Pakistan is the realization of Allama Iqbal’s dreams : Sirajul Haq

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq, has said that Allama Iqbal was the name of an ideology, a philosophy and a continuous struggle.

Talking to the media at Allama Iqbal’s mausoleum after laying a floral wreath at the grave of the philosopher poet who conceived the idea of Pakistan, Sirajul Haq said that if the government was shy of showing its allegiance to Allama Iqbal, the 180 million Pakistanis would proudly take up Allama’s mission and carry it to the goal.

Sirajul Haq said that by drifting away from  Allama Iqbal’s philosophy, the country could neither achieve development and prosperity nor maintain her identity as a respectable, dignified nation.

Pakistan is not the name of a piece of land. It is a laboratory for the Islamic ideology and a model Islamic, welfare state, he added.  He said that people ignorant of Iqbal’s concept of Khudi ( self realization) were giving a wrong picture of the country to the aliens.

Taking strong exception to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement regarding a liberal Pakistan, Sirajul Haq said that hundreds of thousands of Muslims of the sub continent had not sacrificed their lives for the creation of a westernized, liberal state. The Muslims in the sub continent had undertaken history’s biggest migration to be able to lead their lives in accordance with a system based on “La Ilaha Illallah”, he said.

He said that Pakistan was the realization of Allama Iqbal’s dreams and those wishing her to be a liberal state based on western democracy would be frustrated.

Sirajul Haq counseled the Prime Minster to withdraw his statement and said this would restore the Premier’s image.

The JI chief pointed out that Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in as many as 114  of his speeches and addresses, had said that Pakistan would be an Islamic, welfare state, and had categorically stated that the people of Pakistan would be enabled to lead their lives in accordance with the Quran and the Sunnah. The Quaid had also clarified that the Holy Quran would be the constitution of Pakistan and it would be governed under the Shariah, he said.

“We want a Pakistan wherein the masses would have the same rights as are enjoyed by the rulers, which is free from injustice and exploitation and poverty, and in which the general public had  the basic facilities of health, education and  employment,” he explained.

Sirajul Haq noted that Turkey which had a secular constitution, was  gradually drifting towards Islam while the rulers of Pakistan which had come into being in the name of Islam, and whose constitution negated liberalism and secularism, were bent upon making the country secular.

He said that the respect and future of the Muslim Ummah lay in holding fast to the system given by Allah Almighty. He said that Allama Iqbal was the biggest advocate of the unity of the Ummah and wanted the Ummah to rise above petty sectarian and factional difference.

He JI chief said that by cancelling the Iqbal Day holiday, the government had given the message that it    had no concern with Iqbal’s ideology. He said there seemed to be no sense in cancelling the Iqbal Day public holiday and having the 1^st of May as public holiday although it had no significance for this country.

The JI chief remarked that the government did not have any vision nor any goal before it.  The government is just like a train without a driver which could face an accident any moment, he added.

Later, while addressing an organizational meeting of the JI at Mansoora, Sirajul Haq said that it was the Jamaat e Islami which had offered highest sacrifices for democracy and the constitution in the country.  He said that the JI wanted to bring about a revolution through peaceful, democratic struggle.

He said that an unjust and tyrannical system prevailed in the country which had divided the nation into the rich and the poor, and this division was now spreading from cities to towns and villages as well.  He said that the educated youth of poor families were forced to work as a laborer while the incompetent children of the rich reached the corridors of power. The JI would always oppose such a system, he added.  He appealed to the masses to rise against this system and not merely feel satisfied with groaning against injustice and tyranny.