Wednesday, 15 August 2012

Pakistan – Where Faith Always Matters


"We are a nation, with our distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitude and ambitions; in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life."
Such words can only come from a person who has absolute faith and sense of pride in their values and identity. The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah wrote these words to Mr. Gandhi in 1944, three years before the Independence of Pakistan. They say “Faith moves mountains” and the world observe how faith of Mr.Jinnah and the Muslims of India miraculously transformed the dream of Pakistan into reality. Mr. Jinnah took the pride in being a Muslim and having distinctive values needed to identify Indian Muslims as a separate nation, a nation which needed to be recognized independently.
Today, the Pakistani nation is celebrating their 65th Independence Day. Pakistan, a country with a population of 180 million and possessing nuclear arsenal, was once ridiculed by people when the idea of its creation was floated by its founding fathers. The creation of Pakistan was next to impossible given the circumstances of that time, weak political platform to fight for an independent state and above all, a strong opposition by majority Hindus in India. But the dream of Pakistan was realized only because of the ultimate faith of Indian Muslims who valued their identity more than anything else – religion being central to the identity and under the charismatic leadership of Quaid-e-Azam.
Drastic changes took place in Pakistan after the sad demise of Mr Jinnah in 1948, just a year after the creation of Pakistan. It was the time when Pakistan was systematically taken away from the vision of its founder and from his ideology based on equality and social justice for all the citizens of Pakistan. Mr Jinnah’s conception of Pakistan was badly damaged in the subsequent years with the introduction of institutionalized discrimination and persecution of minorities. Consequently, the rise of extremism and violence in the name of religion was inevitable. Today, Pakistan has a number of problems. Huge challenges of political instability, economic crisis, increasingly radicalized society, provisional disharmony, inter-faith and intra-faith tensions have contributed substantially to the unrest of the entire state’s functions. A Recent energy crisis poured oil on the burning crisis and disrupted the common man’s life, to a great extent.
However, it is absolutely amazing to see the passion and enthusiasm of young Pakistanis today on social media, who despite all the problems in their country mentioned above, still love Pakistan to a great deal. The youth that comprises more than 60 % of the total population in Pakistan (under the age of 35) is the real driving force for the positive social change in Pakistan. Today, they were loud and clear about their firm commitment and loyalty to their beloved country Pakistan and the trends of #HappyIndependenceDay #ILovePakistan were at the top on Twitter.
Some of the interesting comments included:
True Independence owes no dependence, no regrets n no repentance, its the essence of living hearts.#HappyIndependencePakistan

PAKISTAN-It needs the care, love, affection, dedication, devotion, sacrifices and hard work of its 180 million people in order to revive itself

#ILovePakistan because its history teaches us that in order to achieve something truly worthwhile you have to go through hardships

We may have political differences but the love for #Pakistan keeps us united #IndependenceDay #OnePakistan #ILovePakistan

#Pakistan is the name of honour , dignity & hospitability. Try the real Pakistanis, not the media -#PakistanZindabad #IlovePakistan

Time to renew our commitment : unity, faith and discipline. Long live #Pakistan!! #ilovepakistan 

This is just a snapshot of those hundreds of thousands of comments which I observed on my Twitter timeline.  They were emotionally charged and their words were announcing their unconditional love, motivation and affirmation to make Pakistan as envisioned by Quaid-e-Azam.
I see something common between these young people of Pakistan and Mr Jinnah and that something is their ‘faith’. Mr Jinnah fought and won the case of Pakistan because of his belief in the cause of having a separate independent state for the Indian Muslims. Today history seems to be repeating itself, when the youth of Pakistan is exhibiting the same sense of pride and belief in Pakistan’s bright and prosperous future. Behind all these folds of time, I see Mr Jinnah standing firm in front of giant opposition forces, saying this again with his unshakable faith …

"We are a nation, with our distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitude and ambitions; in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life."
Rehman Anwer

1 comment:

  1. That is true what you mentioned. The need of an independent nation rises due to having our own identity based on Islamic laws and regulations. I suggest you to Visit this site

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