Daily Times

December is a month of consequential significance in Pakistani politics. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was born in this month while the same month saw the terrorists slaying the most popular leader of the country, Benazir Bhutto. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah is the man who piloted the freedom movement, establishing a separate country for the Muslims of the subcontinent. It goes without saying that if Pakistan is on the map of the world, it is due to the charisma of Quaid-e-Azam.

If Nehru, Petal, Gandhi or other leaders of the Congress had known that Quaid-e-Azam was a patient of Tuberculosis, today the map of the subcontinent might have been different because they didn’t want the partition of India. They were hell bent on keeping it united. They knew that the Muslims of the subcontinent had no other personality to counter Nehru or Gandhi. That’s why; Quaid-e-Azam kept his disease a secret from friends and foes for many years.

Fate didn’t allow Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah to serve Pakistan for a long time but he certainly gave them a code of conduct. He laid down those principles that could enable us to make Pakistan a liberal and progressive state.

It was the progressive vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah that he appointed a Hindu, belonging to the lower caste of Hindus, the first law minister of Pakistan. Quaid-e-Azam wanted such Pakistan where Muslims and minorities should live together harmoniously and where they have religious freedom and everyone free to exercise his own ways of life without any restriction of state and oppression of religious difference.

Unfortunately, after the death of Quaid-e-Azam, our ruling elite, forgetting his golden principles, established such Pakistan as was plagued by sectarianism, religious intolerance, political mayhem and social evils. Pakistan is yet to recover from these scourges.

If we want to make Pakistan a progressive, modern and civilized state, our ruling class needs to conform to the principles laid down by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Each year, 25th of December reminds us of the birth of a great leader who wanted to configure this country in line with the State of Medina. The incumbent government wants to carry out the same ideal. Therefore, Quaid’s principles need to be observed in letter and spirit.

In this month, Pakistan suffered the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the most popular leader of her time. She had a dynamic and vibrant personality. Though she inherited political legacy from her father yet her own hard work and untiring efforts contributed to winning mass popularity which enabled her to enter Prime Minister Office twice.

Benazir Bhutto was the target of malicious campaign. She was called a security risk. Nawaz Sharif family unleashed baseless propaganda drive to slander her but the propriety she stood for didn’t allow her to retaliate. During the political rivalry of PPP and PML N of 90s, Benazir was subjected to scandalous slogans. Even indecent pamphlets were published and floated out but she did not try to malign the personal life of her rivals nor did she side with any dictator to settle her score.

I have hundreds of meetings with her, spending considerable time with her in Pakistan and London. She always treated me affectionately like her younger brother or son. I realized that she had vast studies and profound insight into Pakistani as well as international politics.

Benazir Bhutto underwent exile but she left no stone unturned to bring up her children on the line of decency and mannerism which today Bilawal Bhutto represents. It is the charisma of Benazir Bhutto that PPP is still ruling Sindh after her departure. Since then, PPP has also established federal government while her widower became the President of Pakistan. It shows that she had magical personality. So far, there is no such personality in PPP to substitute her or make good the loss of her death.