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.