CHAUVINIST INTELLECTUALS AND POWERFUL INSTITUTIONS MUST NOW THINK POSITIVELY AND LEARN LESSONS FROM BITTER EXPERIENCES OF THE PAST – ALTAF HUSSAIN

London – 15 December 2004..On the remembrance day of Fall of Dhaka, Mr Altaf Hussain, founder and leader of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has stated that 33 years ago Pakistan, which was created in 1947 for the Muslims of Subcontinent, was disintegrated. The country that was created on the basis of Two-Nation Theory, was fragmented after 25 years of its independence thus raising the question whether a nation can be established on the basis of religion? Whether people belonging to different linguistic, cultural and social background can pragmatically be united as one nation in the name of religion? Today the religions of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism are the majority religion of the world. Are the followers of these religions considered as one nation? The believers of Hinduism are settled in various parts of the world but were they able to become one nation in the name of religion? Did the believers of Christianity become one nation in the name of religion? Similarly, why the followers of Islam are divided in different independent and autonomous countries of the world? Are Christians despite being divided in various different countries and regions prepared to surrender their nationality and merge their countries into one country? Likewise, Muslims of more than 70 countries were able to merge their geographical boundaries into one geographical boundary? He expressed this at the MQM International Secretariat while meeting a delegation of Pakistani students studying in the United Kingdom.

Mr Hussain said that religion and its teachings couldn’t be confined within geographical borders because religion is not reliant on geographical boundaries. Therefore, Ummah can be created or formed on the basis of religion but not a nation. In the same manner as camera, telephone, mobile phone, television, electronics, computer technology and other inventions cannot be confined to geographical boundaries. Similarly, it is impossible to confine religion, its teachings and preaching within a geographical boundary.  Citing the example of the Subcontinent, he said that a few hundreds years ago not a single believer of Islam was present in the Subcontinent. If it was possible to confine religion to geographical boundaries then today we would not witness more than 500 million Muslims in the Subcontinent. Geographical relations, social relations, linguistic relations and cultural relations do not change in the same manner as a believer of one religion changes his or her belief. Every nation has its cultural, geographical, social and linguistic identity, which extends over decades and is the basis for honour and collective self-esteem for that nation.  No nation considers itself inferior over other nations nor influenced by the superiority of a nation, do they willingly accept to be treated as a second or a third rate nation. The fact behind the Fall of Dhaka is that the army generals of former West Pakistan, the politicians and chauvinistic intellectuals refused to accept the people of East Pakistan as equal citizens. The Awami League emerged as the majority winning party in the 1970 General Elections in the former East Pakistan whereas in the former West Pakistan various political and religious parties acquired seats. The Peoples Party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto won majority seats in the West Pakistan. However, the military junta of West Pakistan was not in favour of transferring power to Bengalis. They considerd them weak and felt humiliation in saluting the “4 feet weak Bengalis”. On the other hand, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in collusion with the Army Generals raised the slogan of idhar hum udhar tum that Mujeeb should rule East Pakistan and become the Prime Minister of that region so that he could become the Prime Minister of West Pakistan. On the support and patronage of the Army Generals, particularly General Yahya Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto threatened that if an elected parliamentarian of West Pakistan went to East Pakistan to attend the Assembly Session in Dhaka then he will have his legs broken on return. The Army Generals of West Pakistan then decided to use force against the Bengali Muslims, which was supported by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and backed by the chauvinist intellectuals of West Pakistan. The Army Operation was justified under the pretext that Bengalis were traitors, Indian agents etc. – and so the army operation was launched. To support the army operation against the Bengali Muslims, the Jamaat-e-Islami formed the militant force Al-Badr and Al-Shams. And so began the massacre of Bengalis, prominent intellectuals were murdered and 3,00,000 Bengali Muslim young girls from the age of 11 were raped and gang raped – thus committing the rape of the Two-Nation Theory. General A K Niazi used to proudly ask the army personnel, “O’ Shera, what was your score today?” i.e. how many Muslim Bengali girls and women had they raped on a particular day? This barbarism, oppression and ruthless cruelty was not committed by non-Muslims but by the Champions of the Two-Nation Theory. If today, a political and religious party denies its participation in this barbarism and blames this on the then army generals – then honour, magnanimity, conscience and humanity demands that instead of organizing rallies for their interests and rule – they must rally to bring the criminals who raped the Two-Nation Theory to justice and awarded exemplary punishment. Today, the Province of Balochistan, Sindh and NWFP are facing more or less the same situation as the then East Pakistan. Instead of heeding to the legitimate demands of the people of smaller provinces, they are accused of being traitors, anti-Pakistan and foreign agents.  The chauvinist intellectuals and powerful institutions must now think positively, learn lessons from bitter experiences of the past and not engage in the conspiracies of further disintegrating the country. He prayed to Almighty Allah for the sustenance, sovereignty and safety of today’s Pakistan.