Pakistan's founding father wanted religious freedom for Pakistanis
Jedi
in the constitution of Pakistan. Ayub khan added Islam to it and
Pervez added Jihad to it. Today Pakistan is suffering the results of
violent fundamentalist Islam thus Pakistanis should redefine their
nation with religious freedom as their founding father wanted.
Presidential Address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan at
Karachi
August 11, 1947
If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of
you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations
he had with you in the past, no matter what is his color, caste or
creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal
rights, privileges and obligations, there will be no end to the
progress you will make.
I cannot emphasize it too much. We should begin to work in that spirit
and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and
minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim community -
because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias,
Sunnis and so on and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas,
Khatris, also Bengalis, Madrasis, and so on - will vanish. Indeed if
you ask me this has been the biggest hindrance in the way of India to
attain the freedom and independence and but for this we would have
been free peoples long long ago. No power can hold another nation, and
specially a nation of 400 million souls in subjection; nobody could
have conquered you, and even if it had happened, nobody could have
continued its hold on you for any length of time but for this.
Therefore, we must learn a lesson from this. You are free; you are
free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to
any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong
to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the
business of the State.