Abstract:   Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's vision envisaged a democratic country based on the tenets of Islam. His invocation of Islam was not to arouse clerics to mistake it for theocracy. Jinnah earnestly thought that Islam and its idealism had taught Indian Muslims the virtues of democracy as it envisioned equality, justice, and Fairplay to everybody. In his broadcast to the USA in Feb 1948 he had hoped that the Pakistan constitution would be of ‘a democratic type; embodying the essential principles of Islam’. He reaffirmed emphatically that Pakistan was not going to be a theocratic State- to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. Even the Objectives Resolution (1949), moved by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, recognized not the followers of a particular faith, but the people- all the people irrespective of whatever faith they may follow. It is a pity that the Objectives Resolution has been interpreted quite differently to suit the vested interest.

Keywords:   democratic country, invocation of Islam, Indian Muslims

Publisher:   ILMA UNIVERSITY

Published:   30 May 2009

Issue:   Issue 1 : Volume 5

E-ISSN:   2409-6520

P-ISSN:   2414-8393