Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Fundamental Human Rights

By Sharifuddin Pirzada

Quaid-e-Azam always believed in and stood for human rights. In pre-Partition period he championed the cause of liberty, freedom of speech and association and other rights. In the Eighteenth Annual Session of the Muslim League held at Delhi in December 1926, Quaid-e-Azam proposed a resolution demanding that the Government of India Act 1919 should be revised and that without delay a Royal Commission be appointed to formulate a scheme so as to place Indian Constitution on a sound and permanent basis with provisions to establish full responsible Government in India.The resolution further demanded that any scheme of the future of Constitution of India should secure and guarantee, among others, the following basic and fundamental principles.

"Full religious liberty i.e. liberty of belief, worship, observances, propaganda, association and education shall be guaranteed to all communities."

In the famous Fourteen Points formulated by the Quaid-e-Azam on March 28, 1929, point No.7 embodied the provisions relating to liberty, association, education, belief and other fundamental rights and it was demanded that such rights should be guaranteed to all the communities.

Time to Recall the Quaid

By Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim

Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah - the undisputed leader of the Muslims of the subcontinent who single-handedly created Pakistan, could have, if he had so wished, given to the people of this country a constitution. But the Quaid was, above all, a democrat, a committed constitutionalist and for him the rule of law was an article of faith.

When asked what would be the constitution of Pakistan, his answer was that he had neither the power nor the intention of determining or dictating a constitution. He insisted that it was for the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan to deliberate the consti-tutional issues and finally adopt the constitution of Pakistan. He went on to state that the government in Pakistan would be representative and democratic. He called it a people's government and declared that the constitution and the government would be what the people have decided.

The Quaid was equally clear about the role of the bureaucracy in the governance of the country. While addressing the Civil Officers of Balochistan at Sibbi on February 14, 1948, the Quaid stated: "Pakistan is now a sovereign state, absolute and un-fettered, and the government of Pakistan is in the hands of the people. Until we finally frame our constitution which, of course, can only be done by the Constituent Assembly, our present provisional constitution based on the fundamental principles of democracy, not bureaucracy or autocracy or dictatorship, must be worked. You officers should realize that these are the principles which should be borne in mind."

The Founder’s Vision and Ideology

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan first mooted the idea of an independent Muslim nation in late nineteenth century. Subsequently Allama Sir Muhammad. Iqbal in 1930 proposed the establishment of an independent Muslim state in the northwestern part of the Asian Subcontinent. However the idea of Pakistan was first propounded by Mr Ch. Rehmat Ali in his pamphlet “Now or Never” in 1933. At that time the Muslim League leadership including Mr Jinnah did not support or even consider it. Up till that time Mr Jinnah was an ardent supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity in British India. The Manchester Guardian best describes his attitude and views of that period “Mr Jinnah’s position at the Round Table Conference was unique. The Hindus thought he was a Muslim communalist, the Muslims took him to be pro-Hindu, the princes deemed him to be too democratic, the British considered him an extreme nationalist, with the result that he was a leader without a following.”