Pakistan’s
Population
By Col. Riaz Jafri
(Retd)
Westridge, Rawalpindi
Believe
it or not there were 77 political parties that
were allotted election symbols to contest the
2002 general elections. By now their number has
increased to 93. According to SDPI website, there
are over 90 fringe political parties cherishing
religious and nationalist ethos and less than
a dozen mainstream political parties struggling
for breathing space to survive.
Now the leaders of each one of these political
parties never get tired of making the fantastic
claim over the media day in and day out of having
the full support of the 160 million people of
Pakistan. If we take the round figure of 90 political
parties that will make Pakistan the largest country
in the world with a staggering population of 90x160
million, that is 14 billion and 400 million people.
Wow!!
***
Quaid’s Motto
A controversy of the sorts is going on in the
daily ‘The News’ regarding Quaid’s
motto – its order of sequence and its Urdu
translation. Mr. Wasim Akhtar (NewsPost 3rd Sept.
2007) considers the translation of ‘Faith”
as ‘Yaqeen and/or Yaqeen i Muhkam”
incorrect and thinks it to be ‘Eeman”.
This confusion has arisen in the mind of the post-partition
generation – which incidentally makes up
more than 95 percent of the present Pakistanis
– due to corrupting the history by our so-called
Islamist intellectuals.
The gullible younger lot is being fed on such
history in the name of Islam. We, the older generation
know that it was Unity, Faith and Discipline and
its Urdu rendering used to be Ittehad, Yaqeen
(later Yaqeen-e-Muhkam - illustrated by Liaqat
Ali Khan brandishing his clenched fist in 1951
when the Indians amassed their troops for the
first time on our borders) and Nazm – Discipline
– which at times was/is incorrectly translated
Tanzeem, which means organization. Somehow Yaqeen
or Yaqeen-e-Muhkam has been changed into Eeman
– by the Islam pasand leaders. I distinctly
remember Quaid in 1946 explaining his motto to
a student delegation and define Faith by advising
them to ”Have Faith in yourselves. Have
Faith in your destiny – Pakistan. And have
Faith in Allah”. Where does Eeman come into
it? Let’s not forget that Quaid’s
motto is for the entire Pakistani nation which
also comprises Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsees,
Zoroastrians, and even the Jews – though
very few. Aren’t we confining the motto
to the Muslims only by introducing Eeman into
it, or is it not meant for the other communities
living in Pakistan? The Islamisation of 'Faith'
of Quaid's motto was started – along with
many other similar steps - after the passing of
the ‘Objectives Resolution’ at the
behest of the mullahs. Later Zia completed the
tally. And now we seem to be stuck with it - in
the name of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan –
which name was not given to the new born dominion
on the night of 14/15 August 1947 by its then
Constituent Assembly.
By changing Yaqeen into Eeman aren’t we
keeping the minorities of Pakistan out of the
ambit of the Quaid’s motto? Was this motto
not meant for them? Or was it only for the Muslims
of Pakistan?
It is, therefore, the national and moral duty
of the few living elders and the various factions
of the Muslim League, each one of which claims
to be the true heirs of the Quaid’s Muslim
League, to correct the situation. I request them
to come forward in the print and electronic media
to do so
Please do not alter the history so soon. There
are still a few grey haired eye-witnesses around
to the original motto.
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