ISLAMABAD, Dec 25 (APP): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday called upon the nation to uphold Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan and follow his principles to ensure the progress and prosperity of the country.
In a message on the occasion of Quaid’s 146th birth anniversary, the premier said that the whole nation is celebrating with patriotic fervour and zeal.
The founder of Pakistan “valiantly fought the constitutional and political fight” for the rights of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent and, as a result, they are living independently in Pakistan today, he added.
Shehbaz said that Quaid-e-Azam was against the idea of a majority usurping the rights of minorities on the basis of numerical superiority, adding that Jinnah had strived for the restoration of a unique way of life of Muslims and for their separate social, and economic, political and cultural identity in the comity of nations.
The PM said Jinnah’s efforts were directed not only to create a separate and independent state for the Muslims but also for a state in which minorities lived without fear or danger and were given equal opportunities and complete religious freedom.
Shehbaz remarked that because of the rising religious animosity and mindset of extremist Hindutva, India as a state has failed to protect the rights of its minorities. This situation makes Quaid’s farsightedness evident and proves his arguments for the two-nation theory, he stressed.
The prime minister said Quaid-e-Azam’s life was a “practical demonstration of his steadfastness for principles, constitutional struggle, political sagacity, and of the golden principles of faith, unity, and discipline”.
