To:
Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah,
Founder of Pakistan,
South Court, Malabar Hill,
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Respected Sir,
I hope this letter finds you in eminent spirits. How are you? How’s Dr. Iqbal, Mrs. Maryam and Ms. Fatima? I am posting this letter to your home address as there is no post office in heaven. I would’ve called you. But the outgoing calls have high rates. We call it The Lifeline Call. And we are a poor country with rich hearts, just like you left us. I’ve written a lot of letters to people but when I said “Respected Sir” above, for the first time I really deeply meant it. How’s your health? They said you had TB. Personally, I hate this bacteria. It has no gumption of respect. But then everything is God’s will.
Things have changed a lot since you left us. We lost East Pakistan a couple of years ago. We had a fight. But brothers fight, don’t they? They now call themselves Bengali’s. They say their leader is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. You know him. He was the General Secretary of Islamia College Students Union in your time. But don’t you worry Sir. They love you a lot. They’re just afraid to admit it. We have a beautiful National Anthem you know? It’s one of the best in the world. It says exactly what you used to implore,
Blessed be the sacred Land
Happy be the bounteous realm
Some people incinerated your residence in Ziarat last year. I’m sorry. We couldn’t save it. But you live in all of us. We all are Jinnah. How many residences will they burn then? Moreover, I know that you never cared about those material belongings of yours. You only cared about us. People want to follow your footsteps. Some people stood for ‘a part’ of your cause in the past. Some stood against it. They all got assassinated.
Nowadays, our Army is fighting the bad guys. Our politicians are fighting with the bad government. Our government is fighting with the bad politicians. Our people are fighting for their lives due to floods. Yes, we draw these floods every year. We got hit by a major earthquake in 2005. 5.2 magnitude on Richter scale. Is God angry with us? Please ask Him. The ones who are not fighting are protesting against the fights. And a severe form of protest nowadays is deactivating your Facebook account. Facebook? Well it’s a place for social networking which allows you to become less social in the real world. But I’m doing exactly what you told me to do – studying. You said, “Education is a matter of life and death for Pakistan”. And I for one, am sure that I don’t want to live in a dead country.
Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Mao, Mr. Washington, Ms. Anne, they all must be mocking you that their states are rising up and your nation is turning into bits and pieces. Don’t give heed to them. It’s about time. The darkest hour is just before the dawn. In fact, go for a walk someday with Dr. Iqbal in your neighborhood in heaven. You’ll find a lot of great Pakistani philosophers, thinkers, scientists, poets, doctors, writers, singers, sportsmen, scholars, artists etc. You’ll be proud of them. We don’t read about our heroes nowadays. They call it The Modern Educational System. But that’s a secret between you and me. Don’t tell Dr. Iqbal that the youth doesn’t read his work. He’ll be embarrassed in front of his friends. Ask him about his unfinished works on Khuraj, Sufism and the Psychology of Fear. What about the Contemporary Civilizational Thought? Tell him to coat them as soon as possible. I’m waiting for them desperately.
“Pakistan Zindabad”. You heard it in Karachi last time didn’t you? At inauguration ceremony of The State Bank. It still carries the same energy and beauty as it did in 1948. God bless you Sir. Pardon! God bless your nation. That’s all you care about. But don’t fret about it. We believe in Dr. Iqbal’s couplet,
مشرق سے ہو بیزار، نہ مغرب سے حزر کر
فطرت کا اشارہ ہے کہ ہر شب کو سحر کر
Don’t shun the East, nor look on West with scorn,
Since Nature yearns for change of night to morn
I know you want to comeback. But Mr. Jinnah! Don’t comeback Sir. Just don’t. This time, let us rise up on our own. And we will rise up. We need to. We have to.
Yours sincerely,
Dated: 11th Sep, 2014 Shahzada M. Ali,
GIK Institute,
Topi, Swabi, Pakistan.
Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah,
Founder of Pakistan,
South Court, Malabar Hill,
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Respected Sir,
I hope this letter finds you in eminent spirits. How are you? How’s Dr. Iqbal, Mrs. Maryam and Ms. Fatima? I am posting this letter to your home address as there is no post office in heaven. I would’ve called you. But the outgoing calls have high rates. We call it The Lifeline Call. And we are a poor country with rich hearts, just like you left us. I’ve written a lot of letters to people but when I said “Respected Sir” above, for the first time I really deeply meant it. How’s your health? They said you had TB. Personally, I hate this bacteria. It has no gumption of respect. But then everything is God’s will.
Things have changed a lot since you left us. We lost East Pakistan a couple of years ago. We had a fight. But brothers fight, don’t they? They now call themselves Bengali’s. They say their leader is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. You know him. He was the General Secretary of Islamia College Students Union in your time. But don’t you worry Sir. They love you a lot. They’re just afraid to admit it. We have a beautiful National Anthem you know? It’s one of the best in the world. It says exactly what you used to implore,
Blessed be the sacred Land
Happy be the bounteous realm
Some people incinerated your residence in Ziarat last year. I’m sorry. We couldn’t save it. But you live in all of us. We all are Jinnah. How many residences will they burn then? Moreover, I know that you never cared about those material belongings of yours. You only cared about us. People want to follow your footsteps. Some people stood for ‘a part’ of your cause in the past. Some stood against it. They all got assassinated.
Nowadays, our Army is fighting the bad guys. Our politicians are fighting with the bad government. Our government is fighting with the bad politicians. Our people are fighting for their lives due to floods. Yes, we draw these floods every year. We got hit by a major earthquake in 2005. 5.2 magnitude on Richter scale. Is God angry with us? Please ask Him. The ones who are not fighting are protesting against the fights. And a severe form of protest nowadays is deactivating your Facebook account. Facebook? Well it’s a place for social networking which allows you to become less social in the real world. But I’m doing exactly what you told me to do – studying. You said, “Education is a matter of life and death for Pakistan”. And I for one, am sure that I don’t want to live in a dead country.
Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Mao, Mr. Washington, Ms. Anne, they all must be mocking you that their states are rising up and your nation is turning into bits and pieces. Don’t give heed to them. It’s about time. The darkest hour is just before the dawn. In fact, go for a walk someday with Dr. Iqbal in your neighborhood in heaven. You’ll find a lot of great Pakistani philosophers, thinkers, scientists, poets, doctors, writers, singers, sportsmen, scholars, artists etc. You’ll be proud of them. We don’t read about our heroes nowadays. They call it The Modern Educational System. But that’s a secret between you and me. Don’t tell Dr. Iqbal that the youth doesn’t read his work. He’ll be embarrassed in front of his friends. Ask him about his unfinished works on Khuraj, Sufism and the Psychology of Fear. What about the Contemporary Civilizational Thought? Tell him to coat them as soon as possible. I’m waiting for them desperately.
“Pakistan Zindabad”. You heard it in Karachi last time didn’t you? At inauguration ceremony of The State Bank. It still carries the same energy and beauty as it did in 1948. God bless you Sir. Pardon! God bless your nation. That’s all you care about. But don’t fret about it. We believe in Dr. Iqbal’s couplet,
مشرق سے ہو بیزار، نہ مغرب سے حزر کر
فطرت کا اشارہ ہے کہ ہر شب کو سحر کر
Don’t shun the East, nor look on West with scorn,
Since Nature yearns for change of night to morn
I know you want to comeback. But Mr. Jinnah! Don’t comeback Sir. Just don’t. This time, let us rise up on our own. And we will rise up. We need to. We have to.
Yours sincerely,
Dated: 11th Sep, 2014 Shahzada M. Ali,
GIK Institute,
Topi, Swabi, Pakistan.
