Ideology of Pakistan and the Curse of Provincialism

[muhammadmohsinali]

Formation of new provinces on administrative grounds could be tolerated, notwithstanding the sectionalism, language, colour, race, tribalism and ethnicity. But otherwise, it could be fatal and extremely lethal to the solidarity and even integrity of Pakistan. The proponents of the Siraiki province know that very well, or have been well briefed about that fact. And, therefore, they have invented the formation of a new province in Punjab consisting of the areas now included in southern Punjab, known as Siraiki province, simply based upon division of Punjab on linguistic lines. The question arises, should this be condoned in a country which has been created on the basis of a common religion and which has ideological foundations for its creation. If this was not the fact, what remained pivotal to its creation? Secularism? If yes, then what was the purpose of division of India which claims to be secular and why was Punjab divided from its eastern part which had lingual commonality with the rest of province? Quaid-i-Azam, the founder of this great nation, always hated the idea of provincialism and termed it deadly for the solidarity of the Pakistani nation. On many occasions, he condemned provincialism and said that once Hindus failed in their bid to thwart creation of Pakistan, they resorted to divide the Muslims of Pakistan along the lines of ethnicity, language and race. Once this split has been created through formation of provinces along linguistic lines, the dogma of ideology of Pakistan will be automatically nullified and stage will be prepared to divide the country on ethnic basis. The seeds of racism and ethnicity were sown when east-Pakistan broke away in 1971. It was not a matter of few years or months; rather the Hindus and the communists in East Pakistan took two decades to grow the crop of hatred, Bangla nationalism, anarchy and chaos based upon ethnicity and racism. The idea was hammered into the minds of the east Pakistanis by the Hindu teachers, politicians and businessmen. That they were not Muslims or Pakistanis first, and instead their identity was Bangla language, race and culture, delineated them from the rest of West Pakistanis. “You are separate nation”, You have been grabbed by the foreign occupation forces who are exploiting your resources and misusing your wealth” were some of the propaganda slogans launched by RAW, communists, Hindu extremists and their puppets inside east-Pakistan. East and West Pakistan were united because of a common ideology -- the ideology of Islam -- and once that was neutralized through obnoxious propaganda and formation of nationalist parties and mafias like Awami league, the division bells rang louder and louder. This shows that shaking ideological foundations of any nation or state begets catastrophic outcomes. Pakistan, which has been founded on Islamic ideology, can be routed if its basic building block, its ideology, is shattered. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, while addressing a huge gathering in Quetta on 5th June 1948, talked about the sinister perils of provincialism. He said: “It naturally pains me to find the curse of provincialism holding sway over any section of Pakistan. Pakistan must be rid of this evil. It is relic of the old administration when you clung to provincial autonomy and local liberty of action to avoid control–which meant–British control. But with your own Central Government and its power, it is a folly to continue to think in the same terms, especially at a time when your State is so new and faces such tremendous problems, internal and external. At this juncture any subordination of the larger interest of the State to the provincial or local or personal interest would be suicidal…. We are now all Pakistanis–not Baluchis, Pathans, Sindhis, Bengalis, Punjabis and so on–and as Pakistanis we must feet behave and act, and we should be proud to be known as Pakistanis and nothing else”. This fact is self explanatory when we see that Sindh, Punjab, Rajasthan and many other areas of former united India were divided on religious lines and not ethnic or linguistic lines. So any move to carve out new provinces is contradictory to the vision of Quaid-e-Azam, dreams of the Indian Muslims and Allama Iqbal, and the objectives of the creation of Pakistan Today, the hot debate of a Siraiki province is going on, aiming at dividing Punjab on ethnic and linguist lines. ANP and Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party are talking of a Pashtoon province in Baluchistan. Not only this, but the neo-nationalists are talking of a Potohar province to be named Hazara, FATA province, Swat and Malakand province and so on. It’s like a Pandora’s Box, which, if once opened, will only close at the expense of the integrity of the state of Pakistan, which was created on the basis of the two-nation theory! It seems that those powers who have limited the role of national parties to respective provinces, like PPP to Sindh and PML-N to Punjab, have undertaken the grim task of splitting the country along linguistic and racial lines to make balkanization of Pakistan an easy task for them. Prime Minster Gilani wants to play the Siraiki province card to win his seat in future. This is dirty politics based upon regionalism and ethnicity. Of course the foreign masters of NRO-stricken rulers are manipulating and harnessing the anti-Pakistan attitude of our rulers. The same foreign masters are funding and harnessing other politicians too, who, under the garb of nationalist politics, are actually playing to the tunes of foreign agencies and everybody knows about them. They have penetrated the ranks of political parties and are playing the deadly game of regionalism, racism and so called provincial autonomy. Now provincial autonomy is the legacy of British colonial rule based upon trickery and exploitation. This has sown the seeds of nationalism, social disorder and disarray. So provincialism and provincial autonomy are synonymous with unruliness, lack of central control, pandemonium and utter turmoil. The recent wave of terror in Karachi is fuelled by the Indian / Israeli terrorists who have infiltrated the ranks of the political parties. It is they who have put Pakistan on top of a ticking time bomb. In a recent discovery made by the ISI, it has been found that many politicians of Karachi are on the payroll of RAW and other Indian terrorist organizations. So the growing rhetoric about formation of new provinces on the basis of language and provincial autonomy by these politicians is self explanatory. It is the need of the hour that a ban is imposed on all regional and nationalist parties since their creation is contradictory to the objectives of the creation of Pakistan, its ideology and its constitution. If it is not possible through a legal framework, it can be achieved through conducting elections on the principles of proportional representation. The urge of creation of new provinces as shown by few politicians should be controlled with an iron hand, and all such politicians should be scrutinized by the ISI for their sources of income and their foreign connection with spy agencies. It should be mandatory for all parties to register their workers and the record should be handed over to the national security agencies for their scrutiny. For next 5 years, a national security emergency should be imposed through formation of a new national government of technocrats, and anti-state elements should be tried in summary courts. No new provinces, no more provincial autonomy, and all terrorist should be handled with an iron hand. National security emergency is the need of the hour, if we are to thrive as an integrated, united, prosperous and strong nation.