The New Pakistan Movement
A lawyer founded Pakistan in 1947. This lawyer worked over sixteen hours a day to create the second Madina hastening his death as the final price, and thereafter breathed his last for a Muslim homeland fashioned on the glorious principles of Islam. The Quaid’s Pakistan has not come about, today faith in Pakistan is divisive and not a unifying force whilst unity and discipline are both nonexistent. A Pakistan founded on truth and justice is still a pipe dream after sixty years but hope has finally arrived. An island of hope has risen from a sea of pessimism thanks to a new Pakistan movement taking birth today led by the lawyers movement and the Chief Justice Muhammed Ifthikhar Chaudhary.
Blood, sweat and tears were needed to create this land of the pure. Our great forefathers were slain and sacrificed during partition and died for a just cause. From those very charred and maimed corpses, Pakistan rose in all her glory. Yet such glory has escaped us thanks to our very own desi equivalent of an axis of evil comprising of rule by spineless and corrupt politicians, endless military rule, and a pliant judiciary. Sadly each has played the role of a mistress to the other and the resulting stench from their unholy alliance has bedevilled Pakistan since its birth.
Some have called it divine intervention and even our final chance to redeem ourselves, but few can doubt that since the 9th of March Pakistan is a different country having woken from her comatose state after a deep sleep with the Pakistani masses standing tall to say that enough is enough. The number nine is particularly significant in this respect and it seems like 9/11 that preceded it 9/3 will forever alter Pakistan too but we hope for the better this time. The masses are out to reclaim the land of the pure, they are saying with one voice loud and clear - good riddance to ‘Faujistan’. Like the revolution that took away the Shah of Iran with great aplomb, Pakistan is busy today in fashioning its new future albeit a few decades later revolution-style. In doing so the collective will of the nation is engaged in a principled struggle to break down a Berlin wall built by our military generals to stifle Pakistan and her progress. Having set ourselves free sixty years ago from the chains of Indian hegemony, Pakistan’s progress has been stifled since its inception at the hands of a strong military leadership intent on replacing one master with another. The army is not the target, on the contrary they are lauded by one and all, but the eminent commentator Ayaz Amir is only too right in stating that this struggle is ‘about the nation’s future, what is our destiny, is it the worshipping of false gods or a republic based upon law as our founding fathers intended?
Aitzaz Ahsan or ‘Aitraaz’ as my father fondly calls him owing to his capacity to raise an argument within seconds is right in saying that the people of Pakistan have crossed the rubicon thanks to an awaami movement of the masses ably led by the lawyers movement to reclaim the Pakistan envisaged by our legal founders. His esteemed colleague Muneer A. Malik is also correct in saying that ‘our struggle is about the independence of the judiciary and the preservation of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. These are not arcane legal issues to be dryly debated in close courtrooms. They are issues that affect the lives of every single Pakistani. Every citizen has the right to expect that he will live his life in a system based on the rule of law and the arbitrary whims of a military dictator’.
To conclude do remember that the new Pakistan movement is fighting for a noble cause and there is light at the end of the tunnel (please don’t tell WAPDA otherwise off it goes!) should we remain steadfast and loyal to the vision of the Quaid. Far more eloquent and experienced commentators than I have cautioned against raising our hopes unduly but I disagree for I echo the Quaid’s optimism who said of his people ‘I have full faith in my people that they will rise to every occasion worthy of our past Islamic history, glory and tradition’. So my advice is simple; move forward Pakistan and build the Quaid’s Pakistan keeping in mind always the Quaid’s message on our first anniversary that ‘ nature has given you everything; you have got unlimited resources. the foundations of your state have been laid, and it is for you now to build, and build as quickly and as well as you can, so go ahead and I wish you God Speed’. So let us build the Quaid’s Pakistan and fast for we have sixty years to make up.
- Originally posted on 24 June 2007, 19.25 PK Time