Pakistan was borne out of religious reason solely. Most of the Muslim League (ML) leaders from Indian part migrated to Pakistan after the end of British era. But many remained too. M C Chhagla & Moinul Haq Choudhury were two such who even rose to the position of Central Cabinet Minister as Congress members. There were many Muslims supporters of Congress party (CP) at the height of ML era in undivided India.
Before partition, it was not acceptable to CP that ML represented all Muslims of undivided India. Though CP did political injustice to ML in interim governments under Govt. of India Act 1935, it could at least look beyond religion. But ML could not. The history of long Muslim rule in India and its memories were too tempting to ML leaders to bank on the bogey of Islam.
The ML leaders thought that the state of Pakistan will be a melting pot for all divergent interests of Muslims who would be its citizens. The common slogan of Urdu speaking Muslims at that time was “Hat mey biri muh mey paan, lorh ke lengey Pakistan”. Thus bitter animosity and hatred towards CP and Hindus became the foundation stones of Pakistan. Islam came handy to justify such religion based statehood. Pakistan came in to existence only for the purpose of negating Hindu India. This might have been politically correct. But such mind set became permanent and led to all the future policy formulation of Pakistan. From the beginning Pakistan was saddled with two dangerous principles, viz: Islam based state and anti Indian stand.
Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be an Islamic Democracy with Islamic social justice. His that ideology was hazy. Only Iskendar Mirza during his brief rule in early period of Pakistan wanted to separate state from religion. Rest no other ruler of Pakistan dared even to think so.
Pakistan (except the then East Pakistan) was based on the social structure of feudalism, tribal allegiance and 21 rich families. Once Pakistan was borne, these authoritative forces and many new vested interests came into being. When Islam could not be the desired melting pot, anti India policies and actions became more useful for Pakistani leaders. Islam remained as a central concept and in perceived danger from Hindu India.
From the beginning, Balochistan and NWFP were causing headache with secessionist activities. East Pakistan was forgotten contemptuously by imposing Urdu as sole national language. Interestingly Urdu was not a language of the areas which constituted Pakistan then. The Urdu speaking Muslims from India flooded Sindh. Muslim Sindhis used to cut joke by saying “Urdu Furdu”. Punjab with its biggest presence in army, bureaucracy and land lord became the real power centre in Pakistan.
Ayub Khan laid down the foundation of US-Pak tie. He is also credited to have established the Sino-Pak tie. East Pakistan became independent Bangladesh after fellow Muslims of West Pakistan did genocide in East Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhuto showed some inclination towards socialism and also started nuclear programme. Zia-ul-Haq completed the radical Islamisation of Pakistan. Even the curriculum of Pakistan Military Academy includes six-month course in Islamic studies. Zia also fought a successful proxy war against USSR in Afghanistan and encouraged the cult of Jihad. In the mean time three wars were fought with India in 1947, 1965 and 1971. Benazir and Nawas Sharif interchanged the chair of Prime Minister for some time. Musharraf also tried his hand in Kargil and ousted Sharif to take over power. Kashmir has all along been an important place of Jihadi activities. Talibanisation of thousand of terrorists has been complete. Sectarian violence of all conceivable kind has cropped up everywhere in Pakistan. Presently, the erstwhile “Mr Ten Per Cent” (Zardari) is at the helm of power. Pakistan stands at the threshold of becoming 100 per cent Islamic country.
All said and done some questions come up:
• Was Pakistan not an Islamic country after 1947?
• What more Islamic it wants to be?
• Will implementation of 100 per cent orthodox ‘Shariya’ Laws solve all the problems of Pakistan?
• With such Islamophilia, what is the condition of common Pakistani and what more better will it be?
• Is a common Pakistani much much better of than a common Indian in terms of education, employment and health care etc.?
• Has Islam led common Pakistanis much ahead of common Indians?
• Are Pakistani army personnel superior to their Indian counter part by virtue of getting training in Islamic religious study?
• Has Zardari stopped money laundering?
Answer to all the questions is an emphatic ‘no’ and for this I don’t give a damn about Islam. Actually Islam has deceived the common Pakistanis. As usual Islam remains a means to rule Pakistan only by its different corrupt rulers and their coterie with vested interests. For this present unfortunate situation in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia is equally responsible as US.