A New Freedom Movement
By Dr Ismat Kamal
CA

 

(The following article was first published in the Pakistan Link on April 26, 1996. It gives the background of Imran Khan’s entry into politics. Lamentably, the background today is still precisely the same. ‘Plunder and loot by turn’ has continued unabated. Imran Khan’s path is strewn with obstacles of Herculean proportion but his resolve and perseverance, backed by unflagging public support, kindle hope of bearing fruit.)

“Imran Khan is expected to launch a

movement for political and social reforms

very shortly.”

— News item

At the first Round Table Conference in London between the leaders of India and their British rulers (November 1930–January 1931) the ailing Maulana Muhammad Ali, undivided India’s valiant freedom fighter, had declared to the British rulers:

“The Mission on which I am here today is that, when I return to my motherland, the document of freedom should be in my hands. I will not go back to an enslaved country. I am prepared to face my death as an exile in an alien land which enjoys the privilege of freedom. If you do not grant freedom to my motherland, you will have to grant me the place for a grave in your land.”

The imperial power did not grant freedom to India at the Round Table Conference. Maulana Muhammad Ali died during his trip, on 21st February 1931, and was buried in the holy city of Jerusalem. India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947, but the freedom for which Maulana Muhammad Ali and other patriots gave their lives, never came. The white sahibs were replaced by brown sahibs, and it was business as usual.

The sardars, jagirdars, makhdooms (literal translation: master, employer, one who is served) and waderas, who had been allowed to treat their tenants like dirt as long as they remained loyal to the King Emperor, were left untouched. The lot of the haris (peasants) remains as dismal as before. In the words of an Urdu poet of the forties, “Numberdaar charhey chhati par gaali

dey nit patwaari” (the numberdaars and patwaaris (village state officials) overpower us and abuse us day and night). Child labor continues unabated, not only in the factories of Sargodha and Multan, but also in the houses of the rich in Islamabad and Karachi. Education remains the privilege of the few, corruption and nepotism rule the land, and law and order has been thrown to the winds.

It is in this context that the foray of Imran Khan into active politics comes like a breath of fresh air. When Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar referred to the “privileges of freedom” enjoyed by the citizens of the foreign land, he was talking about the freedom of the man on the street to go about in peace and security, protection of his right to speedy justice, and freedom for him to advance in life on the basis of merit and merit alone. On Independence Day, 1947, the poet Israrul Haq Majaz had said:

“Yeh aaftaab kaparto hai, aaftaab nahin

Yeh inqilaab ka muzhda hai inqilaab nahin”

(This is the image of the sun, it is not the sun itself; these are the tidings of change, this is not change itself.)

More than half a century has gone by and, as far as the lot of the common man is concerned, we still have to say, “What change?”

If there was a change, it was a change for the worse, as a Punjabi poet has said:

“Aazaadiaan hathon barbaad

yaaro huey, tusi vi huey, asi vi aan;

Lutan waaliaansahnu bara lutya,

soey tusi vi, soey asi vi aan;

Laali akhaan di pai dasdi ay

Roey tusi aur roey asi vi aan”

 

(In the name of freedom we were destroyed, friends!

You were destroyed, and we were destroyed;

The looters looted us to the hilt –

you were sleeping, and we were sleeping;

The redness of our eyes tells us that you have been crying,

and we have been crying.)

Imran Khan will have his job cut out for him. Politics has become a business of “staking and making money”, as Imran has rightly pointed out. The people are tired of the “plunder and loot by turn”, perpetuated by the two major political parties of the country, which has repeatedly brought it to the brink of economic ruin and/or civil commotion, necessitating military intervention or presidential action. The problems of the country are manifold.

Godspeed and all strength to Imran Khan in his mission. As a cricket captain he knows that unless a team is selected on pure merit, it will remain a third-rate team, and the country it represents will become a third-rate country. He is playing on a sticky wicket and needs the support of all those who love Pakistan.

“Ek aik museebat zaadi ko jab tak na bana dein shahzadi-

Ai dost abhi aaraam na kar, ai Khaamsha’oor-e-aazaadi”

 

(U ntil we turn every victim of oppression into a princess --

Don’t rest, dear friend, the mission of freedom is still unfulfilled.)