Not true democracy
(Syed Mujtaba Hussain, karachi)
“A democracy is nothing
more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the
rights of the other forty-nine,” Thomas Jefferson. We live in such an
ideologically, insecure country which is hell-bent on maintaining its own kind
of ‘Islamic Republic,’ that we misreport the percentage of minorities in our
census. The minority community has played an important role in the creation of
Pakistan, but they have been deprived of their rights since 1947.
Quaid-i-Azam in his address, to the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on
August 11, 1947 said: “You are free to go to your temples; you are free to go to
your mosques and to any other place. With the passage of the ‘Objective
Resolution’ the fate of minorities in this country was sealed forever and the
dream of the state envisaged by Quaid-i-Azam died! Islam seeks to establish such
a society where all citizens of the state enjoy equal rights, and religion does
not become the basis for any discrimination.
Islamic law holds both Muslims and non-Muslims equal and no superiority or
privilege is given to the Muslims on any ground. I am involved in a freedom
ride, protesting the loss of the minority rights. All we demand is our right to
shine and the freedom to practice our religion with immunity under the Pakistani
flag.