Adil Najam, Owais Mughal, Darwaish, Asma Mirza

In this, the final post in our series on Pakistan Day 2009, we want to look towards the future. Not on what the source of our concerns are, but on the source of our hopes.

The spirit of this post, as you will see, is best expressed in the great song by Mehdi Hasan – Yeh Watan tumhara Hai. We have written about this song before, but as Khan Sahib struggles for his life in a Karachi hospital today, this March 23rd is a good day to remember his song and remember him in all our prayers.

Each of the four editors of this blog asked ourselves the same question that we ask you: “On this Pakistan Day, what gives you hope for Pakistan’s future?”

Adil Najam

Pakistan Day is a day of celebration. But it is also a day of reflection on what we have been through and what lies ahead of us.

In this, the second in our series of special posts to mark Pakistan Day 2009, we want to focus on what lies ahead in terms of the biggest threats to Pakistan’s future. In the next post in this series we intend to focus more on the opportunities.

It is an understatement to say that Pakistan is floating through an especially precarious time in its precarious history. Indeed, Pakistan is passing through a defining time.

There is no dearth of threats facing Pakistan. But in this special ATP Poll for Pakistan Day we would like you to think ahead and respond to the question: “What, in your opinion, is the single biggest and most important threat facing Pakistan?” THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED.

Darwaish

(This is the first in a series of special posts to celebrate Pakistan Day 2009.)

More than 61 years have passed since the death of founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. But even today, nothing about Jinnah seems ordinary —not his legal career, politics, personal life, his legacy and even the property he left behind.

The great South Asian intellectual Eqbal Ahmed once described Jinnah as an enigma of modern history. His aristocratic English lifestyle, Victorian manners, and secular outlook rendered him a most unlikely leader of India’s Muslims. Yet, he led them to separate statehood, creating history, and in Saad R. Khairi’s apt phrase, “altering geography”.

Much has been written about Jinnah’s legal career, politics, his role as a founder of Pakistan and his vision, but even today, very little is known about Jinnah’s personal life. This was probably because Jinnah never had time to write a diary or an autobiography and whatever little he wrote was formal and matter of fact.