Tell us, in one short sentence, how would you redraft the Pakistan Resolution, given the many challenges faced by the country today. A selection of readers’ opinions will appear in a Special Report of Dawn on March 23.
Please include your name, age, profession and location to qualify for the opinion to be published.
E.g. “Education and employment for all”
Sabiha Khan, 21, IT professional, Kohat
Pakistan vs India: You have to have your say (742) Reaction on the streets (445) Clouds of match-fixing hover over cricket (426) Reliving March 25, 1992 (293) Swat operation: Is it on the right track? (287) How can Lahore be secured against terrorist attacks? (272) How vital is the ‘keeper? (266) NRO ruling: beginning of the end? (264) Terrorists target Shia procession in Karachi (264) Pakistan and the way forward (259)
Just put in Archives all the past resolutions of Pakistan for the benefit of future historians and forget about them. Let the wise men and women of Pakistan re-define new resolution, made in 2012, to make Pakistan no less stable than any other country of the world with these objectives in mind in order of priority:
1. Safeguard Pakistan from foreign threats
2. Safeguard Pakistan from internal threats
3. Safeguard Pakistan from religious fanatics
4. Safeguard Pakistan from corrupt politicians
5. Safeguard Pakistan from nepotism
6. Safeguard Pakistanis from disease and hunger
7. Ensure every Pakistani man or women , Muslim or Non-Muslim has equal rights.
8. Compulsory and free education to all Pakistani boys or girls up to high school level whether they live in Karachi or remote North-West.
Pakistan constitution should be made secular. Religion can not be part of State. The word Islamic Republic should be removed and Pakistan should be just PAKISTAN. The Mullahs should not be allowed to destroy Pakistan. It is high time to get some new blood in the government of Pakistan, sincere, honest and with a vision for Pakistan. Military is not the only department, there are other more important departments like education, healthcare etc. Madarsas should be banned.
I would like to add I am 78 years old a retired Petroleum Geologist/Oil man. I live in Canada.
Secular, democratic, and confederating country with equal rights and opportunities to all ethnicities, sects and religions forming Pakistan. People and their ethnicities be respected and cherished publically. The definig line has to be, Pakistan was made by Sindh, Punjab, Kashmir, Balochistan, Bengal(now a separate country), KPK hence these units/provinces have the right to define/frame the rules of further coexistence only. Peace with neighbours, curtail defence budget by half atleast to focus the basic needs of masses and bost economy. No wars/ war tenancies be tolerated at least for next fifty years.
Lecturer SIndh university/PhD student Nanotechnolgy, France.
“Secular decentralized Federation with its Federating Units based on Linguistic bases”
Azmat Ali Shah, 28, MS student, Mardan
Pakistanis should come out state of denial and give up siege mentality based of clashes at every level. The state should discourage negative discourses prevalent in Pakistan and encourage to disseminate progressive ideas based on rationality.
Hammad Raza
Coordinator at University of Gujrat, Gujrat
We have over 100 different types of Islam in Pakistan, very much the reason a state formed on the basis of Islam has crippled. We should resolve to make Pakistan a state were every national has equal right, be it male or female, be it from any province or any faith or be it rich or the poor. We should resolve for a Pakistan where Justice, education, medical, and employment comes for all fair and square, a Pakistan where faith, origin, or linguistic does not has any implications towards how a national should be treated or judged.
Pakistan has failed Islam, so no more we should try to justify our existence on basis of religion if we want to survive and thrive.
We should declare Pakistan a socialist estate, and resolve to make this a land of prosperity for anyone who dares to excel and work hard, religion should be respected but the country should not be governed on the basis of religion.
It will be better for Pakistan to united in the name of Islam, where every citizen enjoys full rights.
Democratic state and legal use of borders of the state are the only solutions of the problems and can lead the stability of the state which is the motto of resolution.
Name: Muhammad Faheem Channa
PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER
25 years
New Saeedabad, District Matiari.
Democratic state and legal use of borders of the state are the only solutions of the problems and can lead the stability of the state which is the motto of resolution.
A true Federation where equality is must and must for all the federating units in all matters. E.g. same number of seats and same power for all provinces. This only can save Pakistan.
It is crying need of hour to uphold that: “Execution of law is more important than its legislation”. Panacea of our deterioration is, that all powerful or otherwise should be accountable before the writ of the state equally and indiscriminately.
Shakeel Ghouri, 23, Educationalist, Digri District Mirpurkhas.
Well said
It is crying need of hour to uphold that: “Execution of law is more important the its legislation”. Panacea of our deterioration is, that all powerful or otherwise to be accountable before law equally and indiscriminately.
Shakeel Ghouri, 23, Educationalist, Digri District Mirpurkhas.
Our problems do not originate from Pakistan Resolution rather come from wrong interpretation(s) of the same.
Saad Maqsood, 38, Private Service. Karachi
Pakistani nation must focuse on education on emergency bases and awareness about their rights ,basically once again we are sleeping and morally dead nation need another Iqbal ,don’t need to liberal because being Muslim ISLAM is the best religion gives u guidance in everyway of life,
“Pakistan will be a secular democratic nation based on progressive values and brotherly relations with the neighbours with whom we share common blood, not on imaginative, baseless and false political propaganda called ideology of pakistan.”
Vish, 24, Karachi
“It will be a democratic secular social welfare state with equal rights to minorities and brotherhood with neighbors, empowering youth through modern education and unbiased historical legacy of thousands of years for the inclusive participation and growth”
Rehaan, 26, Associate Manager, Hyderabad
“The State shall not become a party to any religious dispute nor discriminate against its citizens on any grounds, including religious ones, to any extent whatsoever.”
Energy, Education and Security.
All this talk of secularism, corruption, extremism and the like denies the fundamental lack of the three things mentioned above in Pakistan. We should not force people to believe in a philosophy or ideology simply because it suits us. People deserve the freedom of belief, in fact, this was what Jinnah wanted. We must simply ensure people do use violence or the threat of violence in the propagation of their respective ideologies. All else that we desire in Pakistan will come after we solve the Energy, Education and Security crises.
Mikal Khoso, 15, Student, Ethiopia.
Pakistan Resolution was a road map for the creation of Pakistan but now there is a dire need to ensure its sovereignty and welfare of all the citizens with adoption of “Pakistani-ism” as the focal point of any such resolution .
Rizwan MD, 27, Doctor, Lahore.
pakistan Resolution is the foundation of the federation of four provinces of pakistan.it promised a federal form with autonomous and soveriegn federating states.though the resolution was realised on aug 14th 1947 but never in totality.strong centralism by civil and military bureacracies stopped the growth of democracy in this part of the universe and made pakistan a security state at the disposal of national exchequer and provincial autonomy which gave birth to Bangladesh and also baloch uprising.today a real threat to national integrity is again in place.it was because of the non_implementation of pak-resolution that today we are politically instable,financially weak and socially fragmented.we must revisit pak-resolution with a view to stregnthen our federation.
Simply implement the 1940 Lahore, or Pakistan resolution that seeks that “adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in the units and in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights of the minorities.”
One word: Secularism. I don’t care that the majority of Pakistanis are against it. The majority of Pakistanis are also uneducated and corrupt. I’m sick and tired of the mullanahs running this country, it’s politics, laws, society and education. Religion is a personal matter and should be dealt with in a similar fashion. We’ve fallen far behind countries like Bangladesh that have made it illegal for laws to be based on divine sources alone. I think many Pakistanis don’t realise the extent to which extremism and sectarian violnce prevails within the nation today.
Saad, 19, Student, Karachi
We need to create sense of patience and adoption of new trends, while killing extreme thoughts in every field.
I am an Indian citizen and a non-Muslim, at present living in Delhi, India. There is need to ensure that in this day and age States in the world – all of them – are built on the secular foundation. It will not do to have a State – whether a Kingdom or a Republic – on the basis of any one religion. If we do not follow this, we shall necessarily engage in genocide, whether declared or not.
V. C. Bhutani
Retired university teacher
Aged 72 years
Delhi, India
Ex-Rawalpindi
There is need to ensure that in this day and age States in the world – all of them – are built on the secular foundation. It will not do to have a State – whether a Kingdom or a Republic – on the basis of any one religion. If we do not follow this, we shall necessarily engage in genocide, whether declared or not.