Dreams unfulfilled

Profile in Politics Seventy one years ago, on March 23, 1940, the All India Muslim League in its historic session that was held at Minto Park, Lahore, under the dynamic leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, resolved that the Muslim majority areas in the northwest and southeast of the subcontinent constitute a separate nation by all standards. The Muslims, therefore, deserved to have a separate homeland where they could shape their destiny according to their faith and ideology. Keeping this in view, Pakistans ideology was based on the Two Nation Theory, which meant that the Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations. The All India Muslim League was founded at Dhaka in 1906 and it took 34 years bitter experience of following a policy of national reconciliation with the Hindus. This resulted in first the Allahabad Declaration by Allama Iqbal in 1930 and then the Lahore Resolution in March 1940, sealing for good any possibility of reconciliation on the issue of the Two Nation Theory. Within a short span of seven years the miracle of Pakistan changed the geography not only of the region, but also the world. A new ideological Muslim state was born, defying the brute Hindu majority and the imperialist British mischievous designs. The birth of Pakistan, though a great achievement, was not the end of Iqbals dream or the fulfilment of the Quiads vision of the Muslim state. It was not the end goal, but only the beginning of the great mission of the establishment of an epoch-making laboratory of Islam where the modern world may see the fulfilment of the State of Madina in a world torn into strife and suffering under the domination of neo-imperialism. The Quaid wanted the new state of Pakistan to be governed by the code of life enshrined in the Holy Quran and the first written 'constitution mankind ever had known as the Misaq-i-Madina. The parameters and guidelines of this 'constitution were outlined by Jinnah in his Presidential address to the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947. Alas, the Quaid did not live long enough to see it guide the affairs of the state. It is the saddest saga of history that so much water had flowed under the bridges of our rivers into the Arabian Sea by 1956 when the Constitution of Pakistan finally saw the light of day that a long dark cold night of nine years had changed the face of Pakistan beyond recognition. Many historians have expressed the view that the political leadership that framed the 1956 Constitution did not truly reflect the Quaids vision in letter and in spirit. How could, they argue, the Quaid, who advocated the Holy Quran as the torchlight of his concept of the new born state, ever approve the Westminster pattern of democracy alien to the Islamic state of Madina? How could the British parliamentary system based on only ancient British traditions guide the Pakistani lawmakers seeking a code of conduct based on Islamic values? This certainly demands an answer from all those who framed the 1956, 1962 and 1973 constitutions, since it is important to know whether those framing the constitutions of Pakistan were privy to the vision and concept of Pakistan, as expressed by Iqbal and Jinnah from time to time. Another important aspect is that whether the 1973 Constitution, having gone through the 19th Amendment, finally provided the much needed peace, tranquillity and harmony among the pillars of the state to provide good governance to the people of Pakistan. No Unfortunately, the people continue to suffer. A democratic parliamentary system of government is still not established in Pakistan, in accordance with the Islamic injunctions, and it seems that we continue to follow the Westminster system. Other nations, like the US, France and Germany, have successfully experimented with their own democratic systems. But have we ever looked at the good points in their systems and evolve a democratic Islamic welfare state nearest to the vision of the Founder Father? Indeed, it is a bit foolhardy to stick to a system (Westminster system) alien to the concept for which Pakistan was established, i.e. to shape our own destiny. Let it not be said that by following the old track for well over half a century, we are acting like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which is not there. The writer is the President of the Pakistan National Forum.