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
|
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
