When asked to write something
on 14th August, I thought long and hard about what I could say. I was at a loss
of words as celebrating our independence seemed a little strange to me given the
current situation of my city, Karachi. So I decided to ask others how they
thought 14th August must be celebrated and while all said that a celebration was
necessary one woman’s response resonated in my mind the most. She said to me
‘What I look forward to seeing in Karachi this 14th August is our green and
white flag flying proudly, rather than the colorful flags we have become
accustomed to seeing these days.’ By colorful flags she meant the political
flags that have become more commonplace in Karachi than our national flag. Her
problem was not with our political affiliations but with the fact that we had
forgotten our Pakistani heritage in the process.
For others Karachi’s situation was terribly saddening but they felt 14th August
would serve as day where the nation would come together under one identity, to
forget all ethnic, religious or sectarian differences. So the verdict was that
the day must be celebrated so we could be reminded for just one day that we are
Pakistani’s first and Sindhi, Balochi, Pakhtun or Punjabi second. These were all
great thoughts and I was greatly impressed with the responses as everyone
remembered that unity was one of the three words of our national motto, coined
by none other than our Quaid, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Finally inspired I sat down to put pen to paper and began writing my piece on
14th August which I had decided would speak of the importance of celebration to
unite our country. Half way through piece procrastination got the best of me and
while browsing through Facebook I found a friend had posted an article on 2011
being the bloodiest year for Karachi since 1995. Shocked I opened up the piece
and found that at least 800 people had been killed in ethnic and political
violence across the city since the beginning of this year. Completely derailed
from my writing by now, I started realizing that this fight between different
ethnicities was not just specific to Karachi but was just a representation of
the problems of our country as a whole. While Muhajirs, Pathans and Sindhi’s
fight amongst one another in Karachi, the Hazara’s in Balochistan are targeted
for no reason other than their religious faith. The Punjab holds an unfair
advantage over all other provinces while the Siraiki’s fight for a separation
from Punjab to form a new province.
Differences and divides are all that have become embedded in our minds by the
crude political games being played in our country. We shouldn’t need a specific
day to remind us that we are Pakistani’s in fact we should celebrate our
Pakistaniat everyday. Our political affiliations and ethnic and religious
differences shouldn’t let us forget our true Pakistani identity. We should be
celebrating diversity and respecting the right of an individual to follow
whichever religion they please.
On August 11th 1947 Jinnah in his address to the constituent assembly said ‘We
are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction
between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed
and another.’ Today the Pakistan portrayed in these words seems like a distant
dream and the wonderful beginning our country was given has been marred by the
discrimination and the hatred we harbor against those that are different from
us. Pakistan was not founded on these principals. Our nation was founded with a
motto of ‘Unity, Faith & Discipline,’ making unity the prerequisite to the
latter words. This motto sums up in only 3 words the solution to Pakistan’s
various problems. Only a united nation can live with tolerance of different
faiths and the discipline to coexist harmoniously with one another. This 14th
August let’s make a promise to remember this motto, not only for a specific day
or in times when the nation is forced together but in the way a motto is meant
to be remembered, as a rule for now and always.