Pakteahouse: by Yasir Latif Hamdani: “Professor emeritus” Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed is the sort who loves to take liberties with the facts. In his article today “Jinnah and secularism” he has resorted to two outright lies which need to be exposed so that people are not misguided.
The article began well enough: “The vision of Pakistan Jinnah spelled out on August 11, 1947 is the closest any leader in the Indian subcontinent approximated to an ideal secular state: a state that treats its citizens as equals irrespective of their caste, creed or colour.” Agreed.
Then Ishtiaq sb goes on to say: “However, when someone asked him if he was prescribing a secular state, Jinnah retorted dismissively that India was a secular state and he surely did not have in mind any such ideal.”
This is not true. There is no evidence for it but instead we have evidence to the contrary. Kiran Shankar Roy had asked Jinnah in his point of order to clarify whether Pakistan would be a secular state or not to which Jinnah had made the 11th August speech.
Categories: Asia, Awareness, Secularism, Separation of Church and State