis was prominent and unmatched by any other geographical, cultural and national entity.

The NWFP was amalgamated into Pakistan through a controversial referendum and Balochistan was annexed by force. After the loss of the leadership of Mr Jinnah in September 1948, where the founding fathers of the new country went astray was the crucial phase of nation building. The constitution making was delayed; the Objectives Resolution was made preamble of the Constitution paving the way for a theocracy; squabbling for power that included palace intrigues and unholy alliances between civil and military bureaucrats and traditional political dynasties was allowed to prosper.

The most obnoxious situation that emerged in that flux period was the nexus between the Punjabi and Mohajir politicians and bureaucrats and the establishment. This bunch conceived the idea of strong center concentrating all the political, economic and financial powers within the central authority at the cost of the federating units. They imposed the One Unit in West Pakistan and introduced the “Parity” system to offset the majority of the Bengalis. After the secession of Bengal, the Mohajir element was excluded from the nexus.

Only Punjabi establishment took hold of the levers of power in collaboration with the pliant politicians from other provinces plundering the resources of the small federating units. This plunder was enshrined in the Constitution introducing the division of the central pool of resources on the basis of population.

(To be concluded)

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books.