Had Jinnah Lived !!

                                             Had Jinnah lived

                                                    by

                                              Blazing Gun-Riaz Shahid

One theory and perception very popular with people of Pakistan and its
educated classes  is that Pakistan would have had a different history
had its founder QuaidAzam Mohammad Ali Jinnah not died early. It's not
just the man on the street but also the intellectuals who share this
theory. According to this theory, had Jinnah lived longer, He would
have been able to get a constitution framed for Pakistan and settled
all disputes over quantum of  provincial autonomy, nature of
government (presidential or parliamentary) and most importantly  role
of religion and of armed forces. There would have been no military
takeovers, no break-up of Pakistan and no entry of clergy in politics.

A deeper examination of this theory would however produce different
insights. In my view Jinnah's early death had nothing to do with the
failure of democracy in Pakistan. In his own lifetime, Jinnah found it
hard to maintain party discipline after formation of Pakistan. Soon
after formation of Pakistan, a severe power struggle developed between
Nawab Mamdot and Daultana, top Muslim League leaders in Punjab.
Jinnah's close associate Chaudhri Mohammad Ali in his highly acclaimed
biography 'Emergence of Pakistan' has written that Jinnah tried twice
to settle differences between these 2 top leaguers from Punjab but in
the end he gave up.

Chaudhri Mohammad Ali writes that :"Another disease infecting the
political life of Pakistan was factionalism….the Punjab cabinet
instead of working as a united team presented a spectacle pf pretty
squabbles, sordid intrigues, and all other accompaniments of an
intercine war between factions.The highly ambitious Finance Minister
Mumtaz Dultana was ranged against the slow and easy-going Chief
Minister, the Khan of Mamdot. …the Quaid-i-Azam summoned Mamdot,
Daultana and Shaukat Hayat Khan, the Revenue Minister to Karachi to
sort out the ministerial tangle, but even he threw up his hands in
disgust".  (pg 367)

 Had Jinnah lived he would have found increasingly hard to control
his subordinates and would have been forced to take sides in the end,
which would have compromised his impartiality. He could not control
his provincial leaders from fighting for power. How could one expect
him to have been able to force his associates to agree to framing of a
secular constitution and to his choice of a national language had he
lived? Most importantly had he lived, he would have been forced to
make a choice between " Liaquat or Suharwardy" , a choice that could
have proved both  painful & fatal.

Then there is the Pakistani Military. In his lifetime Jinnah had to
face refusal from first chief of Army Staff of Pakistan army General
Douglas Gracy to move troops into Kashmir in October 1947. If within
just 2 months of formation of Pakistan, Jinnah's orders were being
flouted by the military how can we say that had Jinnah lived, military
would have never dared to challenge civilian authority? If one wants
proof of this, one has to see how Pakistani military treated each one
of Jinnah's top lieutenants. They forced Suharwardy into exile where
he did in extremely suspicious circumstances. They removed Feroze Khan
Noon from power just 4 weeks after he had acquired Gawadar for
Pakistan. Gwadar as we all know is the only addition to Pakistani
territory since Independence.They collaborated with civilian
bureaucracy to dismiss Khawja Nazimuddin and Sardar Abdurrab Nishtar
from Government.The latter was so close to Jinnah that he had served
as Muslim League's representative in United India's last Viceroy
Council.The former was so loyal to Jinnah that he despite being a
Bengali stuck out for Urdu being Pakistan's sole national language
till the end of his premiership.  Finally they did not even spare
Jinnah's own sister Madir-e-Millat Fatima Jinnah, who was also the
mother of the nation and defeated her in presidential elections by
blatant rigging and electoral malpractices.

Considering all this, Pakistanis should rejoice that Jinnah passed
away peacefully and early when his legacy was fresh and not endured
the heartbreak he would have suffered definitely had he lived longer.