The frequent projection of Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Aug 11 address to the Constituent Assembly creates an impression that this is the Quaid’s only speech that gives us his vision of Pakistan.

On the contrary, throughout his political career, Jinnah made it repeatedly clear that he visualised Pakistan as a democracy guaranteeing fundamental rights to all its citizens irrespective of their beliefs.

As he told a rally in Chittagong in March 1948, the denial of these rights in a united India was one of the reasons why South Asian Muslims had struggled to create a country of their own.

In February 1948, in a radio broadcast, the Quaid declared that Pakistan was not going to be “a theocratic state — to be ruled by priests with a divine mission”. Non-Muslim minorities, he said, would “enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan”.

It is difficult to be precise if we try to determine exactly when retrogressive forces found an environment conducive to their growth. But the consequences of Pakistan’s involvement in the US-led ‘jihad’ against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan unleashed forces that have over the last 36 years traumatised the nation and torn asunder the very fabric of society.

While terrorism and armed rebellion are the visible manifestation of this reactionary radicalism, the more insidious form of it is to be found in the silent spread of the virus of mediaeval intolerance at all levels of society — even at places where it shouldn’t be, for instance, institutes of higher learning, cultural organisations and the arts.

The harm done to education is a subject unto itself, but what is happening is the consequences of what Jinnah had expressly warned students against in a speech at Dacca in March 1948: “You will be making the greatest mistake if you allow yourself to be exploited by one political party or another ... Your main occupation should be ... to devote your attention to your studies.”

In contrast, the standards of education have gone down because the academia and student bodies are under the influence of religiously inspired hard-line elements whose brainwashing techniques are no more confined to madressahs.

Is there a silver lining in the cloud? It is hard to see one. Those at the helm are seen as largely corrupt and lack the fundamental attributes of leadership.

There is no statesman in sight who could have the courage to take on the extremists and tell the truth — that behind the façade of fiery rhetoric and street power, bigoted minds do not have with them the blueprint of a scientifically advanced and prosperous nation that conforms to Jinnah’s vision of a democratic state where people could “breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find free play”.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2015