Quaid's Motto
With Quaid’s birth day drawing nearer, I once again feel duty bound to request , as I have been doing in the past many years, the very few still alive and around who have had the honour of seeing him, hearing him or meeting him to come forward and restore the original motto of the Quaid in its true letter and spirit. The motto given by the Quaid was “Unity, Faith and Discipline” and its Urdu official translation used to be Ittehad, Yaqeen and Tanzeem. Yaqeen was later changed into Yaqeen-e-Muhkam and used to be illustrated by Liaqat Ali Khan’s raised clenched fist warning the Indians who had amassed their troops along our borders for the first time in 1951. Some how now not only the order of the motto has been altered by relegating Unity (Ittehad) to second place after Faith but also ‘Yaqeen’ or ‘Yaqeen-e-Muhkam’ has been Islamised into Eeman by the Islam Pasand leaders to gain cheap popularity. I distinctly remember Quaid defining Faith when asked by a student delegation in 1946 as, ” Have Faith in yourself. Have Faith in your destiny – Pakistan. And have Faith in Allah”. Where does Eeman come into it, is beyond me ? Let’s not forget that Quaid’s motto is for the entire nation which also comprises of Hindus, Christians Sikhs, Parsees, Zoroastrians, and even the Jews – though very few. Are we not confining the motto to the Muslims only by introducing Eeman into it, or is it not meant any more for the other communities living in Pakistan ?
It is, therefore, the national and moral duty of the few living elders and the various factions of the Muslim League, each one of which claims to be the true heirs of the Quaid’s Muslim League, to correct the situation. I request them all to come forward in the print and electronic media to do so, for, no one has the right to change the Quaid’s motto.
Quaid-e-Azam Zinda Bad
Pakistan Painda Bad
Yours etc.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
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