Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
12th Anniversary of R.C.D. (July 21, 1976)
R.C.D has made rapid progress during the past twelve years, and is now considered as the embodiment of supranational unity and inter-regional integration. In order to make the cooperation more fruitful the three heads of states decided in the Izmir Summit Conference held in April’ 1976, that R.C.D. would be codified and would be converted into a free trade area within a period of ten years; the experts committee on trade and tariff has already set to work out the details whereby the objective of free trade area may be achieved within this stipulated period of time.
In the field of Postal Communication there is extensive collaboration within the three Postal Administrations. Lately it has further been decided to hold R.C.D. Philatelic Exhibitions in the three member countries by rotation. The 1st R.C.D. exhibition is being held in Karachi (Pakistan ) on 21-7-76.
In order to mark the 12th Anniversary of R C.D. Pakistan Post Office is issuing a set of three stamps on the occasion.
The subjects for this year are:
1. QUAID-I-AZAM MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH
Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Au Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was born on 25 December 1876 in a prominent mercantile family of Karachi. He joined the Lincoln’s Inn in 1892 and was called to the Bar three years later. Mr. Jinnah entered Politics in 1906 from the platform of the Indian National Congress: four years later he was elected to the newly constituted legislative coun-cil All through his parliamentary Career which spanned some three decades, his was probably the most powerful voice for Indian rights. For about two decades he was a confirmed nationalist, and it was largely due to him that the Congress League Pact of 1916 was signed which brought the two major communities of the subcontinent closer but the Nehru report of 1928 which negated the minimum Muslim demands embodied in the Delhi Muslim Proposal of 1927 meant “the parting of the ways” for him.
Mr. Jinnah took up the leadership of the Muslims in 1936 and organised them on one platform and from a mere rabble he made them into a nation-united, strong, and self conscious, in discovering the fact of Muslim Nationhood, .Jinnah formulated the intellectual justification for launching the demand for a Muslim homeland in the Muslim majority areas of the subcontinent. This demand he formally launched in 1940 and a new country named Pakistan appeared on the map of the word on 14th August, 1947 under his great leadership. Jinnah devoted the last years of his life in consolidating Pakistan and in securing her survival in uneasy, treacherous circumstances. In accomplishing this task, tremendous as it was, he worked himself to death. How true was Pethick Lawrence. the last Secretary of State for India, when he said, “Gandhi died by the hands of an assassin. Jinnah died by his devotion to Pakistan.”
2 KEMAL ATATURK
Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey and the first president of the Turkish republic was born in 1881 in Salonika. After graduating from the Military Academy and General Staff College, he was appointed to a cavalry regiment in Damascus where, together with some of his friends, he founded a secret society called ‘‘Fatherland and Freedom.
When World War 1 broke out he was appointed to the command of the 19th Division at Canakkale. At the end of Word War I in Istanbul there were two main ideas about Turkey’s future; the Sultan and his supporters were thinking of placing the country under English protection, while some intellectuals were spreading propaganda for placing Turkey under and American mandate. Mustafa Kemal. however, persisted in the idea of an independent Turkish nation living within its national boundaries and believed that this could be achieved if the nation was prepared for a new struggle.
On December 27, 1919 Mustafa Kemal transferred the seat of the national struggle to Ankara. and opened on April 23, 1919, the First Grand National Assembly of Turkey and elected its president As president of the Assembly Mustafa Kemal took upon himself the offices of the Prime Minister and of the President of the state. Thus ended the religious form of government that had existed in Turkey since the Middle Ages.
Mustafa Kemal now busied himself with the work of gaining control of such parts of the country as were then under occupation. First, in the east, the Armenians were defeated. After extensive guerilla warfare, the Fre-nch in the south evacuated Turkish territories and withdrew, to Syria and recognized the legitimacy of the National Government in Ankara. At this time of great anxiety the National Assembly appointed Mustafa Kemal the Commander in Chief, On August 26, 1922 after an all -out offensive planned and directed personally by the Greek army was defeated and forced within two weeks to leave Anatolia completely. After that he launched on a pro-gramme of reforms. On October 29, 1923 Mustafa Kemal proclaimed the Republic and was elected its first president and went on carrying out his programme of reforms. He closed down all institutions based on religious canon law, monasteries and religious orders. “Science is the most reliable guide in life,” he remarked and abolishing the traditional system of education which was mainly religious, he established secular schools of the modern tupe. The whole Ottoman legal system was modernized and a new civil and penal code was adopted. He established comp-lete equality between the sexes, including the right of electing and being elected. In 1928 he adopted Roman letters. In 933 the National Assembly gave Mustafa Kemal the name ATATUR1( (Father of Turks)
He died on November 10, 1938 in Istanbul as the first President of the Republic. 3. REZA SHAH, THE GREAT.
Raza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of modern Iran, was born at Savad Kuh in Mazandaran in 1878. He rose in the ranks of the Persian Cossack Brigade through sheer force of personality and natural ability. When the Anglo-Persian Treaty was about to be ratified by Parliament, on a cold day in February 1921, he marched on Tehran, with a few thousand men and overthrew the Government. Raza Khan was made Commander-in-Chief of the Army, becoming shortly afterwords Minister of War. He then became the Prime Minister.
In 1925, he was crowned Shah of Iran by the decision of the Constituent Assembly and thereafter Iran never looked back. He first put an end to internal disor-der, created a single, unified army, defeated rebel chiefs, disarmed the tribes and established the authority of the Central Government throughout the country.
He was untiring in his capacity for work, and no detail was too small for him to look into. He established a National Bank which was later given the monopoly of issuing bank notes; weights and measures were standardized and the first systematic budget introduced. New state schools were set up all over the country replacing the old religious establishments and education was made compulsory. The power of the nobility was reduced and class distinction began to disappear. Civil and criminal codes were introduced.
Then came the Second World War Iran declared her-self neutral, but the country’s geographical position once again affected the trend of her affairs When Germany attacked Russia, the strategic importance of Iran became all too apparent. The need of the Allies for a safe supply route for the Russian armies through rail link from the Persian Gulf to the north, led the British and the Russians to attack Iran simultaneously. As a result of this violation of Iran’s neutrality, Raza Shah the Great decided to abdicate in favour of his son the Crown Prince, who was then 22.
Raza Shah envisioned a new Iran, worthy of her past and capable of competing with advanced nations in every field of peaceful achievement. To realize this dream, he employed to advantage the unshakable force of his will.
Quaid-e-Azam Centenary 1876-1976 (August 14, 1976)
DESCRIPTION OF SMALLER (HORIZONTAL) STAMPS : The upper four stamps have hexagon shaped motif in the centre with decorative corners around. The wordings in Urdu appear in Black at centre of hexagon’ Word “ Pakistan “ in Urdu and English appear in Black iii the bottom right and left corners of the stamps while the word “Postage” and year “1976” are on the top left and right corners respectively. The denominations Re. 1/-, 15P, 10P and 5P are printed in black in the lower portion of motif of Green, Mauve, Orange, and Blue colours respectively. The corners are blue in Re, 1/- stamps, Bluish Mauve in 15P, and in l0P aid 5P stamps these are Red and Green respectively.
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah the founder of Pakistan, invites comparison with some of the greatest names, in modern times; Washington, Bismarck, Cavour, Garibaldi, Lenin, Ataturk. Yet in the galaxy of nation -builders, Jinnah holds a unique position, at least in one sense. While others assumed the leadership of traditionally well-defined nations and led them to freedom, he created a nation out of an inchoate and backward minority, and established a cultural and national home for it. And all that within a decade,
Born on 25 December-1876 in a prominent mercantile family of Karachi and educated at Sind Madressah-tul Islam and the Mission School, he joined the Lincoln’s Inn in 1892 from where he was called to the bar three years later. Starting out in the legal profession with nothing to fall back upon except his native ability and determination, young Jinnah became Bombay’s most successful lawyer, within a few years.
Once he was firmly established in his profession Jinnah entered politics in 1906 from the platform of the Indian National Congress. Four years later, in 1910, he was elected to the newly constituted Imperial Legislative Council. All through his parliamentary career which spanned some three decades, his was probably the most powerful voice in the cause of Indian rights.
For about two decades since his entry into politics in 1906, Jinnah was a confirmed nationalist. Gokhole, the foremost Hindu leader before Gandhi, had once said of thin, “He has true stuff in him and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity” And, to he sure, he did become the architect of Hindu-Muslim unity: he was responsible for the Congress League pact of 1916-the only pact ever signed between the two organizations which represented the two major communities of the subcontinent. Thus by 1917 Jinnah had established his reputation as one of the most outstanding and highly respected political leaders of India. He was not only prominent in the Congress and the Imperial Legislative Council, he was at the same time the president of the Muslim League and the Bombay Branch of the Home Rule League.
A Constitutionalist to the marrow of his bones, Jinnah believed in evolutionary methods and detested the use of violence in politics. He was averse to rousing the masses through emotional appeals and told Gandhi at the Nagpur session of the Congress in December 1920. “Your way is the wrong way, mine is the right way— the constitutional way is the right way”.
Although Jinnah left the Congress soon after, he continued his efforts towards bringing about Hindu -Muslim. entente which he rightly considered “the most vital condition of Swaraj”. However, because of the deep distrust between the two communities as. evidenced by the countrywide communal riots and because the Hindus failed to meet the genuine demands of the Muslims, his efforts came to naught. The Nehru Report (1928) which negative the minimum Muslim demands embodied in the Delhi ‘Muslim Proposals of 1927. proved to be the last straw. It meant “the parting of the ways” for him, as he confessed to a Parsee friend at the time. Jinnah’s disillusionment at the course of politics is the subcontinent prompted him to settle down in London in the early thirties. He was, however, to return to India in early 1934 at the pleadings of his co-religio-nists, and assume their leadership, . He now began organizing the Muslims on one platform : not only. did he reorganize the Muslim League as a mass organization, with a concrete and progressive political programme and a flag of its own, but .he also undertook countrywide tours to reach the League message to the remotest corner in the subcontinent. The policy of the Congress which took office in July 1937 in seven out of eleven provinces. convinced the. Muslims, that in the Congress scheme of things, they could live only at sufferance and as “second .(I~5.s” citizens. The Congress governments, it may be remembered. had embarked upon a policy and program in which the Muslims did not feel their religion, language and culture safe.
When Jinnah took up the leadership of the Muslims in 1936, they were a mass of disgruntled and demoralized men and women, politically disorganized and destitute of a clear-cut political programme. And yet within three brief years he had, awakened the listless Muslims to new consciousness, organized them on one platform, and had given coherence, direction and expression to their innermost, yet vague urges and aspirations. In addition he filled them with his own indomitable will his own undying faith in their destiny. From a mere rabble, he made them into a nation-united, strong and self-concious.
Presently, Muslims consciousness was stirred to a new pitch, and a hundred million Muslims, who were till then dismissed as a backward .minority, discovered, under Jinnah’s aspiration, their soul and destiny.
In discovering the fact of Muslim nationhood f Jinnah had formu1ated the intellectual justification for launching the demand for a Muslim homeland in the Muslim majority areas of The’ subcontinent. This demand he formally launched in 1940.
Yet, as is well known to any student of history, there is many a hurdle between the perception of an idea and its consummation. And hurdles’ almost insuperable hurdles, he did encounter at every stage. That he did surmount them may be attributed to quote Dr. Sachhidanand Sinha, to his “deep-rooted strength of conviction, his indomitable courage, political tact and tenacity of purpose.
Jinnah devoted the last years of his life, in consolidating Pakistan and in securing her survival in un easy, treacherous circumstances.
In accomplishing this task, tremendous as it was, he worked himself to death. “How true was Pethick Lawrence the last Secretary of State for India, when he said “Gandhi died by the hands of an assassin: Jinnah died by his devotion to Pakistan.
No wonder, the nation remembers him with gratitude and his memory is as fresh as ever today in the minds of 65 million Pakistanis.Quaid-e-Azam Centenary Jamboree (November 20, 1976)
The 7th Pakistan National Scout Jamboree, also known as Quaid-i-Azam Centenary Jamboree, will be held at Fortress Stadium, Lahore, from November 15 to 22, 1976. Pakistan Post Office is issuing a postage stamp of 20-Paisa denomination on the 20th November, 1976 to commemorate the occasion. This Jamboree coincides with the centenary celebrations of the First Chief Scout and Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Au Jinnah. The Quaid-i-Azam Centenary Jamboree is a mile stone in the history of Scouting in Pakistan in which the Scouts will be able to know the glimpses of the teachings and behest of the Father of the Nation and his Motto of Faith Unity and Discipline. In this Jamboree an attempt has also been made and to restate the principles and teachings of Quaid-i-Azam and to interpret them for the guidance of young and old scouts. In Pakistan, Scouting started from scratch in December, 1947. with the blessings of the Quaid-i-Azam who agreed to become the First Chief Scout of Pakistan. The Pakistan Boy Scouts Association established its permanent National Headquarters at Karachi. There are now six branches affiliated to the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association with a total membership of 108028. The Pakistan 8oy Scouts Association, as a national body, is affiliated to the World Scout Bureau, located in Geneva, There are 109 countries of the world at present affiliated to the World Scout Bureau and the total membership is 14 million.
Since the Boy Scout Movement had become world-wide, it was thought advisable to bring the boys together, every four years so as to make them realise the importance of the Scout Law, particularly the 4th Scout Law, which runs as follows:- A Scout is a friend of all, brother to every other Scout no matter to what country, class or creed the other may belong.”
There were altogether about 50 000 Scouts in Pakistan in 1948. To-day the number exceeds 100,000. The quality of Scouting has also been steadily improving. All this has been possible with the constant supply of trained Scouts. To begin with, there were two Provincial Training Centres in the Punjab, at Walton and Ghora Gall and one In NWFP. at Takiya (Abbottabad). Later on a Training Centre was established at Quetta. Training Camps were also held at Ziarat, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Multan, Rawalpindi, Karachi etc.
Sea and Air Scouting has been started in Karachi. The Air Scouts have a fine Headquarters of their own. Both Sea and Air scouting will provide an added attraction to the older boys in a Scout Troop.
Scouting for the physically handicapped boys is a very beneficial extension of the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association. These boys feel isolated and their lives are generally dull and dreary. Scouting provides them with fun and fellowship. More then 500 handicapped boys are now regular Scouts. Their hearts are filled with joy when they camp out with other Scouts. In this 7th National Jamboree being held at Lahore from 15th to 22nd November 1976, the number of participants is expected to be 12,000 from home and abroad. 500 Scouts from Libya, Indonesia, India, Iran, U.S.A.. Sudan and Bangladesh will also be participating. The Pakistan Boy Scouts Association has participated in various World and Regional Scout Events—Scouts Conferences, Jamborees, Moots, Indabas, etc,
Pakistan Boy Scouts Association brings out two periodicals, namely, the “Pak-Scout”, which was started in September, 1948, “Almustaid”, which is published in urdu.
Quaid-e-Azam Birth Centenary 1876-1976 (December 25, 1976)
To commemorate the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad All Jinnah Pakistan Post Office is issuing a Commemorative Postage Stamp on 25th December 1976 The stamp has been printed by famous printers de Cartor SA, Paris, (France) by the special silk screen process (Serigraphy). Each stamp contains 25 mg. of 23/24 Carat Gold, has a size of 40X60 mm and l2 1/2 perforations.
The stamp is vertical in format. The monocle profile of the Quaid-i-Azam is embossed in the middle in gold powder against a dark green background, which is enclosed by a golden border. The words ‘Centenary 1976’ are embossed on the golden border at the top and the words ‘Quaid-i Azam Mohammad All Jinnah’ appear in emboss at the bottom golden border. The words ‘Pakistan’ and ‘Postage’ appear along side the vertical border on the left and right respectively. The denomination Rs. 10 appears in reverse below the portrait in the bottom left corner of the dark green background.
The people of Pakistan are celebrating this year the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation, ‘Quaid-i-Azam’ Mohammad All Jinnah.
Exactly one hundred years ago on 25th December 1876 a child was born in a prominent mercantile family of Karachi who was destined to change the course of history in South Asia and to carve out a homeland for the Muslims of India where they could pursue their destiny according to their faith and ideology.
Quaid-i-Azam invites comparison with some of the greatest names in modern history. Yet, in the galaxy of nation-builders, he holds a unique position in as much as while others assumed the leadership of traditionally well defined nations and led them to freedom and prosperity, he created a nation out of a dis-organised and backward minority and established a national home for it.
After receiving early education in Karachi he sailed for England in 1892 and was called to the Bar from the Lincoln’s Inn in 1896. He returned to India the same year and started legal practice in Bombay High Court. The city of Bombay saw a tall, thin, finely groomed, meticulously dressed young man, with sharp penetrating eyes, a long face and thin lips, whose words were measured and whose tone was firm. He showed an unshaken determination in pursuing an argument and making a point. Even in those early days one could discern in him the making of a leader at the Bar and a leader in the country. He had courage, he had concentration, he had character, and he had perseverance and, notwithstanding a few years of early struggle, failure to him was unknown. In a very short time he established himself firmly in his profession and remained one of its leading luminaries till he gave it up finally to devote himself completely to the emancipation of the Muslims of India.
The political career of Quaid-i-Azam spanned a period of over four decades; but never once during all these forty and odd years did he lose his bearing or falter in the pursuit of his goal. Politics with him was a mission, not a profession or a pose. Regardless of all consequences to his personal fame or fortune he pursued the course of action he considered to be right with unrelenting vigour and determination. He Joined active politics in 1906 from the platform of the Indian National Congress. Four years later he was elected to the newly constituted Imperial Legislative Council. For about two decades he remained a confirmed nationalist and Gokhale, the foremost Hindu leader of his time while paying tribute to him said, he has true stuff in him and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity”. And in fact he did become the architect of Hindu-Muslim unity when he succeeded in bringing the two major communities together through the famous Lucknow pact of 1916. By 1917 he had established his reputation as one of the outstanding poli-tical leaders of India. He was playing a prominent role in the Congress and the Imperial Legislative Council while at the same time he was the President of the Muslim League and the Bombay branch of the Home Rule League. Political activities in the sub-continent became intense after the close of the first World War. The Rowlatt Act which gave wide powers to the executive was followed by a countrywide agitation and Quaid-i--Azam resigned from the Imperial Legislative Council as a protest against the passage of this bill. Next followed the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh. In August 1920. the Treaty of Sevres was signed through which the Allies tried to dismember the Ottoman Empire and to reduce the Caliph to a non-entity. Sentiments against the British Government were running high and the Congress and the Muslim League Joined together in launching a violent agitation against the dismembe-rment of the Caliphate. Quaid-i-Azam who was a great constitutionalist and detested the use of violence in politics was averse to rousing the masses through emotional appeals. In his speech at the Calcutta Session of the League and the Nagpur Session of the Congress he tried to dissuade the people from the extremist course and to bring sanity into their counsel but he was silenced by the extremists. Consequently he resigned from the Congress and the Home Rule League and dissociated himself from active politics during the next few years, although he retained his membership of the Muslim League. Although he had left the Congress. he continued his efforts toward bringing about Hindu-Muslim entente. However, because of the deep distrust between the two communities and the failure of the Hindus to meet the genuine demands of the Muslims, his efforts did not succeed. His disillusionment at the course of politics in the subcontinent prompted him to settle down in London in early thirties. In 1934 he returned to India to lead the Muslims again and started the re-organisation of the Muslim League as a mass organisation with a concrete and progressive political programme. In 1935 the Government of India Act was passed and the Muslim League began preparation to fight the coming elections. Quaid-i-Azam was chosen the President of the Central Election Board at the Muslim League Session of 1936 and he called upon his people to organise and play their part. “The Hindus and the Muslims”, he said, “must be organised separately and once they are organised they will understand each other better”. As a result of the elections held in 1936, the Congress emerged as the majority party in most of the provinces in India and took office in July 1937 in seven out of the eleven provinces. Its policy while in office convinced the Muslims that in the Congress scheme of things, they could live only as “second class” citizens. The Congress Gove-rnments had embarked upon a policy and programme in which the Muslims did not feel their language, religion and culture safe. Muslim consciousness was stirred to a new pitch and a hundred million Muslims who had till then been dismissed as a backward minority, discovered under the Quaid-i-Azam’s inspiration, their soul and destiny. From a mere rabble, they were transformed into a united, strong and self-conscious nation. And in March, 1940, the Muslim League in its Session held at Lahore passed the historic Pakistan Resolution and launched the demand for a Muslim homeland in the Muslim majority areas of the subcontinent. During the next six years the Muslims of India had to carry on a hard and bitter struggle for the achievement of their goal and through their leader’s deep—rooted strength of conviction, indomitable courage, political tact and tenacity of purpose they finally succeeded in securing a homeland for themselves and Pakistan came into being on the 14th of August 1947.
The Quaid was seventy-one when Pakistan was born. He was spared by God only for one year to set the ship of the new state on its keel. Even during the brief period of his Governor-General-ship he strove hard to lay down correct precedents for the growth of a democratic tradition in Pakistan. In spite of his immense prestige and popularity he conducted himself strictly as a constitutional head of the state and never deviated from democratic conventions and constitutional propriety. Indeed he was always anxious to uphold people’s sovereignty against any constitutional ambiguity.
He died on September 11,1948, mourned by a grateful nation but as one of the great immortals of history.
What the Quaid-i-Azam achieved for the Muslims of South Asia deserves to be written in letters of gold. To express the nation’s gratitude to such a revered leader on the occasion of his 100th birth anniversary the Pakistan Post office has produced a postage stamp with the effigy of the Quaid-i-Azam in real gold powder, each stamp containing 25 milligram of 23/24 carat gold. The stamp has been printed by de Cartor SA of France by Serigraphy process and it is the first Postage Stamp in the manufacture of which this new process has been used.
25th Death Anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam (September 11, 1973)
Pakistan Post Office has issued two Commemorative Postage Stamps in the past to commemorate the first and 16th death anniversaries of the Father of the Nation and this is the third of the series which is being issued on the occasion of his 25th Death Anniversary. The Quaid-i--Azam (the greatest leader) occupies a prominent place amongst the great leaders of the world as he changed the course of history in ASIA and successfully led the hundred million Muslims to establish a separate Muslim State in the South Asian Sub-continent.
Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah was born on the 25th December, 1876 in a middle-class family living in a three-storied old-fashioned house known as Wazir Mansion in the old city of Karachi. Wazir Mansion, situated on New Neham Road is in the custody of the Archaeological Department and forms part of the National Archives. The Child grew up to be a fair tall boy and studied at various schools but his longest stay was at Sind Madresah where he made his mark as a disciplined and serious stu-dent and passed his Matriculation at the age of 16. Impressed by his talents and noticing his bent of mind, an English friend of the family persuaded his father to send the boy to England to study law. From his boyhood he was found to be brilliant and promising, zealously devoted to his studies with a burning desire to do something great. He joined the famous Lincoln’s Inn in 1892 and passed all his examinations within two years but had to wait for two years more to reach the age of twenty years when he was called to the bar. Mr. Jinnah returned to India in 1896 and overcoming initial difficulties established a very successful law practice.
He began to take part in the country’s political activity in his early twenties. In 1910 he was elected to the Imperial Legisla-tive Council to which he remained associa-ted for over thirty years. In 1913 he joined the Muslim League, an organisation formed in 1906, to safeguard the legitimate interests of the Indian Muslims.
At the 1916 session of the Congress, Mr. Jinnah helped in persuading the Congress to agree that “in certain pro-vinces” in which the Muslims were in a minority, they should be guaranteed a pro-portion of seats in the future Legislative Council in excess of the number they could otherwise hope to win. This “Lucknow Pact” between the Congress and the Muslim League was the culmination of Mr. Jinnah’s career as the ‘Ambassador of Unity” bet-ween the Hindus and the Muslims.
Mr. Jinnah resigned from the Imperial Legislative Council in 1919 as a protest against the passage of Rowlatt Act, which gave power to the government to try cases of sedition without a jury. Immediately thereafter, the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh took place in Amritsar in which several hundred peaceful demonstrators were brutally massacred under the orders of General Dyer, British Army Commander, after being surrounded by the troops. In August, 1920, the Treaty of Sevres was signed by which the Allies decided to dis-member the Ottoman Empire and to reduce the powers of the Caliph of Turkey. The Muslims of Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent were indignant, and the Congress joined hands with the Muslim League in launch-ing a violent agitation against this step and against the new political reforms pro-posed under the Montagu-Chelmsford proposals. The proposals declared that the Indians were backward and not fit for self-rule and that Hindu-Muslim anta-gonism was a great stumbling block in the way of freedom.
In 1928, Mr. Jinnah, pleaded for am-endments in the constitutional proposals, to safeguard the interests of the Muslims and to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity, but his suggestion fell on deaf ears. He was utterly disgusted with the intolerance of the Hindu politicians. In 1930 and 1931 he attended the Round Table Conference call-ed by the British Government to arrive at some agreed solution of India’s constitu-tional problems. When these also proved futile as a result of the intransigence of the Hindus, Mr. Jinnah decided to settle in England, away from the fury of Indian politics.
In 1934 he returned from England to lead the Muslims again. He was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly by the Muslims of Bombay as an Independent member, even without his prior consent. In the following year, the Government of India Act of 1935 was passed. The Mus-lim League began preparations to fight the coming elections, and Mr. Jinnah was chosen President of the Central Election Board at the Muslim League Session of 1936 at Bombay. Mr. Jinnah made a cla-rion call to the Muslims, “Organise your-self and play your part. The Hindus and the Muslims must be organised separately, and once they are organized, they will understand each other better.”
In March 1940, the Muslim League held its session at Lahore in which the historic “Pakistan Resolution” was passed. Henceforth the political ideal of the Mus-lims of India was the attainment of a se-parate homeland where they could live according to their distinct way of life. Mr. Jinnah was now proclaimed by the Mus-lims as their “Quaid-i-Azam” (the greatest leader).
In the years that followed Quaid-i--Azam negotiated with the Cripps Mission on behalf of the Muslims. The result was a failure but it was for the first time that the British acknowledged the demand of the Muslims for a separate state. The Congress was alarmed and after the failure of the Cripps Mission, they launched the violent ‘Quit India’ movement against the British in 1942. As this movement worked against the establishment of a separate Muslim State, Quaid-i-Azam kept the Muslims clear of all these disturbances. Next he had to match his wits with Mr. Gandhi during the talks in 1944. When the Great War ended in May 1945, the Congress leaders were freed from prison and the British Government again started negotiations for constitutional changes in India. First came the Wavell Plan, then the more important Cabinet Mission Plan. Before the latter, an important event was the new elections held in India in January 1946. The victory of the Muslim League at the polls was overwhelming both in the provinces and in the Central Assembly. It was a measure of the Quaid’s glorious success in his mission of organizing the Indian Muslims. Well could he declare “No power on earth can prevent Pakistan now.”
Thereafter, the achievement of Pakistan as a separate homeland became Quaid-i-Azam’s dominant aim which he steadfastly pursued, and by dint of his exceptional statesmanship, constitutional acumen, and intelligent advocacy, he ultimately succeeded in getting the Pakistan idea accepted by the Indian National Congress -a predominantly Hindu political organisation as well as the British Government.
Quaid-i-Azam was seventyone and already very weak when he took over as first Governor-General of Pakistan. For forty years he had worked untiringly round the clock denying himself the pleasures of world at his command and much needed relaxation. As the head of a new born State, he had to work day and night ignor-ing medical advice. He had only one thought uppermost in his mind to make Pakistan a strong and respected nation in the comity of the nations of the World. The continuous hard work finally took its toll and the Quaid-i-Azam died on 11th September, 1948 in Karachi mourned by a grateful nation, but as one of the great immortals of history.
90th Birth Anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam (December 25,1966)
The commemorative postage stamps will be available for sale on and from the 25th December, 1966 for a period of three months at all important Post Offices, Philatelic Bureaux and Counters and also at some of the Pakistan Diplomatic Missions abroad There-after if supplies are still available, they will be sold only at the Philatelic Bureaux and Counters.
TO commemorate the Birth Anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam Mahomed All Jinnah, the Pakistan Post Office is issuing two postage stamps of l5-Paisa and 50-Paisa denominations on December 25,1966. In the heart of old Karachi there stands an old building called Wazir Mansion, which has become a national shrine. Here, ninety years ago, was born a child who was to change the course of history in Asia and to fulfil the destiny of a hundred million Muslims by helping them to win a homeland for themselves.
In this old fashioned three storied building lived Jinnah Poonja, a hide merchant, whose family had migrated from Kathiawar peninsula in India and made their home in the prosperous and growing town of Karachi. December 25, 1876, was a day of rejoicing in Wazir Mansion for on that day was born the first child of Jinnah Poonja, named Mahomed Ali.
The child grew up to be a fair tall boy, and studied at various schools but longest at the Sind Madrasah High School, where he made his mark as a disciplined and serious student. Impressed by his talents and noticing his bent of mind, an English friend of the family persuaded Mahomed All’s father to send him to England to study law after he had matriculated.
The four years stay in England was to transform the young man. He passed his examinations in two years but had to remain in England for two more years before he was called to the bar at the age of twenty. Mahomed Ali Jinnah returned to India in 1896. By this time his mother was dead and his father had fallen on hard days. Full of ambition and lofty ideals, Jinnah could not adjust himself to the depressing surroundings. He moved to Bombay in 1897, where the High Court offered more scope for the flowering of his legal talent.
When he was thirty and had made his fortune, Jinnah turned to active politics in 1906. The political tempo of India increased sharply with the victory of the Japanese over the Russians in 1905. The partition of Bengal in the same year led to violent protests by the Hindus, repression by the British, and safety measures by the Muslims, who decided to organize themselves under the banner of the Muslim League. Jinnah, however, was still inspired with liberal nationalism and joined the Congress.
In 1909, Mahomed Au Jinnah was elected by the Musalman of Bombay Presidency as their representative to the Supreme Legis-lative Council. In 1913 he was specially nominated to the Council by the Viceroy for an extra term to enable him to introduce the famous Waqf Validating Bill—the first Bill to pass into legislation on the motion of a private member.
Though Jinnah had been striving, with some other eminent leaders of goodwill, to promote unity between the Hindus and the Muslims, he *as drawn closer to the Muslim League after the annulment of the partition of Bengal in 1911, for this event convinced the Muslims that they could not be protected by the British against the Hindus. However, when Jinnah was persuaded to attend the annual sessions of the Muslim League in 1911, 1912 and 1913, he strove to raise their ideals, and in 1913 was mainly instrumental in getting a resolution passed which declared attainment of self-government to be the ideal of the Muslim organisation. In that year too, he was persuaded by Maulana Mohammad Au and Syed Wazir Hasan to enroll as a member of the League, but only after he had received solemn assurances that this would in no way imply even a shadow of disloyalty to the larger national cause to which his life was dedicated.
In 1915, Jinnah was instrumental in persuading the League to hold its annual session at the same place as the Congress was meeting in Bombay. This was repeated in 1916, when the League held its session at Lucknow under the presidentship of Jinnah himself. Earlier he had given public utterance to his sup-port for the demand of the Muslims for separate electorates, in an eminently reasonable speech while presiding over the 16th Bombay Provincial Conference. At the 1916 session of the Congress, Jinnah helped in persuading the Con-gress to agree that “in certain provinces” in which the Muslims were in a minority, they should be guaranteed a proportion of seats in the future Legislative Council in excess of the number they could other-wise hope to win. This “Lucknow Pact” between the Congress and the League was the culmination of Jinnah’s career as the “Ambassador of Unity” between the Hindus and the Muslims.
After the World War ended in 1918, political activity became intense. Widespread agitation followed the passage of the Rowlatt Act, which gave power to the Government to try cases of sedition without a jury. Jinnah resigned from the Imperial Legislative Council in 1919 as a protest against the passage of this bill. Next month the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh took place in Amritsar. In August, 1920, the Treaty of Sevres was signed by which the Allies decided to dis-member the Ottoman Empire and to reduce the powers of the Caliph of Turkey. The Muslims of Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent were indig-nant, and the Congress joined with the Muslim League in launching a violent agitation against this step and against the new political re-forms proposed under the Montague-Chelmsford proposals. Jinnah tried to dissuade the Muslims from the extremist course when he spoke at the Calcutta Session of the League in 1920. In December, he addressed the Congress Session at Nagpur in a similar effort to bring sanity into their counsels but he was silenced by the extremists. Jinnah resigned from the Congress, and the Home Rule League, and retired from practical politics during the next few troubled years but he did not resign his membership of the Muslim League. In 1926 he was again elected to the Central Legislative Assembly. In 1928 he took part in the All Parties Conference in Calcutta at which the Nehru Report on the Simon Commission proposals was to be considered. He pleaded for amendments in the constitutional pro-posals, to safeguard the interests of the Muslims and to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity, but his suggestions fell on deaf ears. He was utterly disgusted with the intolerance of the Hindu politicians. In 1930 and 1931 he attended the Round Table Conference called by the British Government to arrive at some agreed solution of India’s constitutional problems. When these also proved futile, as a result of Hindu intransigence, Jinnah decided to settle in England, away from the fury of Indian politics.
In 1934 he returned from England to lead the Muslims again. He was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly by the Muslims of Bombay as an Independent member, even without his prior consent. Next year the Government of India Act of 1935 was passed. The Muslim League began preparations to fight the coming elections, and Jinnah was chosen President of the Central Election Board at the Muslim League Session of 1936 at Bombay. Jinnah made a clarion call to the Muslims, “organize yourself and play your part. The Hindus and the Muslims must be organized separately, and once they are organized, they will understand each other better.
In March 1940, the Muslim League held its session at Lahore in which the historic Pakistan Resolution was passed. Henceforth the political ideal of the Muslims of India was the attainment of a separate homeland where they could live according to their distinct way of life.
In the years that followed Jinnah negotiated with the Cripps Mission on behalf of the Muslims. The result was a failure but it was the first step by the British to agree to the demand for a separate state for the Muslims. The Congress was alarmed and after the failure of the Cripps Mission, they launched the violent ‘Quit India’ campaign against the British in 1942. All this was alien to Jinnah’s nature, and he kept the Muslims clear of all these disturbances. Next he had to match his wits with Gandhi during the talks in 1944. When the European War ended in May 1945, the Congress leaders were freed from prison and the British Government again started negotiations for constitutional changes in India. First came the Wavell Plan, then the more important Cabinet Mission Plan. Before the latter, an im-portant event was the new elections held in India in January 1946.
The victory of the Muslim League at the polls was overwhelming both in the provinces and in the Central Assembly. It was a measure of the Quaid’s glorious success in his mission of organizing the Indian Muslims. Well could he declare “No power on earth can prevent Pakistan now.”
In March 1946, the Cabinet Mission came to India with new pro-posals, offering to arrange the provinces into three groups, to satisfy Muslim demands partially, for though they were offered internal auto-nomy, they were to be part of one state with defence, foreign affairs and communications as central subjects. The Quaid went along with the proposals some way but the Congress intransigence wrecked the negotiations, for the Hindus did not appreciate the sacrifice the Muslims were making by scaling down their demands. Still, the Muslims Were steadily and surely coming nearer the achievement of their ideal under Jinnah’s unerring leadership. When the Government decided to hold elections for a new Constituent Assembly, the League’s stand of being the sole representative of the Muslims was vindicated, for it won 76 out of 79 Muslim seats. In October 1946, the League joined informing the Interim Government under Lord Wavell. But there was no real co-operation. The Quaid ordered that no Muslim was to take part in the Constituent Assembly due to sit from December 9, 1946. Feelings in the whole of the sub-continent were worked up and the Calcutta riots were like the fuse that started the great explosion. After one last effort to reconcile the Muslims and the Hindus, Mr. Att-lee, the British Premier, announced in February 1947, that they would grant independence to India, not later than June 1948. vis-count Mountbatten was sent out as Viceroy to negotiate the manner of handing over power. He acted with amazing swiftness, and on June 2, 1947, announced that India would be partitioned. Thus two new Pakistan and India States were created on August 14, 1947. Quaid-i-Azam’s leadership and the struggle of the Muslim nation at last bore fruit—earlier than anyone expected.
The Quaid was seventy one when Pakistan came into being. He was spared by God only for one year to set the ship of the new state safely on its keel. The motto of “Unity, Faith and Discipline” which he gave to the new born nation infused a new spirit into the people of Pakistan. He died on September 11, 1948, mourned by a grateful nation, but as one of the Great Immortals of history.