23 March holds a Significant place in the History of Pakistan

[air marshal]

23 March holds a Significant place in the History of Pakistan
March 13, 2008

Rawalpindi: 23 March holds a significant place in the history of Pakistan. To mark this day in a befitting manner, an Armed Forces Pakistan Day Parade is held every year in Islamabad. This year it is being held at Jinnah Sports Complex. Preparations are in full swing to organise the parade in a befitting manner. Participating troops and organisers are busy round the clock in rehearsals and making other administrative arrangements.

A full dress rehearsal of the Parade will be held on 20th March. General public is welcome to witness the full dress rehearsal. Organisers have earmarked the Red, Blue, Green and Yellow Enclosures for General Public, College / School Students and families of Junior Commissioned Officers, Non Commissioned Officers and Jawans. Armed Forces Officers and their families will be seated in White I and White II Enclosures.

Organisers have requested that those interested to witness the full dress rehearsal may be seated before 8:30 a.m. on 20th March, after which entry to the parade venue will be closed. To facilitate commuters, special traffic arrangements have also been made. Traffic plan will be publicised in electronic and print media to facilitate those coming to witness the parade. Guests are advised to follow the markings (coloured arrows) fixed along roads, indicating the route to their parking areas / enclosures.

Guests are requested to bring their National Identity Cards (NADRA issued) with them. Armed Forces Personnel to be in possession of their Service Identity Cards. Guests are requested not to bring mobile telephones, video / still cameras, electronic car key chains, weapons / fire arms, ammunition, incendiary material, hand bags and eatables etc with them.

Link: Pakistan Air Force

 

[mujahideen]

March 23 is indeed a significant holiday. My only wish is that I wish that the people who were the majority of the delegates on that day were still apart of Pakistan. But in 1971 the Lahore Resolution lost half of its sprit. What little is left of its sprit we must work to keep it together.

 

[salman nedian]

March 23 is indeed a significant holiday. My only wish is that I wish that the people who were the majority of the delegates on that day were still apart of Pakistan. But in 1971 the Lahore Resolution lost half of its sprit. What little is left of its sprit we must work to keep it together.

I m very much optimistic you know what I believe that we should be strong and dedicated enough to complete Pakistan. There are many ways to achieve this and I m observing that the environment in Dhaka is changing.
March 23rd is the day of joy but there is another day in the same month which is a mole on March’s face i.e. the 25th of March.
We are watching many events around us and we can see that we should be aggressive to be independent in a true way.
We should work for a sovereign, strong and United Pakistan.

 

[mujahideen]

Pakistan Day Parade arrangements finalised

ISLAMABAD: To mark the Pakistan Day on March 23 in a befitting manner, an armed forces parade will be held here at the Jinnah Sports Complex, while the Capital police have issued security advisory for the event.

According to the ISPR, a full dress rehearsal of the parade will be held on March 20. The public is welcomed to witness the rehearsal.

The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration, Capital police, and traffic police have chalked out comprehensive plans to ensure security, smooth flow of traffic and peaceful conduct of the day.

To facilitate the commuters, special traffic arrangements have also been made.

Traffic plan will be publicised in the electronic and print media to facilitate those coming to witness the parade.

The ICT has requested guests to bring their computerised national identity cards (CNIC) with them for entry to the parade venue. The armed forces personnel have been asked to bring their services identity cards.

Pakistan Day Parade arrangements finalised

 

[mujahideen]

Lahore Resolution [1940]

From March 22 to March 24, 1940, the All India Muslim League held its annual session at Minto Park, Lahore. This session proved to be historical.

On the first day of the session, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah narrated the events of the last few months. In an extempore speech he presented his own solution of the Muslim problem. He said that the problem of India was not of an inter-communal nature, but manifestly an international one and must be treated as such. To him the differences between Hindus and the Muslims were so great and so sharp that their union under one central government was full of serious risks. They belonged to two separate and distinct nations and therefore the only chance open was to allow them to have separate states.

In the words of Quaid-i-Azam: "Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs and literature. They neither inter-marry nor inter-dine and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations that are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their concepts on life and of life are different. It is quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other, and likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state".



He further said, "Mussalmans are a nation according to any definition of nation. We wish our people to develop to the fullest spiritual, cultural, economic, social and political life ina way that we think best and in consonance with our own ideals and according to the genius of our people". On the basis of the above mentioned ideas of the Quaid, A. K. Fazl-ul-Haq, the then Chief Minister of Bengal, moved the historical resolution which has since come to be known as Lahore Resolution or Pakistan Resolution

The Resolution declared: "No constitutional plan would be workable or acceptable to the Muslims unless geographical contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary. That the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in majority as in the North-Western and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign".

It further reads, "That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in the units and in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights of the minorities, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of Muslims where they were in a minority".



The Resolution repudiated the concept of United India and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state consisting of Punjab, N. W. F. P., Sindh and Baluchistan in the northwest, and Bengal and Assam in the northeast. The Resolution was seconded by Maulana Zafar Ali Khan from Punjab, Sardar Aurangzeb from the N. W. F. P., Sir Abdullah Haroon from Sindh, and Qazi Esa from Baluchistan, along with many others.

The Resolution was passed on March 24. It laid down only the principles, with the details left to be worked out at a future date. It was made a part of the All India Muslim League's constitution in 1941. It was on the basis of this resolution that in 1946 the Muslim League decided to go for one state for the Muslims, instead of two.

Having passed the Pakistan Resolution, the Muslims of India changed their ultimate goal. Instead of seeking alliance with the Hindu community, they set out on a path whose destination was a separate homeland for the Muslims of India.

Pakistan News PakTribune.Com

 

[mujahideen]

The Pakistan Resolution

Jinnah's Lahore address lowered the final curtain on any prospects for a single united independent India. Those who understood him enough know that once his mind was made up he never reverted to any earlier position realized how momentous a pronouncement their Quaid-i-Azam had just made. The rest of the world would take at least seven years to appreciate that he literally meant every word that he had uttered that important afternoon in March. There was no turning back. The ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity had totally transformed himself into Pakistan's great leader. All that remained was for his party first, then his inchoate nation, and then his British allies to agree to the formula he had resolved upon. As for Gandhi, Nehru, Azad and the rest, they were advocates of a neighbor state and would be dealt with according to classic canons of diplomacy. - Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan.

The British had been compelled to recognize the Muslim League as the sole representative of the Muslims of India by 1940 and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah as its undisputed leader.

Time and Tide of London published an article by Jinnah on January 19, 1940 under the caption "The Constitutional Future of India". He maintained: "Democratic systems based on the concept of a homogeneous nation such as England are very definitely not applicable to heterogeneous countries such as India." He called the Hindus and the Muslims "two different nations" with different religions and different social codes. It is obvious that by calling the Hindus and the Muslims two nations, Jinnah had reached the threshold of partition, but he was still reluctant to abandon his lifelong dream that Hindus and the Muslims would come to an understanding and in unison make "their common motherland " one of "the great countries of the world".

The Quaid-i-Azam crossed the barrier at the Lahore session of the Muslim League in March 1940. He traveled to Lahore from Delhi in a colorfully decorated train on which green flags were mounted, bearing the emblem of the Muslim League: the crescent and star.

Jinnah decided to address a public gathering on the opening day. It was a huge gathering of the Leaguers, the Khaksars and the Muslims at Minto Park (now Iqbal Park). Jinnah had expounded the rationale of the resolution in his presidential address that lasted for hundred minutes and frequently punctuated by thunderous applause. Though, most of his audience of over 100,000 did not know English, he held their attention and visibly touched their emotion. He asserted that the Muslims were "a nation by any definition". In his historical address he laid the foundation of a separate state for the Muslims of India:

"The Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs, and literature. They neither inter-marry, nor inter-dine together, and indeed they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their aspects on life are different. It is quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspirations from different sources of history. They have different epics, their heroes are different, and they have different episodes. Very often the hero of one is foe of the other, and likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and the final destruction of any fabric that may be so built for the government of such a state."

The session began with Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan presenting the annual report on March 23, 1940. After the report, Maulana Fazlul Haq from Bengal, moved the famous Lahore Resolution, better known as the Pakistan Resolution, "…the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North-Western and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute 'Independent States' in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign." The resolution was seconded by Choudhry Khaliquzzaman who gave a brief history of the causes which led the Muslims to demand a separate state for themselves. Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Sardar Aurangzeb Khan, Sir Abdullah Haroon, Nawab Ismail Khan, Qazi Mohammad Isa and I.I Chundigar supported it, among others.

The resolution passed in Lahore on March 23, created a scare in the minds of the Congress and the Hindus. They could see that the Muslim League had now openly advocated the division of India into "Independent States." The Quaid had anticipated the Hindu reaction and had taken organizational steps to face the opposition of the Hindus. He himself set an example of calm courage and an iron determination to lead the Muslims to their cherished goal of freedom. The Pakistan Resolution released the potential creative energies of the Muslims and even the humblest amongst them made his contribution for the achievement of Pakistan. The Quaid knew that without a well-defined goal that could be understood even by the simplest Muslim, there could be no real awakening of the Muslims. The Pakistan Resolution gave them a legible, objective and reachable goal: Pakistan.

THE GREAT LEADER......

 

[pakistanheritage]

Other posts in this series for March 23, 2007 - here and here.

March 23 commemorates the passage of what was originally the ‘Lahore Resolution’ (Qarardad i Lahore) and later became better known as the ‘Pakistan Resolution’ (Qarardad i Pakistan). If there is a single most important founding document of Pakistan, it has to be this Resolution passed at the annual session of the All India Muslim League at its 1940 meeting (22-24 March) at Minto Park (now called Iqbal Park), Lahore (by the way, what a wonderful idea - for political parties to have annual, open, meaningful, annual sessions where real decisions are taken in a transparent and democratic manner!). In 1941, this Lahore (Pakistan) Resolution became part of the Muslim League constitution and in 1946 it became the basis of the demand for Pakistan.

Most Pakistanis know what the resolution says; or, at least we think we do; in most cases rightly so. But because we are so very sure that we know what it says, we usually do not take the time to actually read it. Maybe we should. And there cannot be a better day to do so than today.

It is, like many of the most important documents in history, a fairly short text. I reproduce it here in full. The first two paragraphs are contextual related to the then discussions on federation within the Government of India Act 1935. The third and the fourth paragraphs are the key operational content which is usually cited in textbooks. However, my view is that the final short paragraph is also key; especially in that it talks in the plural about “respective regions” (as do previous paragraphs).

While approving and endorsing the action taken by the Council and the Working Committee of the All-India Muslim League, as indicated in their resolutions dated the 27th of August, 17th & 18th September and 22nd of October, 1939, and 3rd of February, 1940 on the constitutional issue, this Session of the All-India Muslim League emphatically reiterates that the scheme of federation embodied in the Government of India Act 1935, is totally unsuited to, and unworkable in the peculiar conditions of this country and is altogether unacceptable to Muslim India.

It further records its emphatic view that while the declaration dated the 18th of October, 1939 made by the Viceroy on behalf of His Majesty’s Government is reassuring in so far as it declares that the policy and plan on which the Government of India Act, 1935, is based will be reconsidered in consultation with various parties, interests and communities in India, Muslims in India will not be satisfied unless the whole constitutional plan is reconsidered de novo and that no revised plan would be acceptable to Muslims unless it is framed with their approval and consent.

Minar i PakistanResolved that it is the considered view of this Session of the All-India Muslim League that no constitutional plan would be workable in this country or acceptable to the Muslims unless it is designed on the following basic principles, viz., that geographically contiguous units’ are demarcated into regions which should be constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North Western and Eastern Zones of (British) India should be grouped to constitute “independent States” in which the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign.

That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards should be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in these units in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultations with them and in other parts of (British) India where the Mussalmans (Muslims) are in a majority adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in constitution for them and other minorities for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultation with them.

This session further authorises the Working Committee to frame a scheme of constitution in accordance with these basic principles, providing for the assumption finally by the respective regions of all powers such as defense, external affairs, communications, customs and such other matters as may be necessary.

Pakistan flag dimensionsApart from the fact that the Resolution talks clearly about “respective regions” (words that have import in the context of the events of 1971), I find the 4th paragraph particularly important. The complex structure of the language notwithstanding, the sentiment is clear as is its emphasis on the rights of minorities - not just of Muslims as a minority but of non-Muslim minorities in areas where they envisaged Muslim sovereignty. In such a short document, for the founding fathers to have devoted so much space to this issue would suggest that they - having lived as a minority themselves - considered the subject of minority rights to be of particular importance. This is one of the many areas where we were

March 23, 1940: Lahore (Pakistan) Resolution