Quaid’s envisaged nation; are we the one?
‘We are now all Pakistanis, not Balochis, Pathans, Sindhis, Bengalis, Punjabis and so on and as Pakistanis we must feel, behave and act, and we should be proud to be known as Pakistanis and nothing else’
March 23,1940. Muslims from the whole subcontinent gather at Minto Park just to hear their leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He, the founder of Pakistan stands up and his words resonate the whole park that we as a nation are different from Hindus, hence we want all Muslim majority states to be amalgamated and make a country for Muslims where the rights for minorities would be protected. The idea of M.A. Jinnah was the voice of Muslims who were languishing under the yoke of imperialism and Hidutva ideology. This historic moment was a stepping stone towards the birth of Pakistan. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was at that moment foreseeing a nation who would become the epitome of integration.
Today, to the utter despair, we stand divided into the provincial lines. Instead of bolstering the country we have developed a penchant to promote our province. Individualistic approach is preponderant and we don’t put the national interest first. Baloch people feel alienated and instead to lending an empathetic ear to them we straight away ignore or trivialize their problems. Whatever the conundrums people of rural Sindh face, we shut our eyes on to their problems. People from war-torn areas migrate to developed cities and people of those cities just disregard them, and show their xenophobic tendencies. We have demonized the people of rural areas and don’t even realize that all the food we are eating grows just because of their onerous labor. We, as a nation, stand disintegrated on provincial lines and are stuck in a vicious cycle of proving that which province is supreme. We completely ignore the fact that Quaid kept on reiterating, ‘We are now all Pakistanis, not Balochis, Pathans, Sindhis, Bengalis, Punjabis and so on and as Pakistanis we must feel, behave and act, and we should be proud to be known as Pakistanis and nothing else.’
In addendum to this, the preamble to struggling for a separate land was the two-nation theory, i.e. we, Muslims, are different in cultural and religious practices from Hindus ergo we must have a separate homeland. But here we stand imitating other countries and adopting their culture. We are in oblivion that all this is leading to nothing but an identity crisis. We have lost our culture somewhere. The poignancy of not having a culture keeps on hitting the thinkers of Pakistan that people don’t want to fathom their own culture. Every other person is trying to emulate the western dressing and trends. There is no harm in it, but devaluing your own culture is not a safe bet. By the same vein, any serial from another country will be shown on our TV screens and we will start imitating its character recklessly. We don’t stop here, but we go to an extreme end copying the trends, culture, and characters that we forget who we really are. We, Pakistanis, have a distinguished culture which makes our own identity- much coveted one.
Moreover, reverberating anti-state slogans just because of political differences is the worst thing a nation can think of doing. Quaid said that there is no power on earth that can undo Pakistan. But here we stand trying to cut our land into pieces. The political difference can be puzzled out, but a blow to the nation’s foundation is irreversible. It is startling to witness that people opt for a herd-like approach and blindly follow what their party leader says. We don’t give two hoots to Quaid’s teachings but religiously follow the order of political leaders. A threat that a group will just stand up and fill the roads with anti-state slogans is always looming large. Clearly we are not the nation that Quaid envisaged.
The status quo that Pakistanis depict explicitly tells that we are not a nation but just walking corpses. We don’t even grasp the notion that what is it to be a nation. How can we even consider the fact of progress when our own house is not in the order? The religion that was the main cause behind getting a separate nation tells us that every follower is equal except the one with piety. But we stand segregated on language, ethnicity, and class. We don’t even consider to grasping the religion’s rope firmly and let it act as a binding force. We as a nation are religious lacking religiosity. Killing in the name of honor and forced conversions are the order of the day on this beautiful land of pure. We, Pakistanis, are responsible for the state of affairs.
What is the solution to all this? Panacea lies in the problem itself. There is no need to change Pakistan, but the obligation is on our shoulders to change ourselves. We must proudly adopt our culture and show it to the whole world. The world is a global village, but there are always different identities in a village. We need to identify our identity and stand out from all others. The media has a mammoth onus in all this scenarios. The media acts as an opinion maker, so no one can integrate Pakistan but them. Media has the immense power to ameliorate faulty lines by educating people. And education is the key to all the problems. With awareness comes the change, and it is the need of this hour. By the same vein, the state must also act in the favor of Pakistan but not for the vested interest. There is no big power that can stand in the line of the state as a stumbling block, but the state can eradicate all the disintegration ideas and slogans from the society. The state must stimulate all its resources in homogenizing all the provinces to nurture the idea that we are Pakistanis. This is high time to set our own house in order, so the way can be paved for progress. Lastly, we need to realize; under the shadow of this flag, we are one.