Pakistanis Celebrate Their National Day
02 April 2018
By Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi
THE Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) recently organized a symposium in
Jeddah to celebrate Pakistan's National Day, the day when the leaders of All
India Muslim League (AIML) met in Lahore and adopted the Lahore Resolution,
which is also known as the Pakistan Resolution. This resolution stated that it
wouldn't be acceptable for the Muslims of the subcontinent anything other than
an independent state called Pakistan. Until that time, the Muslim League party
and its leaders were working for Hindu-Muslim unity in a single state and were
engaged in a joint struggle for securing independence from the British
colonial rule.
But the leaders of AIML came to the conclusion that it is not in the interests
of Muslims to replace the rule of the British by the rule of Hindus. In the
early years of his political career, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was one of the
proponents of Hindu-Muslim unity, and was also a staunch advocate of the
rights of minorities, especially the political rights of Muslims.
He quit the Congress party after realizing that the rights that the Muslims
were demanding had not received any proper attention and acceptance from the
Hindu leaders and hence he decided to join the Muslim League where he was
chosen as the leader of the party. At the Lahore Conference, Fazal-ul-Haque,
Bengal leader and prime minister of the province of Bengal, presented the
famous Pakistan Resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the leaders of
the party. They continued their struggle for the creation of a separate nation
for Muslims until the creation of state of Pakistan in 1947.
Several prominent leaders of the Pakistani community in Jeddah attended the
symposium, which began with a recitation of a few verses from the Holy Qur'an.
Some poems praising the Prophet (peace be upon him) were recited on the
occasion. There were also some other poems marking the great occasion and
commending the great efforts of those who worked for the creation of the State
of Pakistan. The population of the new state of Pakistan comprised of Muslims
from the Muslim majority regions of India as well as millions of others who
migrated from all parts of the subcontinent where they are a minority. They
migrated either to West Pakistan or to East Pakistan.
The speakers dealt with the history of the struggle and the sacrifices made in
order to secure a homeland for Muslims that protect them from the control of
Hindus and safeguard their rights. They also spoke about the Kashmir problem
and the great sacrifices that are being made by the people of Kashmir for
independence under the oppressive Indian rule. The speakers called on the
Pakistani government to exert all efforts, along with the United Nations and
the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to mount pressure on the Indian
government to implement international resolutions that guaranteed the Kashmiri
people their right to self-determination. They also called on the Pakistani
government to resolve the problem of Pakistanis who have been stranded in
Bangladesh since 1971 through effective measures for their repatriation and
rehabilitation in Pakistan.
In my speech, I thanked the organizers of the symposium for inviting me to
address this important occasion, which prompted me to go down memory lane to
the great struggle and sacrifices of the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent in
the first half of the 20th century, which culminated in the birth of Pakistan,
the largest Islamic country of that time. The decision taken by the leaders of
Muslim League at their Lahore session was decisive in the creation of a
separate nation for Muslims. This also stopped all attempts to keep Muslims
and Hindus together in one country despite the temptations offered by Mahatma
Gandhi to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, including the offer to be the
President of the Republic of India. But Jinnah rejected the offer and told him
that Muslims and Hindus are the two nations with differences in everything,
and as such they cannot live in one state.
I pointed out that Pakistan has faced the problem of Kashmir since its
creation. The partition was based on the two-nation theory under which Muslim
majority regions would be part of the new nation of Pakistan while the Hindu
majority regions would continue to remain part of India. On the basis of this
theory, Kashmir should have belonged to Pakistan. But the king of Kashmir
opted to join India. Consequently, India and Pakistan fought several wars over
Kashmir. The first war came to a halt after the intervention of the United
Nations. The UN adopted a number of resolutions, seeking to hold a plebiscite
for the self-determination of the Kashmiri people and asking India to abide by
those resolutions and end its occupation of Kashmir.
I also drew attention to the plight of the Pakistanis who have been stranded
in Bangladesh since the secession of East Pakistan. These hapless people are
languishing in their camps after having been driven out of their homes. They
have been deprived of even the basic amenities of life.
The promises made by the successive Pakistani governments with regard to their
repatriation and rehabilitation in Pakistan have not been honored. It was also
sad to note that the Pakistani officials are even reluctant to speak about
these people, who stood with the Pakistan army to maintain the unity of
Pakistan during the civil war in East Pakistan that resulted in the secession
and creation of the new state of Bangladesh. These people were keen on
maintaining their Pakistani identity and Urdu, the language of Pakistan.
I made a repeated appeal to the government of Pakistan to shoulder their
responsibility toward this people. I reminded the Pakistani officials that
their negligence in taking up of this issue would be, in a way, running away
from performing their responsibility. I suggested that the Pakistan government
would instruct its embassy in Dhaka to issue passports for the stranded
Pakistanis so as to lift the restrictions for their travel. Perhaps, this
would be a major step toward resolution of their problems.
I also asked the Pakistani government to disclose the current status of the
Rabita Endowment that was founded with the objective of solving the problem of
stranded Pakistanis. The Endowment was created under the chairmanship of the
then Pakistan President Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, and its members included several
prominent Saudi and Pakistani figures, such as Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz and
Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef, former secretary general of the Makkah-based Muslim
World League.
— Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast
Asian affairs. He can be reached at algham@hotmail.com
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