FEATURES
By Aamna Mahboob
Some days and dates carry importance in the history of Nations just like the fourth of February is a milestone in the history of Sri Lanka, the 23rd March 1940 is the date and day considered as the foundation stone laid for the creation of Pakistan.
The 23rd of March is one of the most important days in Pakistan’s history, the day in 1940 when the founding fathers signed the momentous Pakistan Resolution, which gave birth to the idea of a nation. After the creation of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah had said:
“We are a nation, with our distinctive culture and civilisation, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitude and ambition; in short we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law, we are a nation”.
By all perceptions, this day March 23 is a red-letter day in the history of the subcontinent as it marked the galvanization of the Indian Muslims to launch a struggle for emancipation from the centuries-old British colonialism.
As is indexed in the history of the Pakistan Movement on this historic day 67 years ago the pragmatic vision of Pakistan was formalized in a resolution, adopted by the Pakistan Muslim League at its meeting held at Manto Park (now Iqbal Park) in Lahore with Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the chair.
The resolution, piloted by ‘Sher-e-Bengal’ (Lion of Bengal) Moulavi A. K. Fazlul Haq, articulated the contours of the State of Pakistan and set the ideals that it was to pursue after its creation. This session passed the famous Pakistan Resolution demanding a separate homeland for the Muslims, to be comprised of the northwestern and eastern zones of India.
“The Resolution stated that no constitutional plan would be acceptable to the Muslims unless it was designed in such a way that areas in which the Muslims formed a majority would be separated to form parts of Pakistan. This Resolution called for the creation of independent Muslim States consisting of Punjab, NWFP, Sindh, and Baluchistan in the northwest, and Bengal and Assam in the northeast”.
The day is of course of great significance as it’s an occasion to pause and ponder over the achievements of Pakistan, failings in keeping with the vision and ideals as identified in Pakistan’s resolution.
The Quaid, the visionary par excellence, had interpreted the image and ideals in his historic address to the Constituent Assembly on August 12, 1947 while focusing the moral, ethical, constitutional and ideological facets of the new and magnificent State.
It’s certainly not all dark because Pakistan that had to make the start from scratch has come a long way in the economic and security perspectives.
Not only that, it has attained a remarkable place in the comity of nations but is simultaneously playing its pivotal role to promote peace, security and stability at regional as well as at international levels.
It’s true that liberation of Indian Muslims from poverty, squalor, want, hunger and disease was an important factor for the demand of a separate homeland for them, yet it’s imperative that the Quaid’s declaration of the Holy Quran being the readymade Constitution of Pakistan should not be lost sight of as Islam is the basis of its establishment.
At the same time, Pakistanis feel optimistic that the superpowers of the present epoch explicitly in the West shall give up deceitful maneouvers and instead would confer with overt acknowledgement due credence and value to Pakistan’s marvellous accomplishments and contributions vis-à-vis the end of terrorism in its all forms and manifestations solely with a zest for founding a lasting peace around the globe.
For this, such powers like the United States and the United Kingdom owe an exclusive responsibility for the solution of volatile global issues with Kashmir as the foremost as such lingering problems are posing colossal perils to world peace.
Pakistan has come a long distance in achieving the present position in the world comity after going through different road blocks in its prosperity, development and stability. Despite the conspiracy by different geo-political powers slashing away its eastern part was the result of international conspiracies to cut the world’s largest Muslim state into size. Things did not stop there and international players are trying to further harm and disintegrate it through their hirelings. The ongoing insurgency in Baluchistan and other parts of Pakistan is a result of the foreign patronage but they forget that today’s Pakistan is different from that of 1971 and possess a nuclear umbrella.
By Aamna Mahboob
Some days and dates carry importance in the history of Nations just like the fourth of February is a milestone in the history of Sri Lanka, the 23rd March 1940 is the date and day considered as the foundation stone laid for the creation of Pakistan.
The 23rd of March is one of the most important days in Pakistan’s history, the day in 1940 when the founding fathers signed the momentous Pakistan Resolution, which gave birth to the idea of a nation. After the creation of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah had said:
“We are a nation, with our distinctive culture and civilisation, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitude and ambition; in short we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law, we are a nation”.
By all perceptions, this day March 23 is a red-letter day in the history of the subcontinent as it marked the galvanization of the Indian Muslims to launch a struggle for emancipation from the centuries-old British colonialism.
As is indexed in the history of the Pakistan Movement on this historic day 67 years ago the pragmatic vision of Pakistan was formalized in a resolution, adopted by the Pakistan Muslim League at its meeting held at Manto Park (now Iqbal Park) in Lahore with Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the chair.
The resolution, piloted by ‘Sher-e-Bengal’ (Lion of Bengal) Moulavi A. K. Fazlul Haq, articulated the contours of the State of Pakistan and set the ideals that it was to pursue after its creation. This session passed the famous Pakistan Resolution demanding a separate homeland for the Muslims, to be comprised of the northwestern and eastern zones of India.
“The Resolution stated that no constitutional plan would be acceptable to the Muslims unless it was designed in such a way that areas in which the Muslims formed a majority would be separated to form parts of Pakistan. This Resolution called for the creation of independent Muslim States consisting of Punjab, NWFP, Sindh, and Baluchistan in the northwest, and Bengal and Assam in the northeast”.
The day is of course of great significance as it’s an occasion to pause and ponder over the achievements of Pakistan, failings in keeping with the vision and ideals as identified in Pakistan’s resolution.
The Quaid, the visionary par excellence, had interpreted the image and ideals in his historic address to the Constituent Assembly on August 12, 1947 while focusing the moral, ethical, constitutional and ideological facets of the new and magnificent State.
It’s certainly not all dark because Pakistan that had to make the start from scratch has come a long way in the economic and security perspectives.
Not only that, it has attained a remarkable place in the comity of nations but is simultaneously playing its pivotal role to promote peace, security and stability at regional as well as at international levels.
It’s true that liberation of Indian Muslims from poverty, squalor, want, hunger and disease was an important factor for the demand of a separate homeland for them, yet it’s imperative that the Quaid’s declaration of the Holy Quran being the readymade Constitution of Pakistan should not be lost sight of as Islam is the basis of its establishment.
At the same time, Pakistanis feel optimistic that the superpowers of the present epoch explicitly in the West shall give up deceitful maneouvers and instead would confer with overt acknowledgement due credence and value to Pakistan’s marvellous accomplishments and contributions vis-à-vis the end of terrorism in its all forms and manifestations solely with a zest for founding a lasting peace around the globe.
For this, such powers like the United States and the United Kingdom owe an exclusive responsibility for the solution of volatile global issues with Kashmir as the foremost as such lingering problems are posing colossal perils to world peace.
Pakistan has come a long distance in achieving the present position in the world comity after going through different road blocks in its prosperity, development and stability. Despite the conspiracy by different geo-political powers slashing away its eastern part was the result of international conspiracies to cut the world’s largest Muslim state into size. Things did not stop there and international players are trying to further harm and disintegrate it through their hirelings. The ongoing insurgency in Baluchistan and other parts of Pakistan is a result of the foreign patronage but they forget that today’s Pakistan is different from that of 1971 and possess a nuclear umbrella.
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