Forgotten values

On December 25, we celebrate the birth of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who was the liberator of our nation, but portray no signs of loyalty to the values he ordained. In the opening lines of his famous book “Jinnah of Pakistan”, Stanley Wolpert wrote: “Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.”

Unity, faith and discipline were the golden values that Jinnah gave us, and the creation of Pakistan proved what these values deliver – extracting justice even from a hostile environment. In today’s world too, we need to be more united and disciplined, with unflinching faith in ourselves as a nation.

Jinnah wanted Pakistanis to show the world what unity meant – belief in the comity of human beings irrespective of their racial origins, religious beliefs, languages, cultures and traditions, and making responsibility-specific merit the only feature that distinguishes human beings. Jinnah abhorred the idea of favouring relatives on the basis of family connections; there were occasions when he even refused to meet his relatives, including his only daughter. He wanted state officeholders to recognize and respect merit – a civilised human and Islamic value.

‘Unity’ – the core value enunciated by the Jinnah – now resides in the books of history; in practice, it finds no expression. The rising number of religious and ethnic political parties manifests a refusal to imbibe the concept of ‘one-nation’ – the single biggest failure of Pakistanis as a whole.

Today, we pride ourselves in being Sindhi, Punjabi, Seraiki, Baloch, Pashtun, Mohajir, Shia, Sunni, Ahmedi, etc., not Pakistanis. This continuing malaise was fuelled by state-created inequalities on ethnic bases that began developing in the early days of Pakistan. What sustains this evil is a profile of democracy that empowers the Rajas, Nawabs, Khan Bahadurs, Sardars and Chaudhrys. Suffering from eternal political short-sightedness, this lot with small, indecent, self-serving ambitions has reverted to its pre-partition culture of cronyism.

This lot sidelined social equality, economic justice, and merit in assigning state offices to visionary individuals who denied East Pakistan its fair share in national resources, especially in the proceeds of jute exports-the crop that was then the only commodity exported in a sizeable quantity.

Wholly unfairly, bulk of the export proceeds was used to build an industrial base in West Pakistan. What worsened the scenario was that, despite forming 56% of Pakistan’s population, East Pakistanis were forced to agree to being counted as 50% of the population, courtesy the ‘parity’ principle.

How this gross injustice bore fruit, was proved by the events of 1971. Within 17 years of its birth, Pakistan was reduced to half its size; the other half opted to become Bangladesh – an independent state. In the process, Pakistan also suffered its most humiliating military defeat.

Over time, economic disparities kept escalating because the leadership remained focused on serving vested (ethnic) interests. It was a process wherein the unwitting middle class had its share; assuming that ‘the decent’ were obliged to quietly shun the corrupt, was a blunder on its part. The middle class didn’t realize that, in effect, it was helping the corrupt. Now it has lost its faith in Pakistan, and is opting to migrate to foreign lands; this escapist tendency proves its refusal to accept its share of responsibility and assert its huge weight in correcting the course of history.

The present government is fuelling a suicidal tendency by legislating what it calls ‘devolution’ of power to the provinces, and its commitment to create more provinces on linguistic and ethnic bases. How it will serve to induce unity in the nation is gradually unfolding.

Indeed re-organising the administrative capacity of the state is imperative in view of the worrisome rise in population, but should this effort be based on ethnicity, or on administrative logic? As for the ‘devolution’ achieved so far, the common view is that it has been a failure because it was illogical.

Devolution could deliver only if the federation made requisite preparations – transferred one federally administered department at a time, reorganise it to help it deliver better, and then monitor its performance to ensure its success, and of the others to follow. The pre-condition there for was to prepare provincial administrations for conscientious and optimal use of their new authority, but because devolution was implemented without this preparation, it empowered those who were un-prepared for delivering on their new responsibilities.

Despite devolution’s failure, the regime is hell bent on continuing it; not only that, creating more provinces. This aspect of the regime’s initiative strengthens the view that the idea is not to assure better governance, but to destabilise the state by fuelling ethnicity.

The popularity-driven devolution too couldn’t strengthen politicians’ credibility. In contrast, people had total faith in Jinnah’s integrity. Even though they often couldn’t understand his speeches delivered in English, they always believed that whatever he was saying as “the truth”.

Even Lord Mount Batten admitted that, while one could differ with Jinnah, even his committed adversaries admired his impeccable integrity. Only a responsibility conscious Jinnah could find Rs 18 worth of expenses on a cabinet meeting excessive for a poor Pakistan to pay.

In spite of leading a freedom movement all across India he was never prosecuted for breaking the law because he observed discipline. On August 7, 1947 as he stepped out of his aircraft on Mauripur airport, the crowd got emotional. All he did was to wave his walking stick and the crowd virtually froze.

Today, however, what distinguishes us is indiscipline. Public demonstrations are now manifestations of power, and cause destruction. People are expected to support the demonstrators’ cause not for its merits, but for fear of the demonstrators’ destructive abilities.

Massive resource shortfall of every variety, sliding economic growth, pervasive corruption, government’s and citizens’ defiance of the law, and violence on the streets, have made Pakistan a high-risk country that is also close to bankruptcy. Isn’t it a tragedy that we have sidelined Jinnah’s values? Aren’t these the values that elevate nations to the highest pedestal and make the world respect them? It is time we recognised this big failure, and launched a nation-wide movement to revive Jinnah’s philosophy.

Pakistan confronts a variety of threats and challenges to its existence but, undeniably, it also has the potential to overcome them. To do so, we must adopt and assertively practice Jinnah’s golden principles – unity, faith and discipline – the legacy he left behind for us.