Source & Credit: Daily Times, Pakistan | Letters to the Editor
By Col. (Rtd.) Riaz Jafri | Rawalpindi | December 24, 2009
Sir: With the Quaid’s birth day drawing nearer, I once again feel duty-bound to request that we restore the original motto of the Quaid in its true letter and spirit. The motto was: ‘Unity, Faith and Discipline’. Its official Urdu translation used to be ‘Ittehad, Yaqeen aur Tanzeem’. ‘Yaqeen’ was later changed into ‘Yaqeen-e-Muhkam’ and used to be illustrated by Liaquat Ali Khan’s raised clenched fist warning the Indians who had amassed their troops along our borders for the first time in 1951. Somehow not only has the order of the motto been altered now by relegating Unity (Ittehad) to the second place after Faith but also ‘Yaqeen’ or ‘Yaqeen-e-Muhkam’ has been Islamised into ‘Eemaan’ by the Islamist leaders to gain popularity. When asked by a student delegation in 1946, I distinctly remember the Quaid defining ‘Faith’ as, “Have faith in yourself. Have faith in your destiny — Pakistan. And have faith in Allah.” Where does ‘Eemaan’ come into it is beyond me. Let’s not forget that Quaid’s motto is for the entire nation, which also comprises of Hindus, Christians Sikhs, Parsees, Zoroastrians, and even the Jews — though very few. Are we not confining the motto to the Muslims only by introducing ‘Eemaan’ into it, or is it not meant anymore for the other communities living in Pakistan?
It is, therefore, the national and moral duty of the few living elders and the various factions of the Muslim League, each one of which claims to be the true heir of the Quaid’s Muslim League, to correct the situation. I request them all to come forward in the print and electronic media to do so, for no one has the right to change the Quaid’s motto.
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