PROVINCIAL AUTONOMY IS INEVITABLE FOR SUSTENANCE OF THE COUNTRY – ALTAF HUSSAIN
NOW IS THE ERA OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NATIONS CANNOT BE ENSLAVED ON STRENGTH OF POWER FOR LONG
Karachi-12 August 2004
Mr Altaf Hussain, founder and leader of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) said that
now is the century of information technology and during this era no nation or
community could be forcibly enslaved on strength of power. It is therefore, the
people at the helm of affairs have to accept that to sustain the country they
have to grant total provincial autonomy to smaller provinces and have to provide
their usurped rights. He expressed these views during his telephonic address
from London to the members of the Advisory and Research Council of the MQM in
Karachi. He said that Research and Advisory bodies have prominence and
importance in developed countries and in those countries institutions for
research and advisory have been especially established who advise governments
and institutions on the basis of their research in the fields of education,
industries and commerce, economy, science and technology, defence and other
fields.
Mr Altaf Hussain stated that environment affects the thinking of the people and
similarly environment, cultural and social values and traditions affect the
mindsets of people engaged in the research departments and generally they advise
under the influence of their cultural and social values, traditions and
environmental surroundings. For example, addressing the participants, he said
that you belong to a free society and therefore, your thinking and psyche is
totally converse to the thinking and mindsets of the feudal lords. The feudal
lords believe in solving all disputes and issues through brute power and their
advisors thinking enslaved to the feudal culture would advise feudal lords under
those conditions to oppress the peasants, treat them as your slaves, do not
consider them as equal citizens and do not permit them to have education.
Similarly, the members of research and advisory cells of developed countries are
also equally influenced by the environment, wealth and power of their countries.
In their research, their mindsets reflect the involvement of their
environmental, social, cultural and traditional conditions and they advise their
governments under those mindset.
Mr Altaf Hussain said that on one hand research and advisory cells are helpful
while on the other, if members of research and advisory bodies become bias,
partial, not prepared to accept the ground realities and instead becomes proud
and arrogant then they would not able to give realistic advise. Citing examples
of the Roman, Ottoman and Moghul empires and such rulers who colonized many
countries of the world kept conquering the world as long as they were
considerate on ground realities. However, when they began to consider themselves
indispensable and felt that they can do whatever they may like irrespective of
right or wrong, their downfall began. On Iraq, he said, not only the people of
Muslim but non-Muslim countries also intensely protested but the powerful
countries failed to reconcile with the ground realities and went ahead with
their military actions and everyone knows the consequent situation.
Mr Altaf Hussain further said this era is of information technology and any
powerful nation with the strength of force can enslave a weak nation
temporarily, the need of the hour is to accept each other’s existence and
reality whether one likes it or not. He emphasized that people at the helm of
affairs in Pakistan should also comprehend this reality and the attitude of
suppressing and crushing the voices of smaller provinces should be halted. He
said that for years, the people of smaller provinces are agitating against the
exploitation by the province of Punjab on the basis of its population and their
rights are continually being denied. Unfortunately, instead of heeding to the
voices and redressing their grievances, brute force is used against them. Even
today, Balochistan is faced with an operation for demanding its rights. He
further added that if one is accused of being traitor for demanding rights,
unleashing army and bombing their regions would not solve problems. If a
military solution is not right for a country then similarly, it is not
appropriate for Pakistan to seek a military solution of any conflict. It is
therefore, the empowered people o Punjab should realise that in this century of
information technology, smaller provinces could not be enslaved on the strength
of force. He further emphasised that if the people at the helm of affairs in
Pakistan wish to sustain Pakistan then they will have to give rights and power
as well as total provincial autonomy and have to accept the existence of the
people of smaller provinces and accept the realities. The acceptance of reality
would not only benefit the smaller provinces but also Punjab and its people.
Emphasizing on building consensus or interpreting jurisprudence through
dialectical process (Ijtehad), motion is symbol of life while stagnancy is a
symbol of inertness. The secret of progress of countries that rank amongst the
most powerful and developed is that they brought about changes by interpreting
jurisprudence in accordance with “Modern Order” through dialectical process.
Unfortunately, amongst Muslims the dialectical process stopped centuries ago and
the religion or its jurisprudence were not interpreted in line with the
“Modern Order”. He elaborated that Almighty Allah proclaimed in the
Holy Quran that he had transcended all bounds for knowledgeable between the
earth and skies to discover and benefit from the secrets of the nature.
Unfortunately, Muslims studied the holy Quran but did not ponder over hidden
knowledge and science within the Holy Quran but those nations gained knowledge
and pondered they gained the gift nature had hidden in the skies and earth. He
said that we studied Sura Fil in Quran purely for blessings but the non-Muslim
nation having pondered over it they learnt the lesson that if the enemy on
ground is more powerful then they can be attacked from the sky and having learnt
from the attack of Ababeels , they manufactured aircrafts on the pattern of
Ababeels and produced bombs on the pattern of stones dropped by the Ababeels. We
pray looking at the moon but nations pondered progressed and reached the moon
and today they are making efforts to conquer other planets. It is therefore,
necessary that Muslims begin to ponder, attain modern scientific education and
for progression they opt the route of dialectical process and interpret laws and
jurisprudence in accordance with modern demands.
Concluding his address, Mr Altaf Hussain emphasised to the members of the
Research and Advisory Council that they should give suggestions and
recommendations having the ground realities before them, educate the people and
perform their duties more actively.