'We are sorry, Mr Jinnah'..
Published: August 14,2009
'We are sorry, Mr Jinnah'.. Islamabad
As Pakistan celebrates its 62nd Independence Day today, some of its citizens are apologetic for not being able to"actualize"the country envisioned by the nation's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
"We are sorry, Mr Jinnah. We are sorry that we have not been able to actualize the Pakistan of your vision. At least, not yet," reads a post dedicated to the Father of the Nation on a popular search engine.
The post by US-based academician Adil Najam reminded readers of Jinnah's speech on August 11, 1947 when he proclaimed:" in course of time 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 (Pakistan)".
Najam cited the recent incident of sectarian violence in the Gojra region of Punjab, where at least eight Christians were killed and over 50 homes of members of the minority community burnt by a mob." we will shower platitudes on Mr Jinnah's vision of a tolerant Pakistan and then conveniently ignore that vision," he wrote."A Pakistan for all Pakistanis, irrespective of, as he would say,'caste and creed' We are sorry, Mr Jinnah. We are sorry for the Gojra that happens every day in the Pakistan you created.
Mira Hussain Haqqani, daughter of Pakistan's ambassador to US, Hussain Haqqani, has written"a letter to God" because she could think of no one in the current state of Pakistan's affairs to send it to." After 62 years, she (Pakistan) still rests over the Arabian Sea, but is fearful. Her land remains huge, but devastated. Her mountains seem feeble and helpless as the once scenic landscape has crumbled to dust owing to the constant hail of bullets and bombs. Her children are hungry and weeping. She is Pakistan," wrote Mira, a 14-year old student from Karachi.
"Today, I beg you to help me, help my country. Help Pakistan please!," she wrote in the letter that was published today by The News daily."If Pakistanis are like those sitting in the government, I am ashamed to be one. I pray to you to improve the current situation of my country or at least make those responsible realise what they are doing to harm Pakistan and what they should do for its betterment,"she concluded. Pakistans celebrities are not quite in a celebratory mood either.
Shaan, who starred his career with critically acclaimed film" Khuda Ke Liye", feels he has little reason to celebrate.
" There was really nothing to be proud of, to tell you honestly. But I'd have to say that the proudest moment for me is that despite everything that is happening around us - the lies, the political system, the way leaders are treating us - I am still in Pakistan. That's my proudest moment," he told a news magazine.
"Na bijli hai na paani hai, phir bhi dil Pakistani hai," said singer Ali Zafar, who was abducted with his fiance last year and was released only after a huge ransom was paid.
Singer Atif Aslam is proud that Pakistan is cleansing itself of terrorism.?" Things are getting better and I'm happy to say that the music scene is back! And I'm also proud that we didn't go to Dubai. For me that's a proud moment because it had become monotonous," Aslam said.
Shehzad Roy, another singer who runs the Zindagi Trust that promotes education among the downtrodden, said,"A proud moment for me was when a girl from one of the government schools went to Sri Lanka for a drawing competition and beat a kid from Lyceum."
