Pakistan was NOT founded on Islam

It’s 14th August and the flags of green and white color can be seen on cars, motorcycles, shops and buildings etc. All these people are celebrating Independence Day but do they know why the independence was achieved and what was the objective behind it?

Well, let’s get to the point.

‘Pakistan was founded on Islam’, that’s what we were taught on our Pakistan studies books. In fact, not taught but brainwashed. But no matter what truth finally prevails. And the truth is that Pakistan was NOT founded on Islam.

Jinnah never wanted Pakistan to become a theocratic state. Quaid-e-Azam in his statement made it clear that the state of Pakistan should be based on a secular democracy and governed on the basic principles of Islam such as equality, justice, unity and brotherhood.

Our people have been misguided and falsely made to believe on this – ‘Pakistan ka matlab kiya’? La ilaha illAllah. This slogan was never raised by Mr Jinnah. And the real reason of striving for an independent nation was to be free from Hindu dominance politically and economically.

After all it is very hard to believe that a modern and liberal person like Jinnah wanted to establish a religious state. Even if we look at his actions, an Ahmadi was made the first foreign minister of Pakistan and a Hindu was appointed as a member of his cabinet. This testifies that Jinnah believed in equality irrespective of religion.

However, after Jinnah’s death, Pakistan went on a completely different path. A wrong precedent was set by the Objectives Resolution whereby it stated that sovereignty rests with Allah whereas Jinnah’s Pakistan wanted sovereignty to rest on the people.

The Objectives Resolution gave away considerable power to the religious right. This step of bowing down to the pressure of Mullahs was the first big mistake done by the state.
From there on, we have seen until now of how the politicians and the establishment have used religion for their own vested interests. They exploited the religious sentiment of the masses and used it to their advantage.

Only If Jinnah had survived a bit longer, he might have stopped the seeds of hate from growing which are now so deep-rooted that only a miracle can change Pakistan into Jinnah’s Pakistan.

Some would argue that this ‘Ideology of Pakistan’ debate is useless and that it doesn’t solve anything.  Well, if we want Pakistan to become a moderate nation, the people of this country have to change their thinking for their betterment and for the nation as well.

And clearly we have seen that this religious ideology which was adopted has clearly not worked for Pakistan. Rather than uniting the country it has divided the nation into two extremes. It hasn’t worked because religion has become a tool to be misused.

The reality is most Pakistanis want the country to be a conservative Islamic State and oppose secularism and a Western way of life. In contrast, the liberal Pakistanis are oppose to an idea of a theocratic state and are increasingly worried about the growing extremism in the country.

One thing is for sure that Jinnah never wanted an intolerant Muslim country where people are murdered in the name of Islam and the minorities persecuted and killed mercilessly. The need of the hour is to first consider yourself a ‘Pakistani’ and then whatever your religion, ethnicity or caste is.

Before partition the Ulema were against the idea of creating Pakistan because they were afraid that it will be a secular country. But unfortunately, the Ulema have won against Jinnah by hijacking the state of Pakistan and turning it into a state that its secular founder never wanted.