Pakistan that Jinnah envisioned.

Byline: Malik Muhammad Ashraf

On Wednesday 25th December the nation on celebrated birth anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the man who fought against all odds and severest opposition to the division of the sub-continent into two states and created our beloved Pakistan. He had a vision about the future of the country and the challenges that it had to surmount to make Pakistan strong, prosperous and a respected country among the comity of nations. Birth anniversaries of the national heroes and in case of nations winning independence from foreign subjugation and founding fathers are invariably celebrated by respective nations not only to pay homage to them but also to use the occasion as an opportunity to renew pledges to follow the course scripted by them as well as passing on the legacy to the posterity.

Therefore it is absolutely imperative to transmit the spirit of independence to the youth to apprise them about the vision of the Jinnah about Pakistan. He wanted Pakistan to be a democratic and progressive entity taking inspiration from the lofty 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 a reality which he pointed out in his address to the constituent assembly on 11th of August in 1947.

He reminded the legislature and the future government that the first duty of a government was to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects were fully protected by the State. That is the universally accepted objective of governance and the most important ingredient of the responsibility of the state and the government without which it is impossible to implement and pursue the objectives of independence and strengthening the national moorings.

Jinnah also wanted the elimination of bribery and corruption on priority basis as he viewed it as a poison. He said 'We must put it down with an iron hand and I hope that you will take adequate measures as soon as it is possible for this Assembly to do so'. The next thing in the order of priority mentioned by him was the evil of nepotism and jobbery. He was very clear and intensely aware of the debilitating impact of this menace on the society which stemmed from the archaic colonial system of governance and had inbuilt avenues of promoting a culture of graft and entitlement and nepotism; a tool that fomented...