By Nehal Afshain

“I do not believe in taking the right decision, I take a decision and make it right.” “Think a hundred times before you make a decision, but once that decision is taken, stand by it as one man,” This was Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam and the founder of Pakistan.
True leaders have a vision, that is, they have the potential to view the present as it is and to invent a future culminating out of the present. A leader with a vision can foresee the future and can remain in the present. A vision is an end towards which leader can spend and direct his energy and resources. He had a vision about the future of Pakistan and the challenges that it had to surmount to become a strong, prosperous and respected country among nations.

It is absolutely imperative to transmit the spirit of Independence to our youth and apprise them of Quaid-e-Azam’s vision about Pakistan. There is hardly any debate about the fact that he wanted Pakistan to be a democratic and progressive entity, taking inspiration from the principles of Islam. And within the framework of the newly independent state – in line with his foregoing vision – he also enumerated the tasks that were at hand to translate the objectives of Independence into reality in his address to the Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born at Karachi on 25 December 1876. His parental house was located at Wazir Mansion in Karachi, Jinnah was trained in Sindh Madrassa-tul-Islam, Karachi. Later he took admission at Lincoln’s Inn in London, England. Upon his return to British India, he enrolled at the Bombay High Court, was a barrister.

The period of 1937-1947 is very important in the political career of Quaid-e-Azam regarding the establishment of Pakistan. The Pakistan Resolution of 23rd March 1940 defined the goal of Pakistan. On the face of Congress opposition to the Pakistan scheme, Quaid-e-Azam stood firm like a rock. In an article published in the Times and Tide of London, Quaid-e-Azam reiterated that Hindus and Muslims are two different nations and insisted on the two nations sharing the governance of their common motherland.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah wrote an article published in England “Time and Tide” on 9 March 1940 saying that: “The British people being Christian sometimes forget the religious wars of their own history and today consider religion as a private and personal matter between man and God. This can never be the case in Hinduism and Islam. Both these religions have definite social codes and aspects of their social life.”

Addressing a historic public meeting at Lahore on 23 March 1940 Quaid-e-Azam said: “We have our past experience of the last two and half year. We have learnt many lessons. We are now apprehensive and can trust no body … it has always been taken for granted mistakenly that the Muslim are a minority. He said, Muslims are a nation and by any definition of a nation. Hindu and Muslims belong to two religion philosophies, social customs, literatures. They neither inter-marry nor inter-dine and indeed belong to different civilizations which are based on conflicting ideas and 188 Pakistan Vision Vol. 15 No.1 conceptions. Their concepts of life are different. They have different epics, different heroes and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is the foe of the other and like-wise their victories and defeat, overlap. He also added that, to take together state, one as a numerical majority other as a minority must lead to growing discontent. Muslims are a nation according to any definition of a nation and they must have their homeland, their territory, and their state.”

Due to the efforts and struggle of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and all his followers, Pakistan was finally attained on 15 August 1947 and he took over as first Governor-General. The new responsibility was like a bed of thrones for him. The new country was faced with lot of problems like refugee rehabilitation, the issue of princely states, non-availability of a workable system for running affairs of the State, farming of new constitution and financial strains etc. Quaid-e-Azam tackled these problems boldly and with failing health in such a manner that its parallel cannot be found rarely in the history of the world.

He wanted to see Pakistan as a true Islamic state with implementation of Quranic code at the individual and collective level with guarantees to the religious minorities. On eve of the inauguration of the Pakistan Broadcasting Service, he said, “Our object should be peace within and peace without. We want to live peacefully and maintain cordial, friendly relations with our immediate neighbours and with the world at large.” Quaid-e-Azam created this country for us but he died on 11 September 1948 and could not see the country on the Quranic code of life. However, Pakistanis are lucky enough that we have our constitution of 1973, which contains the Objective Resolution as a preamble and Article 2 A, which can take Pakistan to fulfill the dreams of our great leader.