Statement On Protection For Minorities In Pakistan

Quaid-e-Azam with the representatives of Minorities

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Governor General designate of Pakistan, at a press conference, assured the minorities in the Pakistan Dominion that they would have protection with regard to their religion, faith, life, property and culture. They would, in all respects be citizens of Pakistan without any discrimination and no doubt along with it they would have the obligations of citizenship. The minorities would have to be loyal to the State and owe true allegiance to the State.

The same principle, the Quaid emphasized, would apply to the minorities in India as well. One cannot have minorities disloyal to the State and sabotaging the state. Every citizen must be loyal to his State.

Citizens of Pakistan

Question : Could you as Governor General make a brief statement on the minorities problems?

The Quaid: At present I am only Governor-General designate. We will assume for moment that on August 15, I shall be really the Governor-General of Pakistan. On that assumption, let me tell you that I shall not depart from what I said repeatedly with regard to the minorities. Every time I spoke about the minorities I meant what I said and what I said I meant.

Minorities to whichever community they may belong; will be safeguarded. Their religion or faith or belief will be secure. There will be no interference of any kind with their freedom of worship. They will have their protection with regard to their religion, faith, their life, their culture. They will be, in all respects, the citizens of Pakistan without any distinction of caste or creed.

They will have their rights and privileges and no doubt, along with it goes the obligation of citizenship. Therefore, the minorities have their responsibilities also and they will play their part in the affairs of this state. As long as the minorities are loyal to the State and owe true allegiance and as long as I have any power, they need have no apprehension of any kind.

Demanding Release Of Kashmir Detenus. New Delhi : July 11, 1947

"The Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference leaders, Chaudhary Hamidullah Khan and Mr. Muhammad Ishaque Qureshi had an interview with me and they informed me of the situation there which is making the people restive. They placed before me the question of the detention of the Muslim Conference leaders who have been in jail now for nine months without trial. Their only offence was that they held the Muslim Conference session in spite of prohibitory orders of the Government. But they soon dispersed, and did not proceed with their business. Only six leaders were arrested to which no resistance was offered and every thing went off peacefully. For such a technical offence they have already suffered for nine months and I see no justification for their continued detention.

"I hope that the Maharaja and the Prime Minister of Kashmir will realize the fast changing circumstances and wisdom demands that the feelings and sentiments of the Muslims who form 80 per cent of the population should not be ignored, much less hurt.

"The second question that is engaging the attention of the Muslims of Kashmir is whether Kashmir is going to join the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. I have already made it clear more than once that the Indian States are free to join either the Pakistan Constituent Assembly or the Hindustan Constituent Assembly or remain independent. I have no doubt that the Maharaja and the Kashmir government will give their attention and consideration to this matter and realize the interests not only of the Ruler but also of his people. We have made it clear that we are not going to coerce, intimidate or put any pressure on any State making its choice. But those states who wish to join the Pakistan Constituent Assembly will find us ready and willing to negotiate with them agreement for the mutual advantage of both. Those who wish to declare their complete independence may be beneficial for both and secure mutual and reciprocal interest."

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Source: South Asian Studies: bi-annual Research Journal, Vol.17, No. 1 (Quaid-i-Azam Number) January 2002, PP. 84-85 Also cited in The Star of India, July 13, 1947

Statement On The Situation In The Frontier Province New Delhi : May 7, 1947

Quaid-e-Azam with  members of NWFP Assembly in Peshawar

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, President of the All India Muslim League, issued a thousand words Statement on the Frontier.

"I have had the opportunity of fully discussing with Frontier League leaders the situation in the North-West Frontier Province and the developments that have taken place recently. The League movement in the Frontier was started because the people and especially the Muslim Leaguers and the League organization in the Province were sought to be crushed by Khan Sahib Ministry, by fair means or foul, ever since the ministry was formed. The victimization, persecution, suppression and oppression on the part of the Government, knew no limits.

“Every vestige of civil liberties had ceased to exist. Ordinances, Frontier Crimes Regulations, Section 144 and other repressive provisions of the law were being freely and ruthlessly used to deprive the people of their rights of political expression and criticism of the ministry. These were the conditions prevailing in the Province when the top-ranking leaders of the Muslim League were arrested for asserting their right of civil liberties, and the resentment caused among the people assumed the character of mass civil disobedience. It is absolutely false and a complete misrepresentation of the facts that the All-India Muslim League ever decided to actually resort to direct action. The Bombay Resolution of 29 July 1946, merely indicated a change of policy, by it we declared that we would no longer be restricted to constitutional methods which had been scrupulously followed by the All-India Muslim League up to that time."

"The Congress creed, on the other hand not only permitted them to resort to unlawful means, but it was of the very essence of the organization that they were free to resort to mass civil disobedience at any time they considered proper for the achievement of their objectives through coercive methods.

Statement Regarding Killing In The Minority Province New Delhi: Nov 3, 1946

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, President of the All India Muslim League has issued the following statement to the press:

“I have been receiving reports of very grave and serious character of killing and destruction of property from the Muslim minority provinces such as Bihar, U.P., C.P., Madras and Bombay and I assure the Muslims of minority provinces that it was not due to indifferent or neglect that I have been queit. The matter is receiving my most careful attention and consideration.

Enquiries by the League

“It was arranged that four members of the Interior Central Government should go to Patna. Besides Mr. Muhammad Nauman, M.L.A. (Central) has been deputed by the Muslim League Party in the Central Assembly to go to Bihar and enquiries are being made with regard to those parts of U.P., C.P., Bihar, Madras and Bombay where disturbances have taken place, including East Bengal and Calcutta.

“I shall await the reports of our representatives Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan and Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar on their arrival here. I naturally am very deeply grieved to hear of the brutal and outrageous happenings. At present I can only ask the Muslims to remain calm and peaceful and bear it with patience, however aggressive or provocative may be the attitude of other people”.

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Source: South Asian Studies: bi-annual Research Journal, Vol.17, No. 1 (Quaid-i-Azam Number) January 2002, PP. 80 Also cited in Dawn, November 3, 1946.

Statement Regarding Kashmir Affairs New Delhi: November 2, 1946

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, President All-India Muslim League issued the following statement to the Press:

“I have had an opportunity of meeting the deputation on behalf of the All-Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Committee and I deeply regret that the Kashmir Government should have thought it fit to ban the annual session of the Conference.

“It is opposed to the elementary principles of Liberty. The people have every right to meet in a peaceful manner and express and ventilate their grievance and criticize the policy and actions of any civilized Government.

“It is regrettable that the foremost leader of the Conference should have been arrested and detained without any trial and from all accounts that I have received, the Prime Minister Mr. Kak, and the Government are pursuing a policy of suppressing free expression of opinion resorting to unjustifiable methods of terrorism and gagging free expression of opinion on the eve of the coming elections.

I therefore, appeal to the Maharaja to interfere in the matter immediately and allow the forthcoming elections to be free and fair and release all the detenus and see that effect has been given to the spirit and the letter of such reforms as he has already introduced”.

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23rd March 1940: What Our Youth Must Know About?

The Pakistani youth of today seem to be simply ignorant of the historical background of the creation of Pakistan. The reason is mostly to do with detest of theirs for Pakistan Studies while at schools. Based on my interaction with many of them, it is my considered opinion that there is a weakness and void out there amongst our youth vis- -vis history of Pakistan.

On this historic day of 23rd March 'also known as Pakistan Day' I therefore thought to write something for educating my youth on the significance of this day.

The youth of today must know that Pakistan owes her creation to four erstwhile outstanding Muslim leaders, namely: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98), Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar (1878-1931), Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), and Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938). These leaders provided intellectual and political leadership to Indian Muslims during about ninety years (1858-1947) of the British imperial rule on the Sub-continent.

It is important for them to also know that in the beginning all of these aforementioned leaders were thorough-bred nationalists at one time or another. By being nationalist means they were the proponents of a united India. Now it should not come as a surprise for our young men and women to learn that over the passage of time our leaders got disillusioned with this concept of one united India. The reasons were many. It could have been either because of Hindu ethnocentrism in the late 19th century or Congress`s championing of unitary Hindu nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s.

Now let us focus our discussion exclusively on our great leader and founder of Pakistan 'Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah'. It is very important for the youths to understand the elements of the crest and the troughs in the political leanings and ideologies of Quaid-e-Azam over his long career from 1904 thru 1948. It is interesting to note here that for some seventeen years (1904-1920), he was pro-Congress, pleading the Congress cause and envisioning a truly nationalist destiny for India.

And, still for another sixteen years (1921-37), though he was practically out of Congress as he had joined All India Muslim League in 1920, he was still working for a nationalist destiny. During this period, he was still striving for a Hindu-Muslim settlement and he was still collaborating with the Congress and its leadership for the same. It is also very well known that in pursuit of his mission of Hindu-Muslim unity, he had devised several constitutional formulae, but all to no avail. It is also pertinent to mention here that till early 1937, Quaid-e-Azam was still in his "nationalist" self; preaching his credo eloquently and trying miserably to unite Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. For this he was widely known as the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.

The Great Quaid's message for Pakistani Youth!

Quaid-e-Azam turned a dream into a reality

ON March 23, 1940, the Muslims of the sub-continent resolved to create a separate homeland, Pakistan. The decision was neither taken in haste nor precipitated by a sudden, dramatic turn of events.

Hindus and Muslims had lived in India for centuries but had remained two distinctly different cultural entities presenting marked dissimilarities that neither time nor assimilation could erase; they were like two streams running a parallel course. So manifest and so profound were the differences that the London Times, commenting on the Government of India Act of 1935, had to ungrudgingly concede: “Undoubtedly the difference between the Hindus and Muslims is not of religion in the strict sense of the word but also of laws and culture, that they may be said indeed to represent two entirely distinct and separate civilizations.”

This incontrovertible realization found a more convincing elucidation in the words of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: “Notwithstanding thousand years of close contact, nationalities which are as divergent today as ever, cannot at any time be expected to transform themselves into one nation merely by mean of subjecting them to a democratic constitution and holding them forcibly together by unnatural and artificial methods of British Parliamentary Statutes.”

The background of Pakistan Resolution is such that in 1937, provincial autonomy was introduced in the sub-continent under the Government of India Act, 1935. The elections of 1937 provided the Congress with a majority in six provinces, where Congress governments were formed. This led to the political, social, economic and cultural suppression of the Muslims in the Congress ruled provinces.

The Congress contemptuously rejected the Muslim League’s offer of forming coalition ministries. The Muslims were subjected not only to physical attacks but injustice and discriminatory treatment as regards civil liberties, economic measures and employment and educational opportunities. The Congress Ministries introduced the Wardha scheme of education, the object of which was to “de- Muslimize” the Muslim youth and children.

Ian Stephens, former editor of the newspaper “Statesman” and an eyewitness to the working of the Congress Ministries, says: "The effect of this simultaneously on many Muslim minds was of a lightning flash.