Writer: Samra Athar Kakakhel
The founder and father of the nation of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was blindly respected and trusted by all, independent of citizens’ confidence, belief with statement of faith.
We have seen the advanced nation-states are not home to socially homogenized people but of shifted bunches that may be separated mostly on the grounds of religion, race, and language. Despite sharing common citizenship, the status and relationship between lion’s share and minority groups are not given and fixed but flexible and built.
In support of minorities, he, during his address to the first Constituent Assembly in 1947, stated that ;
“You are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed-that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”
Pakistan’s Structure allows flexibility of religion or conviction for minority groups. Pakistan is bound by various international settlements that watches the rights and devout liberty of minorities. Pakistan was the first nation within the world to reassure its minorities around their future rights by particularly distributing a parcel of the national flag — the white colour which traditionally represents purity and innocence — and which the minorities have kept so, over many decades. They have not allowed it to be contaminated or defiled by blood or any other stain.
Minorities in Pakistan may be identified on religious, gender, geographical, and cultural lines. From a gender perspective, women are viewed as underprivileged and marginalized due to their constrained role in political and financial spheres. The relationship between majority-minority groups is a complex phenomenon that needs to be understood in the specific cultural and historical context of Pakistan.
Within the battle for Pakistan, the minorities, particularly the Christians, played a vital part and cooperated completely with the Quaid. The Christian leaders tried to incorporate the full of Punjab into Pakistan. When it got to be inconceivable, they guaranteed that at least western Punjab got to be portion of Pakistan with all Christian leaders voting in support of Pakistan. After independence, the minorities contributed to form the nation solid and capable for example the Christians have played a unmistakable part within the outfitted strengths of Pakistan. The Pakistani Armed force features a list of more than 50 Christian officers and soldier martyrs, who sacrificed their lives to protect the respect of the country.
After 73 years of independence, the role of minorities is not generally known to a majority of their compatriots. Unfortunately, some anti-social and mean elements have been instrumental in occasionally perpetrating activities against members of minorities.
Historically, the Muslim League politics was aimed at ensuring constitutional guarantees for Muslim minorities vs Hindu majority on the Indian subcontinent. Muslim have always fear from the Hindu majority living under Hindu rule after the British withdrawal.
The differences with the Hindu majority, the idea of ‘two-nation theory’ that portrayed Hindu and Muslim as two different communities who could never live together .
Under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the politics of the Muslim League, which was based on communalism; exclusion of ‘Muslim self’ from ‘Hindu other’, which was a success. Being sensitive to Muslim minority experience on the Indian subcontinent, Jinnah, however, became a strong supporter of the rights of minorities in post-independence Pakistan.
The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah projected unity, justice, and equality for all communities in Pakistan.
Quaid seen majority and minority communities as equal citizens of Pakistan, as reflected within the green and white colours of the Pakistani flag, who need to be treated in a fair and fair-minded manner. He assist pointed out that ‘You may have a place to any religion or caste or ideology – that has nothing to do with the trade of the State … we are all citizens and rise to citizens of one State … in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would terminate to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, since that’s the personal faith of each person, but within the political sense as citizens of the State.’ It reflected that he set religion as a private or individual matter and encouraged that contrasts must not be lit up in the open or political circle. His thought of ‘Pakistani identity’, therefore, was comprehensive of all independent of any cast, race, or religion.
Quaid’s message of equality was incorporated in the constitution of Pakistan where he guuaranted the basic human rights. It provides that all communities have the freedom to practice their religion as well as they will be provided equal opportunities to progress and fair trial. Nevertheless, since Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, Muslim majority-bias withered away Quaid’s vision of fairness and justice. The majority community perspective may be observed in state identity as well as nation-building processes in Pakistan.
After Jinnah, the government of Pakistan Prime Serve Imran Khan has taken a positive and welcome activities and promised almost security of minorities and break even with equity to every citizen there are Certain improvements, for occurrence, the acquittal of Asia Bibi who was detained in an purportedly untrue obscenity case for nearly a decade, the authorization to enroll Christian marriage with an official certificate, invalidation of the marriage of a Hindu minor young lady, Mehik Kumari, who was stole and persuasively changed over to Islam to wed a Muslim, opening up of Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh religious ceremonies, may be seen positively.
In any case, in general state of religious flexibility remained under constant danger. The faith-based minorities faced discrimination , abuse of the anti-blasphemy law forced changes and upheld vanishings, amid 2020. The Yearly Report 2020 of Thinks about recorded faith-based minority violence where approximately 85 Shia Muslims (Muslim minority gather) and two Ahmadis were murdered, whereas one Christian was harmed.
The above situation is horrible, and it may link Pakistan quite negatively at the international level. The USA chosen Pakistan in the list of ‘Countries of Specific Concern’ (CPC) for disgusting violations of religious freedom under its International Religious Freedom Act. Due to such things states like Pakistan cannot take refuge under the umbrella of state power
In spite of the chances that the minorities face, still they love Pakistan and have kept on serve it in many different ways. the nation for which their ancestors rendered extreme penances amid autonomy development, contributed to its development in different sectors and continuously stood by within the country’s thick and lean. These are the clues that with way better instruction and introduction to the more extensive world, the green saplings of change are appearing in Pakistani society which can ought to be supported and continued, until they ended up compelling solid trees of toleration and comprehensiveness.
In Quaid’s Pakistan, all citizens must enjoy equal , a state activity of developing alternative talks of Pakistani personality based on equality.. This character must be total of all religions, races, casts, and ethnicities to develop a culture of resistance, pluralism, and democracy.
