August 14, 2012
65 years back on the same day and the same holy month of Ramadan we got our independence from the British Raj. The State of Pakistan came into being and all the Pakistanis were happy to be the citizens of an independent country. Though many could not express their happiness on this auspicious day because they have lost their families, land and loved ones in the communal riots.Today, after 65 years here I am in my room and recalling the past, and the speech of Mohammad Ali Jinnah echoes in my mind that he delivered to the first Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, at Karachi upon being elected as its first president:
“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State... We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State... I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in due course Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”
I wonder do any of us exactly understand what principles the founding father of Pakistan laid for us. No, I don’t think so, because, we might be an independent state but sovereignty is a myth for us. We are still not a free nation in the real sense of term. A nation means, “A large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.” Though we have a common territory and a common history inherent, a common political struggle for the making of this country but we still lack the cohesiveness of a nation. We have forgotten the basis of her creation as federation of five sub-nations; Bengalis, Punjabis, Pashtoons, Sindhis and Baluchs. A unitary system was imposed upon Pakistan in 1954, by creating the One Unit of West Pakistan viz-a-via East Pakistan and parity between the two wings which resulted in the segregation of East Pakistan (E Bengal) in 1971. Even today the same system is being imposed against the wishes of the three minorities provinces; Sindh, Khyber Paktoon Khawa and Baluchistan. The Baluch are badly affected by this discriminately treatment till day.
Today the discriminated Baluch realize that they are living in an occupied territory, as the Independence Day here is not treated as the day of rejoice and celebration. On the day of independence all the mobile services have been cut off by the central government with the result that no one within Baluchistan and outside Baluchistan can contact through text messages and phone calls. Initially, internet service was also suspended so I could not dispatch this file earlier.
While writing this blog, I missed my school days when I would desperately wait for August 14 as we had celebrations and fun-fairs but now we have fear and only fear in our hearts, agitation in our minds, dread in our schools, terror in our mosques and temples as, we have lost the soul, as a nation, by suppressing the basic principles on which, the state was created and have demolished the pillars that the founding father laid to build a state for all creeds, a home for everyone and a tolerant society for all, whether they were Muslims, Hindus or Christians.
Shireen Gul
Quetta, Baluchistan (Pakistan)
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