Beyond Jinnah.

Byline: Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

THIS past Wednesday was Christmas. For me, the occasion is an opportunity to share a sliver of happiness with residents of Islamabad's Christian katchi abadis with whom I have struggled for dignity and housing rights for years. For most Pakistanis, however, Dec 25 is Mohammad Ali Jinnah's birthday.

Over the past few years, images of a suit-wearing Jinnah playing with his dog have become popular in the highest echelons of power, particularly establishment circles. I trace the circulation of this image to the aftermath of 9/11, when Gen Pervez Musharraf's started touting 'enlightened moderation' and drew on the 'liberal Jinnah' to give legitimacy to his rule.

It was of course under the backdrop of the so-called 'war on terror' that Musharraf's regime attempted to refashion Pakistan's image. Almost two decades since that chapter of our history began, PR exercises invoking Jinnah and proclaiming 'naya Pakistan' aside, the fundamentals of state policy are effectively unchanged.

We need new forms of mobilisation.

We still cultivate enmity with our immediate neighbours, 'national security' trumps all other objectives, and there is a distinct resistance to enshrining principles and institutional imperatives of equal citizenship on religious, ethnic and gender grounds. Junaid Hafeez's sentencing to death is only the most recent manifestation of how deep the rot goes.

Meanwhile, ambiguity about the Frankenstein that is religious militancy persists. Earlier this month was the fifth anniversary of the APS massacre, which supposedly marked a point of no-return and 'consensus' that would take the country forward. Yet ever since, we have experienced the Faizabad dharna, suppression of PTM and many other illustrations of how little has changed.

Today is Dec 27, the day Benazir Bhutto was murdered 12 years ago, a dark episode which took place under Gen Musharraf's watch. There is nothing to suggest that her killers will be brought to justice soon, or even identified. Indeed, we still don't know who ordered Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination! Needless to say, if elected prime ministers can't get justice, then what of a poor Christian woman living in a katchi abadi, or a child of war in the tribal districts?

Yet Jinnah's famous inaugural speech to the Constituent Assembly remains a refrain for those in power and those outside of it who seek a progressive and inclusive Pakistan. Jinnah's secular worldview is certainly worth invoking...