Happy Pakistan Day - Part II

Continued from my last post Happy Pakistan Day

Having seen ample evidence that Lahore Resolution was not the “only one” of its kind and the first proposal of partition, it becomes imperative now to examine the Resolution in further detail. How the truths about this Resolution have been distorted deliberately has a lot to do with today’s Pakistan. The fall-out of this distortion and outright murder of history, on Pakistan and its relation with neighboring India today is beyond the level we can imagine.

The textbooks and reinforcing media messages, owned completely by the state and the people, claim that the Resolution was adopted on this twenty-third day of March of the year nineteen hundred and forty. No lie can be whiter than this! According to the Proceedings of the 27th Annual Session of All India Muslim League, a Reception Committee was established for receiving the delegates. The “Nawab” of Mamdot was the Chairman of this Committee who opened the session on March 22, 1940 with a short address at 3:00 pm. His address was followed by Mr. Jinnah’s long speech, which for a change was not written, who was presiding over the session. The session was adjourned after this speech only to be re-met on March 23, 1940 at 3:00 pm.

At the beginning of the second day March 23, Maulvi Fazl-e-Haq of Bengal introduced the resolution, which was seconded by Chaudhri Khaliquzzaman. Both of them spoke on the Resolution for a while after which Zafar Ali Khan, Sardar Aurangzeb Khan and Sir Abdullah Haroon delivered their speeches (names are in the order of their speeches).  The session was then adjourned again to be met the next day. On March 24, 1940, the session began in the morning at 11:15 am. A non-interactive discussion on the Resolution started with the speeches of Leagui leaders from United Provinces, Balochistan and Madras. Till this time Mr. Jinnah was not present on the occasion. After the speech of Abdul Hamid Khan, Jinnah entered the venue and took the Presiding seat. Speeches in favour of the Resolution continued by other leaders. After another hour and a half, Jinnah intervened and let another resolution on Palestine to be introduced to the house. After a few speeches in favour of this second resolution, the session adjourned to be re-met at 9:00 pm the same night.

In the night session, two more speeches were made by Sayyid Zakir Ali and Begum Mohammad Ali – the only woman speaker of the occasion – in favour of the Lahore Resolution before the announcement of vote by show of hand. The Resolution was adopted although, without any dissenting vote –meaning unanimously. Two more resolutions were moved and passed without discussion afterwards, one on the Khaksaars and other on the amendment to Party’s constitution. After which, office bearers of All India Muslim League, for the next year were elected. The session was, then wound up at 11:30 pm by Mr Jinnah with a short concluding speech. So the Resolution Day that we commemorate on March 23, was actually passed (adopted) a litter earlier than the midnight between March 24 and 25, 1940.

You must be, dear reader, wondering why so much ranting about just a date? The date can very conveniently have been changed from the texts had it been an error of misprinting or typology. But there’s much more to it. For the reminder of posterity, may I recall here when Pakistan was created. Was it a day earlier than the Independence of India on 15th of August 1947? Another lie. Both the countries became dominions of the Crown of England simultaneously at the midnight between August 14 and 15, 1947. Our India-centric leadership decided to mark August 14 as the “Creation of Pakistan” day as distinction from Indian Independence Day.

But how is it related to our twenty-third day of March celebrations? A great deal. We did NOT get independence on Aug 14, 1947. We were still under the crown, observing the colonial law as our constitution (Government of India Act 1935). This made it impending on both the juvenile nation states to make and promulgate their constitution to grant themselves “Independence”. India did that in 1949 – right after 26 months of partition. They passed it o n Nov 26, 1949 and promulgated on Jan 26, 1950, which to date stands as the longest written constitution of any independent state of the world. They celebrate this day as their Republic Day.

Pakistan could, for reasons understandable, do it in 1955. We were able to promulgate it on the twenty-third day of March 1956, which became since then, our Republican day. The Yaum-e-Jamhooriya Pakistan – Pakistan Republican Day. The nation was happy although it did not have any say in authorship of that constitution but still it made them free from British Crown forever. We started commemorating it every year since then. And then a soldier came to reign in, on October 1958. The soldier felt ridiculous on the eve of third Republican Day, March 1959 to commemorate the birth of a constitution he himself had abrogated. His advisors came up with the idea to slightly twist the reason to celebrate. Thence the Republican Day of Pakistan became Pakistan Day.

What pains me is, how easily the people of Pakistan let them go scot-free. Today when we are living in a democratic independent state, we still are carrying on this farce. We still do not realize how this lie has impacted our psyches. We’re deliberately keeping ourselves oblivious. We are just not bothered. Little do we realize that an honest account of history is an undeniable right of posterity. We have committed a crime against time without realizing that it can prove too ferocious and vengeful an enemy if taken lightly!

In the next post, we’ll analyze the contents of the Lahore Resolution to make head and tail of what our leaders wanted out of that.