EDITORIAL: The potentialities of a people are judged by the type of leaders it produces. The evolution of the Muslim leadership of this sub-continent from Syed Ahmad Khan to Mohammad Ali Jinnah constitutes an instructive study in the rise of a prostrate and victimized people who had lost all except its memory. Viewed from the altitudes of history, the whole process is seen to be one of building up an edifice… . The structure was completed by two men, Iqbal and Jinnah.

… Jinnah belonged to the uncommonest type of men who retain till the last the capacity to learn and profit by experience. It was always his sense of proportion, backed by invincible logic and faith, that prevailed. Jinnah is stronger in his grave than his revilers in seats of authority.

It is more than a coincidence that the birthday of a man who raised his people from the dead should fall on a date believed to be the birthday of Jesus who is called the Messiah. Generations yet unborn in this land will owe him [Jinnah] a debt which will accumulate and never be adequately repaid. The greatest monument to him is the State that he has founded.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2024