* Ayesha Jalal says Jinnah envisioned secular Pakistan
* Khalid Mehmood says India’s initial attitude laid foundation of sour relationship
Staff Report
LAHORE: A better understanding of the strategic perception of India-Pakistan ties is the key to the future of South Asia and the realisation of the dream of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, eminent historian Ayesha Jalal said on Friday.
She was addressing a seminar titled ‘Jinnah’s Vision of Pakistan and Relations with Neighbours’ at the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) head office on Friday. Former federal minister SM Masood, former ambassador Khalid Mehmood and Government College University faculty member Prof Tahir Kamran also spoke on the occasion.
Secular: Jalal said Jinnah had envisioned a secular Pakistan where all citizens had equal rights but later the governments subverted the ideals of the founder of the country. She said it was also a fact that Jinnah had tilted towards religion during his sixties, but the term secular is sometimes confused with atheism and there starts an argument whether Jinnah believed in religion or not.
She said Jinnah had the substance in his personality to unite the Hindus, Muslims and other religious communities of the subcontinent but he ended up adopting the option of partition.
She said Jinnah had once stated that India would have to shed its superiority complex and enter a number of treaties with Pakistan for the future of both the countries.
Speaking on the occasion, Masood said there was no greater champion of human rights and united India than Jinnah, but the Congress elite frequently sabotaged his campaign and forced him to demand a separate homeland for the Muslims of India.
He referred to three different speeches of Jinnah – his speech to the Constituent Assembly in 1947, to the Indian Constituent Assembly to defend Bhagat Singh right before his execution, and his speech at the inauguration of the State Bank – and said Jinnah was all for the equal rights for every citizen.
He said the seeds of extremism had done the maximum damage to Jinnah’s vision for Pakistan and the ongoing peace deal with India was sabotaged by another dictator in 1999 in the form of the Kargil War.
While addressing the seminar, Mehmood said Indians had created difficulties for Pakistan right from the beginning, and Jinnah had to urge them to shed their superiority complex.
Initial attitude: He said mistakes were made from both sides but India’s initial attitude towards Pakistan laid the foundation of a sour relationship between the two countries.
He said that both the countries should break the status quo and move to resolve conflict through composite dialogue. He said both the countries needed to overcome trust deficit.
Kamran said the propaganda launched by mullahs through biased textbooks and other methods had mutilated Jinnah’s vision.
The speakers stressed the need to revert Ziaul Haq’ jihadi ideology to the vision of Quaid-e-Azam.
Courtesy Daily Times
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