Pakistan’s Incomplete Independence Day
The profound Choudhry Rahmat Ali was not only the inventor of Pakistan’s name but in great part he was the inventor of Pakistan’s purpose. His seminal 1933 work Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever? also know as the Pakistan Declaration outlined the supreme necessity of a south Asian homeland for Muslims as a rampart against violent, terror and mayhem. Choudhry Rahmat Ali also named Pakistan for each of its western provinces with the ‘K’ in Pakistan standing for Kashmir.
And yet whilst much of Kashmir stands annexed by India against the wishes of the Kahmiri people, Pakistan’s own independence is thoroughly incomplete. The importance of the two-nation theory that Choudhry Rahmat Ali argued for with such clarity is now beyond dispute. The key to Pakistan’s sustained survival now rests upon the completion of its liberating mission by securing the peace and freedom of Kashmiris.
The road ahead is a dark one and it is a grim one but the necessity of such persistence remains of paramount importance for the Pakistani state.
Because Pakistan was founded on an ideal, there is a grave danger that when politicians grow complacent, the very purpose of the nation will flounder and when this happens, the floodgates will be opened and those who never wanted Pakistan to be born and who cannot live with the reality that Pakistan was born, will rush in to do the dirty works they have perfected for over half a century.
The annexation of Kashmir is the fault not only of the hundreds of thousands of heavily armed soldiers setting upon Kashmiris as they sleep but it is also the fault of complacent rulers whose selfish mindsets allowed the rape of Kashmir to turn into an outright slaughter.
Today, on Pakistan’s independence day, celebrations are not in order. Today ought to be one of sorrow, mourning and anger. The Kashmiri people have been betrayed by the world and as such, Pakistan’s own national mission has yet to be fulfilled. Until all of Kashmir is peaceful and secure, Pakistan will only be a partly rather than a fully free and independent state.
By Adam Garrie
Source: Eurasia Future
