Javed Jabbar Vs. Pervez Hoodbhoy: Round 4 – Contradictions

Mr. Pervez said: Mr. Jinnah gave a lot of speeches which at different times said very different things. He didn’t have an idea of Pakistan. Before Pakistan, in the Frontier he said ‘you are Muslims first and Indians second’. In 1948, here in Karachi, addressing the Bar Council, he said this will be a land where Islamic law will be applied.

Mr. Jabbar diverts the argument into what God tells us which is that “whether you be Muslims, Christians, Jews, any other faith, as long as you do good and believe in the Day of Judgement, you have no fear.” If that is indeed the case, it is not clear why Muslims who were all doing good felt afraid in India..

By Anjum Altaf

Pervez Hoodbhoy: He [Mr. Jinnah] gave a lot of speeches which at different times said very different things. He didn’t have an idea of Pakistan. I am sorry although many of you believe that he did, he did not. The audience here will applaud what he said on 11th of August 1947 but do they want to hear what he said in the Frontier where he said you are Muslims first and Indians second? And this is before Pakistan was formed. In 1948, here in Karachi, addressing the Bar Council, he said this will be a land where Islamic law will be applied.

Javed Jabbar: What he said on the 11th of August is not contradicted by what he said in 1945 or 1948. What did he say? He said Pakistan will be a country which will be guided, governed, by Islamic principles. What are those Islamic principles? Look at Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat number 62, the same Ayat comes as Ayat number 65 in Surah Al-Maida. What does God tell us? He says whether you be Muslims, Christians, Jews, any other faith, as long as you do good and believe in the Day of Judgement, you have no fear. So the Quaid was actually endorsing pluralism, democracy, participation. There was no contradiction between what he said on the 11th of August and all his other pronouncements.

Analysis

This is a difficult round to judge. Mr. Jinnah did give a lot of speeches and said different things at different times but that should not be a surprise as times change. All political leaders say different things at different times — think of Imran Khan who has made innumerable somersaults within a few brief years and is still considered a ‘great leader’. It can be conceded that Mr. Jinnah did not have a clear idea of Pakistan. It was not certain till the very last whether it was going to be one state or two and he himself conceded that what he got in the end was moth-eaten and not what he had in mind. But the main assertion here is that Mr. Jinnah said different things at different times.

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(This is part of the series of articles, a detailed analysis of former Minister and Senator Javed Jabbar’s video he had released in response to a speech of Prof. Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy at a literary festival in Karachi. The Preamble of the analysis can be read by clicking here. For rest of the rounds, click here.)

Source: Sindh Courier

The writer has PhD from Stanford University. He was a Dean at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Provost at Habib University in Karachi.