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Although the Pakistan day is being celebrated every year on March 23, yet this time, this very day has come at a time when Pakistan stands at the crossroads of its destiny, facing internal and external challenges and threats to the national security of the country, which demands selfless national unity among all the segments of society.
The 23rd of March 1940 was a watershed in the history of the Sub Continent when All India Muslim League passed the Resolution in Lahore for the creation of an independent state. Now, it is popularly called as Pakistan Resolution. Earlier, in his address to the Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930, the idea of a homeland for Muslims in their majority areas had been envisioned by the poet Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal and had become the aspiration of Indian Muslims.
In fact, the British colonialists in connivance with majority Hindu population had manipulated and targeted Muslims through every possible way. In that background, Muslims started the struggle for a separate state.
Prior to the Lahore session of Muslim League, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had specified to this historical congregation of the Muslims, the watch-words of ‘Faith, Unity and Discipline’ which were not only necessary for waging the battle for an independent homeland, but also for present Pakistan. So, while struggling against the enemies, the essence of these watch-words is the unity which is the real spirit of the Pakistan Resolution.
However, it was due to the selfless practical unity among the Muslims under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam that Pakistan became a tangible reality. But that unity started declining after passing through various crises, and the result was the separation of East Pakistan in 1971, as the India manipulated differences between East Pakistan and the West Pakistan.
However, the 23rd March which is celebrating by every Pakistani as the Pakistan Day, has come at a time when Pakistan is facing multiple threats of grave nature, which are not only worrying all the citizens but are also creating division between the rulers and the opposition parties including rival politicians, taking the country towards anarchy.
The Pakistan Day has come at a time when Pakistan’s security forces have been facing a different war, while the enemy is also different, which employs subversive activities of various kinds which also include internal and external challenges. In these terms, Pakistan is in the state of new war, being waged by the Armed Forces and intelligence agencies against terrorists. In this respect, our Armed Forces have almost obtained their objectives in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) through military operation Zarb-e-Azb against the terrorists who had challenged the writ of the state and had frightened the entire nation by their terror acts. In Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Karachi and other parts of the country including tribal areas our security forces and law-enforcing agencies have broken the terror networks and restored peace by eliminating and capturing terrorists. Unlike the past, peace has, especially, been restored in Balochistan and Karachi.
Besides, Pakistan launched a nationwide military operation codenamed Radd-ul-Fasaad earlier this year, which includes broad-spectrum security and counter-terrorism operations in Punjab and other cities of the country, while continuing the ongoing operations. The move came after a series of deadly bombings across the country all through February, which killed hundreds of civilians.
According to various news releases of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan’s security and law enforcement agencies have killed and arrested more than 600 suspects, terrorists and their facilitators, including capture of huge cache of arms and ammunition in a crackdown across the country, especially Punjab as part of the ongoing Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad. The ISPR disclosed that some suspected terrorists were killed during an exchange of fire with security personnel. It said some Afghan nationals and RAW agents were among the arrested suspects.
Nevertheless, during this very day, it is also of particular attention that since the government of the Balochistan province announced general pardon and protection to the Baloch militants as part of the reconciliation process, many insurgents and their leaders have surrendered their arms and decided to work for the development of Pakistan and the province. However, civil, federal and provincial governments are making strenuous efforts to restore complete peace and order in the province. For this purpose, a paramilitary committee has also been formed by the ruling party to hold negotiations with the disgruntled elements. And the former Chief of Army Staff Gen. Raheel Sharif also supports political settlement—general pardon to the insurgents in Balochistan, so that, development works including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which would bring unlimited benefits to the province and its people must be completed. Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa continues the same policy.
Unfortunately, it is because of lack of solidarity among our politicians, leaders, and media that foreign opportunists have been manipulating the chaotic situation of Pakistan in order to fulfill their secret agenda by destabilizing the country which is the only nuclear country in the Islamic World. In the past few years, nefarious designs of some foreign secret agencies like Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad which have tactical support of American CIA can be gauged from a number of anti-Pakistan developments such as their support to insurgency in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, separatism in Balochistan and targeted killings especially in Karachi coupled with subversive acts all over the country.
Pakistan which has become a special arena of this different war and has faced terror activities such as suicide attacks, bomb blasts, targeted killings, ruthless beheadings of the innocent people, assaults on security personnel and prominent religious figures. Besides blowing children schools and attacking the female teachers in order to deny education to girls, the terrorists, particularly of the Afghan-based Indian-backed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also targeted mosques, Imambargahs, mausoleums, temples, Churches and disgraced dead bodies. Their pitiless acts resulted into killings of several persons in Pakistan. Although terror attacks have been reduced, yet RAW, CIA, and Mossad which are based in Afghanistan and are in connivance with the terror outfits like TTP, Daesh and other similar militant groups—their affiliated outfits have again started these acts of sabotage in Pakistan.
And it is also due to lack of national unity that Pakistan is also facing multi-faceted crises such as load shedding of gas and electricity, soaring prices, unemployment, crimes, lack of health facilities, and dependence upon the US-led developed countries, IMF and World Bank for financial aid.
Externally, Pak Army and Rangers are, boldly, responding to India’s unprovoked firing at the Line of Control in Kashmir including Working Boundary in Sialkot and other sectors. While the fundamentalist party BJP led by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is implementing anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan agenda. In this context, BJP leader Dr. Subramaniam Swamy, a staunch promoter of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) stated on July 12, 2014, that India needed only two years to defeat Pakistan militarily, and the only solution of Kashmir was war, as “there is no peaceful, democratic solution.
Meanwhile, in response to the new Indian Army Chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat’s statement of January 3, 2017 about the so-called “surgical strikes” in Pakistani side of Kashmir, Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa on January 5, 2016 rejected claims by his Indian counterpart Gen. Bipin Rawat about “so-called surgical strikes” and their possible recurrence. Gen. Qamar Bajwa made it clear that “Pakistan Armed Forces were fully geared to respond to any aggression by India.”
As regards the unity, no doubt, it was displayed among all segments of society, after the TTP massacred 132 school children at Army Public School and College in Peshawar on December 16, 2014—as the situation warranted bold and firm decisions to deal the menace of terrorism, especially the threat of the TTP and its banned affiliated groups which are still conducting subversive activities in Pakistan. In this regard, the government, encouraged by the resolve of public opinion responded prudently and lifted the moratorium on death penalty awarded to the criminals according to law. Taking note of the delicate moment, on January 2, 2015, political and military leaders agreed on a draft of legislative measures which paved the way for the establishment of special military trial courts. It was unanimously agreed that the 20 points (National Action Plan) enunciated in the All Parties Conference (APC) Resolution of December 24, 2014, shall be acted upon expeditiously—the bill as 22nd (Constitutional) Amendment has been enforced soon after its approval from the parliament. Now, special military courts have been established and the ruthless terrorists facing death penalty are rapidly being hanged. In this context, National Action plan must also be fully implemented to defeat the terrorists.
In fact, it is a war of every patriot Pakistani against terrorists, as the enemy is different, and it cannot leave the security forces alone to wage this different conflict of history. In this context, Pakistan Day demands the cooperation of every citizen, politician, and religious leader with the security forces and agencies to defeat these merciless terrorists.
While emphasizing national unity against terrorists, the former Army Chief and the present one Gen. Bajwa has stated the We will continue to go after the inhuman beasts, their facilitators till their final elimination.
Taking cognizance of the present critical situation, Pakistan Day demands selfless national unity which must be shown practically. This significant day demands that our political leaders must pledge that they will not manipulate their regional and provincial differences at the cost of the national interests so as to grab political power. In this connection, a blind dedication to one’s own race, tribe and creed should not be allowed to create hatred in one group against the other. They must avoid exploiting the ongoing thorny issues in order to increase their vote bank at the cost of the integration of the country. If any controversy arises, it can better be settled in consonance with the constitution. For this aim, in order to castigate the conspiracy of the external enemies against the integrity of the country, some of our political leaders, media houses and human rights groups must also stop manipulating any crisis against Pak Army and country’s primary secret agency, ISI whose image are deliberately being tarnished by the external plotters.
True and selfless unity against the foreign enemies requires that our rulers and leaders of other political parties and must create national cohesion among various segments of society. Particularly, our electronic media should give a matching response to the malicious propaganda of the US-led some western countries including India and Israel which are distorting the image of Pakistan, its army, and ISI.
Especially, on this very day, media must also project a soft image of Pakistan by highlighting national heroes and tourism sights of the county.
Nonetheless, at this crucial time, Pakistan’s survival lies in selfless national unity and strong cohesion as at present, even a layman can note that our country is in chaos and it seems as if there is a “war of all against all” in the sense of ‘Hobbesian state of nature.”
On the occasion of Pakistan Day, we must follow the essence of the Pakistan Resolution in real terms by displaying selfless unity in practical terms, which is not possible unless the government, the opposition leaders, civil societies and media owners including all other segments of society pledge to sign a charter of integration which is very necessary to pull the country out of the ongoing serious crises and threats.
Posted by admin in Allama Dr.Muhammad Iqbal, Art & Culture, Poet Laureate Pakistan, Poetry in Pakistani Languages on December 5th, 2014
By
Positive Pakistan
November 09, 2014
Dr. Mohammad Iqbal is regarded as the most influential poet and scholar of the 20th century with revolutionary poetry and burning desire to move into the modern world with his belief and faith intact. Among many religious scholars at the time who prefer the status quo in Islamic teachings, it was Iqbal who showed Muslims the way to modern world in light of Islamic teachings. For that Iqbal had to face the wrath of ‘Mullahs’. He was declared an infidel for his poetry and philosophy for integrating Islam into the modern world or vice versa. Though Iqbal was born in 20th century, his philosophy and thoughts were ahead of his times. Not only that few philosopher at the time were able to interpret and understand his message to people, his very own people, Muslims, at large were unable to comprehend and failed to decipher his message. Actual recipient of Iqbal’s message have miserably failed so far to carry the torch and wisdom conveyed in Iqbal’s philosophy. Iqbal and Islam are inseparable as it should be for a practicing Muslim. To understand Iqbal, one has to take a peak of the world history and contributions of Islam to modern world. Iqbal opened his eyes in the subcontinent at a time when after ruling more than one thousand years, Ottoman Empire was on the decline and taking its last breathe of existence. Muslims, all over the world were suffering chaos, mental decline and latency. International political scene was changing at a speed that literally had spun the mind of Muslims intellectuals. On the technology front Muslims were aloof to the advancements in science and engineering while West was celebrating the ‘theory of relativity’ by Albert Einstein which is a proof in itself of Iqbal’s concept of God’s relationship to His creation. (Dr. Schimmel, 1989) observed that Einstein’s theory affirmed Iqbal’s thoughts on God’s relationship with universe. —- That, the universe is limitless and finite. (Dr. Schimmel) further observes: …. that the European philosophy and scholarship as explained by Iqbal through his poetry is not a threat to Muslims and their culture, and try to convince Muslims of India that new knowledge and concepts are nothing but their own heritage already discovered by Muslim scholars of the past. Interpreted in this way, European and Western civilization is a revival of the Muslim glorious past and no longer a danger for the Muslims but a motivation to reform themselves and their understanding of Islam. Among ancient scholars, Iqbal is very critical of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers as their philosophy, according to Iqbal’s perspective, was poisonous for the human ego as well as detrimental to Islamic thinking. Iqbal was very fond of Dante’s poetry. His idea of peace, love for the human kind was dear to Iqbal similar with Islamic thinking. Iqbal was also close to Goethe because of his philosophical thoughts. As Iqbal mature, his appreciation for Goethe also increases because of their similar thoughts on emotions and mutual desire to control animalistic desires of human. Iqbal is a philosopher in transition, adventurous, open mind, faithful and limitless. Among western thinkers, Iqbal was more influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, German thinker and writer who is considered to be the father of postmodernism but a disbeliever. Iqbal (1996, p. 89) in ‘Reconstruction of Islamic Thoughts’ described Nietzsche: “His brain is unbelieving, but his heart believing” as a result of Nietzsche’s statement: “God is dead” that is in absolute conflict with Iqbal’s own belief in creator of this universe. Probably Nietzsche‘s ideas and theories that are similar in their implications are very close to the teachings of Islam. Nietzsche’s influence on Iqbal is limited only to some of his ideas as a poet and to Nietzsche’s concept of ‘superman, but did not agree with atheism and statement of God being dead. Nietzsche’s concept of ‘superman’ that is considered as the start of postmodern age and the end of the era of Man is quite similar to Iqbal’s concept of ‘Mard-e-Momin’ (perfect man), which may have been an influence by another Muslim philosophers Rumi, whom Iqbal called his spiritual guide. Bergson’s (Dar, 2000, p. 177) theory of ‘creative evolution’ ….that only intuition can find out the reality of ‘creative evolutionary’ duration and this reality, which intuition finds in this way cannot be communicated to others with the help of written or spoken words. So reality can be found only through personal intuitive experience impressed Iqbal. Just like Bergson, Iqbal is of the opinion that pure knowledge can be acquired only through personal ‘intuitive’ experience (Dar, 2000). Though Iqbal’s concept of intuition is similar to that of Bergson’s with the same meaning but has given preference to this concept of intuition over rationality. Iqbal consider universe as the creation due to evolutionary changes which are powerful examples of his creator. Apparently Iqbal is in concurrence with every thinker whose thoughts are in alignment to his belief and faith.Dr. Shariati (1991) describes Iqbal’s advice to humanity: “Have a heart like Jesus, thoughts like Socrates, and hand like the hand of Cesar, but all in one human being, in one creature of humanity, based upon one spirit, in order to attain one goal.” That is, to be like Iqbal himself an integrator of all the best thoughts and theories man can develop. He finds that in the message of Qur’an. Iqbal had tried to define a dynamic Islam under the influence of Goethe and Rumi. Iqbal, (1996, p. 111) is always of the opinion that the human being is called upon to improve God’s universe in cooperation with his Creator, and that one should exhaust the never ending possibilities of interpreting Quran in order to survive ever changing circumstances. Iqbal, (1996, p. 97) did not rely exclusively upon intellect, but while admiring the modern technology and progress, called upon Muslims to participate in it. In his poem “Message of the East” Dr. Iqbal (1990) suggested that critical analysis and loving synthesis, must work together to create positive values. Thus it can be said in reality that Iqbal is a philosopher in transition who cannot be labeled, as he not only believed in action and motion but encourages the human to rise and change this world. Dr. Mohammad Iqbal is regarded as the most influential poet and scholar of the 20th century throughout the Muslim world with profound effect on sub-continent. His concept of Islamic revival did not only lead to the creation of Pakistan, but also the Iranian revolution has been credited to his poetry and philosophy. His works also played an influential role in the break- up of Soviet Union into republic, most of which are Muslim majority. Iqbal was a poet and a philosopher constantly in conversation with his people, a philosopher attempting to retrieve a Muslim Self to counter the overwhelming march of the West. That prompted Iqbal into a deep introspective study of Islam itself. One should be aware that Iqbal’s view of Europe and the West in general is not simply negative. For Iqbal the question is not of choosing between the East and the West but rather to find a middle ground where one do not have to abandon his real identity to be part of the modern world. Iqbal’s interpretation of philosophy calls for an engagement of East-West reciprocating ideas as such that both ideologies can share their core values to create a better world. For Iqbal the future does not just depend upon gaining Western knowledge but also by balancing this knowledge against Muslim traditions and faith. German Scholar Dr. Schimmel (1989) defends criticism of Iqbal on embracing the concept of Nietzsche’s “superman” reflecting Iqbal’s self and ego. She agrees with Iqbal’s approval of ‘Sharia’ as the appropriate set of limits for the self or ego that marks the distinction between Iqbal’s Perfect Man and the Nietzchean ‘superman.’ Iqbal has also been criticized for his advocacy to reject Western cultural influences. His poetic descriptions of the true practice of Islam some time are considered impractical and wrongly dismissive of diverse societies and cultural heritages. Nevertheless, his activism for the oppressed, downtrodden, often discriminated masses through Brahmin caste system and his concept of ‘Self” that earns him much of respect among Muslims as well as from non-Muslims. However Naipaul (1998, p. 250) and other Indian nationalists have criticized Iqbal for approving and encouraging the differences of Muslims with other religious communities in India. Because of this, responsibility of partition and fragmentation of India has been also credited to Iqbal. Hindu nationalists, however pointing the breakup of Pakistan suggested that Iqbal’s two nation theory was technically flawed and was wishful thinking, but they ignore the fact that Bangladesh chose to remain separate Muslim state instead of merging with India. Now India has two Muslim states two deal with. Despite this Hindu criticism Iqbal today is widely admired and followed in Pakistan, Iran, and Middle East as well as in Germany remembered as a reformer who attempted to balance East and West without compromising his own belief and faith. Iqbal was attracted to modern technology and excited to integrate his philosophy of Islam with the advancements of science, to build an understanding and to root out mutual mistrust at the highest intellectual level. He expressed this thought as: “In the West, Intellect is the source of life, In the East, Love is the basis of life. Through Love, Intellect grows acquainted with Reality, And Intellect gives stability to the work of Love, Arise and lay the foundations of a new world, By wedding Intellect to Love” (Iqbal 1877-1938)
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