Open Letter To Dina Wadia

My Dear Dina

Welcome to Pakistan! The country handcrafted by your illustrious father. Quiad-i-Azam to Millions of Pakistanis and your loving and doting “Grey Wolf”. Your visit must have brought back a flood of memories and taken you back to 1948 when the nascent Pakistani nation was orphaned and you bid a tearful farewell to that giant among pygmies who had the great distinction of changing the map of the sub continent and carving a nation state out of thin air.

To day Pakistan stands at the cross currents of history. On one side are the forces of extremism, obscurantism and religious bigotry while on the other side are the forces of tolerance, freedom, democracy, social justice and fraternity. In the words of your father and my Quaid-i-Azam, “ The establishment of Pakistan for which we have been striving for the last ten years, is, by the grace of God an established fact today, but the creation of a state of our own was a means to an end and not an end in itself”; the end, my dear Dina, is his dream for Pakistan.

A lot of water has flowed under the Ravi Bridge since the death of your beloved father since then everything has changed radically. It is a different world; moral, social, and ethical values have been transformed. Pakistani society of today is a consumer society in love with the gods of materialism and subservient to the dark and sinister forces of obscurantism and fundamentalism. Decay and rot has already set in; the stench is powerful and all pervading. It is the stink of a rotting carcass and the vultures are gathering and circling overhead, preparing to move in for the final onslaught

The two-nation theory was an idea of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, nurtured as an ideal by successive Muslim leaders and orchestrated into idealism by freedom fighters ranging from Mohammed. Ali Jauhar, Hasrat Mohani, Raja Sahib Mehmudabad, Nawab Ismail, Fazl-e- Haque and Suharwardy and finally given tangible form by giant idealists such as Mohammed.Ali Jinnah and Liaquiat Ali. The great idealist Allama Iqbal gave poetic form to an ideal dream but did not live to see his idealism transformed into reality by a brave band of idealist freedom lovers. During the past half-century, Pakistan has had its share of trials and tribulations and has been the victim of many man-made disasters. The country has suffered irreparable damage at the hands of looters and exploiters and has been the target of numerous insidious conspiracies. Fortunately the nation has so far survived the onslaught of enemy forces on the battlefield and in the ideological arena. The greatest danger faced by Pakistan today is the suppression of ideas, lack of ideals, erosion of idealism and above all lack of idealists in all walks of life.

Almost immediately after untimely and tragic demise of your father, Pakistan entered into the arms race with India culminating in the development of the atomic bomb. Pakistan has been in a constant state of confrontation and belligerence with India since 1948 and after two major wars of 1965 and 1971 nothing has been achieved. War mania, saber rattling and offensive posturing have resulted in near bankruptcy, corruption, violence and conflicts of ethnic and sectarian nature. The horrors of a nuclear exchange with India are too horrible to contemplate, but the wise religious patriots believe (erroneously) that Pakistan will emerge victorious after inflicting a nuclear holocaust on India. It is only a small minority of ideologues; the saner elements of society who have constantly warned the materialists of myopic vision that the final outcome of the mad arms race with India could be the same as the historical collapse of the USSR.

The small band of patriotic idealists is crying themselves hoarse to let their warnings be heeded. They have challenged the materialists again and again and they have pleaded with the silent majority of the nation to rise to the occasion and save the floundering ship of the state before it is too late. Pakistani society of today is the battleground between the forces of good and evil. The battle between the knights of idealism and the villains of materialism has entered a final and decisive stage.

I know you are here on a purely private visit and I do not want to bore you with my long monologue on our history but in my view you are the FIRST “ First Lady” of Pakistan! Please keep in touch with the land of your ancestors, come out of isolationism and let us have the benefit of your wisdom and knowledge and memories of your great father.
On the eve of your departure from Pakistan, I would like to inform you that the FIRST and ONLY web site on the life and achievements of Quiaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah was designed, developed and launched by the Electronic Government Directorate, Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan. I am proud of my humble contribution to this project in the capacity of a Contents Writer. Please DO visit this web site at www.pakistan.gov.pk; any comments or observations from your side will be a great honor for me and the team that made this web site possible. God bless you and keep you!

Yours Admiringly,
Tariq Aqil
167, I-10/4
Islamabad, Pakistan
Phone: 92-51-4446045
Email: taqil17@hotmail.com