Adil Najam
Ordinarily, I might have just posted this photograph below as a comment on yesterday’s post on Diwali celebrations in Karachi (also here). But please, just look at the people in this photograph; its way too interesting to be relegated to a comments section.
The occasion is a Diwali celebration at the Islamabad Headquarters of the Pakistan Muslim League, standing (and clapping) extreme left is Syed Mushahid Hussain, Secretary General of the Pakistan Muslim League, next to him is Ijaz ul Haq (Minister of Religious Affairs, and son of Gen. Zia ul Haq), fourth from left is Tariq Azim, State Minister for Information.
The Daily Times (31 October, 2006) provides more details of the event:
Members of the Hindu community from across the country participated in the event where they performed their religious rituals and traditional dances in candlelight to mark the event… A number of office bearers of the party and ministers, including PML Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Syed, Minister for Religious Affairs Ijaz-ul-Haq, State Minister for Information Tariq Azim, Minister for Minorities Affairs Mushtaq Victor and members of the National Assembly (MNAs) Bindara, Donia Aziz, Akram Masih Gill and others were present on the occasion. Officials of the Indian High Commission also participated in the event.
Hussain said that Quaid-e-Azam had envisioned a Pakistan where all the religious minorities enjoyed equal rights. He underlined the importance of inter-faith harmony for the greater prosperity of the nation and announced that the PML would also celebrate the birthday of Baba Gurunanak next week. He said that the minorities played a vital role in building any nation. He said that the present government was allocating high importance to giving all minorities’ equal. Hindus are playing a leading role in country’s economic development and the present government will leave no stone unturned to ensure their safety and well being, he added.
This is, of course, a political gesture – some might even say a gimmick. But if so, let us have more such gestures and gimmicks. They will, in time, hopefully help change our perceptions and treatment of religious minorities in Pakistan.
Sridhar mian,
Excellent suggestions- except Rafiq Zakaria’s book which was thrashed internationally (by people like Patrick French and Najam Sethi) for being extremely one sided and agenda driven.
Greetings from India. I wish we can all and everywhere respect each other. thanks for this website.
A correction. The compilation of speeches and statements of Jinnah that I read was not edited by Shahid Javed Burki, but by S.M.Burke.
The exact citation is
“Jinnah: speeches and statements – 1947-48”, ed. S. M. Burke, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2000.
I would recommend it to those who have not read it.
BTW, I just came across a brand new biography of Jinnah’s by Ian Bryant Wells. It is titled Jinnah. I have not read it yet, though I borrowed it from the library yesterday. I have only skimmed through the introduction, which seems to make the case that previous biographies have tended to focus on the period after 1934. By contrast, this biography focuses on the period before that. It seems to be take a position sympathetic to Jinnah. It was published in India (Seagull Books, Calcutta) in 2006.
Miriam:
Thanks – I have read both these books. I would suggest, that for completeness, you look at the following books too.
1. The Man who divided India, by Rafiq Zakaria
2. India Wins Freedom, by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
3. The Great Divide, by H.V. Hodson
What is somewhat different about these books is that they have been written with a contemporary view of events, even if they were written later. The authors were either participants in or close observers of the events they wrote about and hence did not have to depend on British intelligence reports or guesses/conjecture.
Lastly, there is nothing like understanding a historical personality through his/her own works. Jinnah was quite reticent in expressing his thoughts unlike some other leaders of his time, but there is still a considerable amount of his works – speeches in the Central Legislative Assembly in earlier years, speeches at public meetings and finally his speeches as GG of Pakistan. Of course, these suffer from the fact that they reveal the public personality without necessarily revealing his inner thoughts , but they are useful nevertheless. I have not read all his collected works, but have read every speech of his from 1947 onwards (I don’t remember the name of the compilation I read but remember that Shahid Javed Burki edited it). I would recommend this compilation to others too.