Pakistan in the Year 3000

Quaid-i-Azam's
Speech

On the occasion of the Opening Ceremony
of


The State Bank of Pakistan on 1st July, 1948.






"Mr. Governor, Directors of State Bank, Ladies and Gentlemen.
The
opening of the State Bank of Pakistan symbolises the sovereignty
of our State in the financial sphere and I am very glad to
be here today to perform the opening ceremony. It was not
considered feasible to start a Bank of our own simultaneously
with the coming into being of Pakistan in August last year.
A good deal of preparatory work must precede the inauguration
of an institution responsible for such technical and delicate
work as note issue and banking. To allow for this preparation,
it was provided, under the Pakistan Monetary System and Reserve
Bank Order, 1947, that the Reserve Bank of India should continue
to be the currency and banking authority of Pakistan till
the 30th September, 1948. Later on it was felt that it would
be in the best interests of our State if the Reserve Bank
of India were relieved of its functions in Pakistan, as early
as possible. The State of transfer of these functions to a
Pakistan agency was consequently advanced by three months
in agreement with the Government of India and the Reserve
Bank. It was at the same time decided to establish a Central
Bank of Pakistan in preference to any other agency for managing
our currency and banking. This decision left very little time
for the small band of trained personnel in this field in Pakistan
to complete the preliminaries and they have by their untiring
effort and hard work completed their task by the due date
which is very creditable to them, and I wish to record a note
of our appreciation of their labours.

As
you have observed, Mr. Governor in undivided India banking
was kept a close preserve of non-Muslims and their migration
from Western Pakistan has caused a good deal of dislocation
in the economic life of our young State. In order that the
wheels of commerce and industry should run smoothly, it is
imperative that the vacuum caused by the exodus of non-Muslims
should be filled without delay. I am glad to note that schemes
for training Pakistan nationals in banking are in hand. I
will watch their progress with interest and I am confident
that the State Bank will receive the co-operation of all concerned
including the banks and Universities in pushing them forward.
Banking will provide a new and wide field in which the genius
of our young men can find full play. I am sure that they will
come forward in large numbers to take advantage of the training
facilities which are proposed to be provided. While doing
so, they will not only be benefiting themselves but also contributing
to the well-being of our State.
I
need hardly dilate on the important role that the State Bank
will have to play in regulating the economic life of our country.
The monetary policy of the bank will have a direct bearing
on our trade and commerce, both inside Pakistan as well as
with the outside world and it is only to be desired that your
policy should encourage maximum production and a free flow
of trade. The monetary policy pursued during the war years
contributed, in no small measure, to our present day economic
problems. The abnormal rise in the cost of living has hit
the poorer sections of society including those with fixed
incomes very hard indeed and is responsible to a great extent
for the prevailing unrest in the country. The policy of the
Pakistan Government is to stabilise prices at a level that
would be fair to the producer, as well as the consumer. I
hope your efforts will be directed in the same direction in
order to tackle this crucial problem with success.
I
shall watch with keenness the work of your Research Organization
in evolving banking practices compatible with Islamic ideas
of social and economic life. The economic system of the West
has created almost insoluble problems for humanity and to
many of us it appears that only a miracle can save it from
disaster that is not facing the world. It has failed to do
justice between man and man and to eradicate friction from
the international field. On the contrary, it was largely responsible
for the two world wars in the last half century. The Western
world, in spite of its advantages, of mechanization and industrial
efficiency is today in a worse mess than ever before in history.
The adoption of Western economic theory and practice will
not help us in achieving our goal of creating a happy and
contended people.  We must work our destiny in our own
way and present to the world an economic system based on true
Islamic concept of equality of manhood and social justice.
We will thereby be fulfilling our mission as Muslims and giving
to humanity the message of peace which alone can save it and
secure the welfare, happiness and prosperity of mankind.
May
the Sate Bank of Pakistan prosper and fulfil the high ideals
which have been set as its goal.
In
the end I thank you, Mr. Governor, for the warm welcome given
to me by you and your colleagues, and the distinguished guests
who have graced this occasion as a mark of their good wishes
and the honour your have done me in inviting me to perform
this historic opening ceremony of the State Bank which I feel
will develop into one of our greatest national institutions
and play its part fully throughout the world."

Mr Hoodbuoy, you have no understanding of social structure and how that might play a role in the problems that persist from generation to generation both in modern societies and in countries like Pakistan, further you have no understanding of the fact that the so-called ``hard sciences`` can never solve the problems (like nuclear weapons) that they have created. Once science becomes a machine in a bureaucratic structure, it is used for things (as in the case of military industries) that cause more harm than any good they bring. You also are unaware, it seems by your articles, about the bureaucratization of the institutional structure in the so called ``modern`` societies which results in a total loss of freedom and reason, and a society which is an antithesis of a democratic society- what I mean by this is the fact that there is no real democracy in the US.

Come the year 3000, unlike the fiction that you have conjured up, if humanity does not exist ,it will be because of the misuse of science by the U.S. power elite, and not because of religion. The use of nuclear weapons, pollution due to corporate greed and massive control of the human spirit and freedom due to rational bureaucracies, all constructed for the profit motive, will ensure- as it has today, and all indicators show that it is increasing- that cheerful robots live and work the best parts of their lives in cubicles as slaves to build empires of wealth for a tiny minority- the power elite (http://elite.asadi.org). 1% of the richest in the U.S. control more wealth than 99% of the rest combined! Is Islam causing this inequality?

Due to inequality, disease and deprivation will fluorish in the year 3000, if the world still exists, all in the name of liberty, freedom and democracy- used as slogans by the ``secular`` elite as they collect the surplus that the hard working folk of the world have built. Science has become a machine in the hands of the oppressors to oppress humanity and educated folk are becoming technicians in this system of oppression. Religion is not to blame, it has become a dependant variable used for political and economic gains by the powerful, pitting one against the other in this process of manipulation. But Hoodbuoy wouldn`t know because he has no clue about social structure, what institutions are and how they are related in the current world system. He only knows facts as bits of information which he tries to string together based on values he has come to accept and not any scientific theory- even as he touts science

The Pheonix(1), The Unqua(2), and the Huma(3)

As one late night I went to bed

just trying to sleep and lo! instead

I heard a voice call my name

I saw a figure, near it came

`it`s kind o` a bird`, or so I thought

I sort of heard me think, if not

in language-sign a bird so cute

it said: ``I`m Phoenix; burnt & mute,

---

my embers in Al-Hambra glowed

---

A thousand years but no one showed``



Just when the Phoenix folded wings

I felt a silhouette`s pin-prick pings

Again a bird--I`d never seen

In sweet-sad sound it said ``I`ve been

away so long, as if dead or extinct

The truth`s I visit those who think

some call me a holy-grail..what tripe!

Reveal I do! to those who strive.

---

You make a vow to work and think

---

and then you`ll see me in a wink



A fluttering here,-- another there

Another bird then flew in here

It wore a crown, and jewels so bright

I had to close my eyes ! such sight

`It ought to be the king of birds`

``and that am I``, or so I heard

---

``Huumaa I am, and you`d be king,

---

if you so want, under my wings``



The trio then put up a show

and made me smile, laugh, and glow

A whirling twirling in a trance

the three bagan to dance and prance

The Unquaa sang, the Huuma sang

Such songs that bells all over rang

and Phoenix tapped its tiny feet

In chorus they said they`ll meet

Again when muslim children be

the leaders of the world--and free1

For that they have to close their ranks

and pray to Allah--offer thanks.

---

(1)Phoenix:

---

legendary bird also called fire-bird. Sings a song with such an intensity that even though immune to fire it burns itsef out. Impales itself on o thorn in this death dance, hence also called a thorn-bird. Rises from the ashes and reagian its gift & glory.Called Quqnas in arabie/farsi/urdu.

(2)*Unqua--Do Do bird. also a bird but now in urdu/farsi daily usage means something which has disappeared from the market or usage. (Unqua ho gaee hai--diisappeared like Unqua)



(3)Huma: The legendary bird in farsi mythology. Very auspicious and good omen if it flies over someones head casts its wing-shadow will be king. Iran airlines is also called Huumaa for same reason.

Hi Pervez,

Why wait till 3000. What will be in 2010 needs to be addressed and prevented. Imagine changing our Constitution to allow Madrasas a free rein. Perhaps, it is time you quit the University.

Pardesi #313

Even Delhi till about twenty five years ago was not bad at all. I am aware of ``homeless`` people in Delhi who slept at the thadas of shops during summer, and near the chullahs of doodh dahi and halwaiis` shops when these shops closed, during the winter. But these numbers were negligible.

In cities such as Pune and Indore the ``homeless`` are to be found in or near the waiting sheds of Railway Stations and, now, bus stands (Addas). Not in large numbers, though.

I have never been inside Kanpur; I usually fly in and come out on my industry`s errands. But as we know, in general, the worst situation is to be found only in those cities that have seen an ungodly increase in their population. These include the industrial [excluding the planned ones] and administrative cities as well as the ones whose surrounding areas have been gobbled up by such burgeoning-at-the-seams cities so that the dispossessed farmers have landed in the city for want of a traditional community, and in search of a job.

Urban and rural sociologists and demographers have come up with all kinds of explanations mostly predicated on the systems theory; feedback loops and such, or path analyses --all alien to me.

For want of a national policy even such cities as Amritsar, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Jallunder, and Ahmadabad have not much to tell them apart. They have their respective share of the homeless. Count Agra now, too, the way I saw it last, excepting the Swami Bagh area.

Re: y2k

To all ``Pot calling the kettle black``, intellectuals.

[This is being posted on various boards]

U.N. Protests ... on

International Women`s Day

March 8, 2000 1:09 PM EST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)

UNICEF, the U.N. Children`s Fund, condemned ``honor killings,`` an ancient practice in which men kill female relatives for forced or suspected sexual activity outside marriage, even if they had been raped.

In 1997, some 300 women were killed in the name of ``honor`` in one province in Pakistan alone. In Yemen, as many as 400 such crimes took place in 1997, while in India an estimated 5,000 women are killed annually because

their in-laws consider their dowries inadequate.

For my personal and academic interest I would like to get some more detailded information about the topics and the speakers at the conference on ``Islamic science`` in Islamabad.

Yours,

Maerte,

Germany

Jumhuriat : #: 183

...heheheh....sorry to spoil your guess.

``....I couldn`t understand a few things..``

Welcome to the club! You are lucky if you couldn`t understand a few things. I do not understand a lot of things. But I try----keep endeavouring----sometimes I give up and then the next morn, refreshed get back on the never ending trail. Such may be our lot.

Thanks for the compliment. Revisit the dargah --- I keep refreshing the ``Final`` section every two weeks.

rgds

t

AD: re#159 and Jumhuriyat: re#168

The following is the origin of the expression.

It was posted sometime back.

c o p y

Re# 148 & 149:

Daily dose of verbal diarrhea?

May the rooster swallow you!

Re#120:


So the out of context, mangled, poorly thought out, badly written, condescending diatribe from the legend in his own mind has resumed? May the rooster swallow you!

t

Pervez Hoodbhoy: Re #34

You say,``About complaints that I don`t respond: I visit Chowk only occasionally. If you would like me to respond to you personally, I shall do so if I possibly can and if you send me a copy of your Chowk letter to: hoodbhoy@isb.pol.com.pk.``

I have often lamented the fact that authors who do not interact should not be here: death and incarceration excepted. It is not a question of individual or personal response. More a case of answering, defending, explaining or questioning responses and queries in a medium that is interactive in a process that may (hopefully) benefit us all.

This is only the second time that I have seen your respond. Am thankful.

Perhaps, in future Chowk Staff can forward you the interactions in batches of ten or fifteen and you can respond to them after your article has appeared?

rgds,

t

P.S. FYI I will cc this to your email address as well.

hamid: #7

Allah ray zore-e-q`lam aur ziyadah........
You have not answered if it is Astaghfirullah or Astaghfarullah!

sameer: # 9

Don`t bother with patents or copyrights: the bubble pipe (hooka) is alive and well.

digit: #10

Regarding the absence of Pervez Hoodbhoy from these interacts: I have expressed similar sentiments earlier. Ideally, if the author is not dead, or incarcerated s/he should interact. I have been told Hoodbhoy is a very busy person. Frankly, I will not entertain that idea at all. My experience is just the opposite. Busy people are better organised. I have been also told in the past that net accessability from Pakistan is not very reliable.

Can someone from there elaborate on this? (I do recall some writers based there regularly contribute to various threads.)

rgds

t

The ramifications and implications of Dr Hoodboy`s article are manifold. I am surprised at the reaction of people who have taken away one thought i.e., religion vs science. My reading of the essay saw the following:

1. An attempt to drive at the fundamental divide between the philosophy of inquiry, free thought and the adherence of dogma of any sort.

2. The immense frustration a man of reason and rationale faces when he is suspended in a system following anything but logic for the dubious objectives of a pre-defined morality rather than an evolving ethic.

3. The recognition of a system that fights change just because it is change.

4. Perhaps the losing struggle of a man trying to //do// something in a society and a social order where people complain and do nothing for fear of whatever.

5. Dr Hoodbhoy in places tried to relate the idea that what we see as factual reality of life/religion/the hereafter is also complemented by truths arrived through rationale/logic/observation. And these truths carry on regardless of what people`s fears want them to believe. He has used examples of science.

6. That eventually, and what has happened already we will be left without a reason for existence perforce because we reject reason. Smart are those who survive and Dumb those who die. there is no moral rectitude about this simple observation which is really a law of the Universe.

I found the essay comprehensive and incisive. I also found it imaginative. Dr Hoodboy cannot be expected to address all the dilemmas of modern existence in one essay. His point was well made in the short essay he wrote.
Good luck professor.

There is much to ponder in this article. But let us not fall into the trap of Islam vs Science here.
There is much room for science in Islamic thinking
and little room for ignorance (if we as a people
are to succeed in this millennium).
Please check the opinion section of Hi-Pakistan
and the Weekend edition of the Frontier post on
my views on this subject.
Good work again Dr. Hoodbhoy. Pakistan`s future
does not lie within the current Kabul model.

Ras