'Quaid would never have allowed renaming on linguistic basis'

KARACHI - Mian Atta Rabbani, who was ADC to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, has said the founder of Pakistan was a scholarly personality who made every decision after thorough deliberation. The Quaid was neither biased nor gave concessions to anyone, as his decisions were always based on merit, Rabbani added. In an exclusive interview to WAQT NEWS TV channel, Rabbani said it were Hindus chauvinistic thinking and prejudiced attitude towards the Muslims that had forced the Quaid to wage a struggle for a separate homeland, otherwise, he was making efforts for independence of Hindustan and wanted close ties between the Muslim League and the Congress. But the Quaid was disheartened by the predisposed approach of Nehru, Gandhi and other bigoted Hindu leaders and opted to launch a movement for Pakistan, he told. There was no shift in Quaids views before and after the independence, he said, adding that he (Quaid) had assigned two responsibilities to the Legislative Assembly: Ensuring protection of life, property and honour of every Pakistani citizen without any religious discrimination besides giving the right to worship to all according to their respective beliefs; and drafting a constitution with a mechanism for independent and sovereign decision-making. To a query, he said the Quaid had envisioned a democratic state where Islam and Sunnah were to be followed but he had never conditioned the state affairs to religion. He opined had the Quaid made three administrative decisions in a different way, the situation in the country would not have been the same. First of them was the decision to make Ghulam Muhammad, an un-elected and non-political person, as the Finance Minister, which should have been allotted to Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan along with premiership or any other political person, he added. The second decision, Atta Rabbani said, was regarding not dismissing General Gracie for disobeying orders about Kashmir, adding that if the orders had been passed to court-martial Gen Gracie and Srinagar Airports control had been taken, the Indian forces would have no chance of landing there and the whole Kashmir today would have been part of Pakistan. And the third decision was not to declare Bangla as the national language, he said, adding that if the Bangla had been declared as the official language just like Urdu, there would have been no sense of deprivation among 54 per cent of countrys population. He said the reconciliation policy of the incumbent government was not compatible with that of Quaids, as he had always preferred principles to reconciliation. If the Quaid had been alive, the NWFP would have any name but he (Quaid) would have never allowed it to be renamed on the basis of language, he said, adding that efforts had been made for renaming it as Pakhtunistan and making it part of Afghanistan, which failed during Quaids life.

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