QOTD: Pakistan's One Unit

In 1954, forty-two years ago, when the One Unit issue was 
to be voted upon in the provincial assembly, the then chief minister, 
Mohammed Ayub Khuhro, in cahoots with his minister Pir Ali Mohammed Rashdi, 
realising that the honourable Mirs of Talpur would vote against their 
proposal, acted. Mir Ali Ahmed Talpur was arrested on a trumped-up charge, 
Mir Rasul Bakhsh Talpur managed to escape and hide, and the smallest and 
gentlest of the three, Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, was bodily picked up and 
bundled off on the back of a camel to Mitthi, the same old Mitthi in the 
Thar desert.

- Ardeshir Cowasjee (18th July 1996) writing in the DAWN 

I have always found the creation of Pakistans one unit something of an amusement 

considering the intent behind it, the dominant West Pakistan elite fearing the 

Bengali majority wanted some form of parity with East Pakistan. So simple enough

solution ignore the ethnic, administrative and historic divisions in 'West Pakistan'

and just amalgamate them together into one unit. As a sop to the Pakhtunistan movement

inititally Peshawar was supposed to be West Pakistans provincial Capital but this was later

changed to Lahore.

I find the Bengali political leaders willingness to sacrfice their inherent majority 

status for the sake of national unity unusual and tragic. They obviously believed in the concept 

of Pakistan to an extent that they were willing to forego their own basic right of 

representation. It is tragic for several reasons, one is I cannot imagine something similar

happening in present day Pakistan. A ethnic group willingly surrender its unfluence 

somewhere for the greater good. Secondly is the simplistic approach that one unit reflected

sure enough when you look into its history you see the good old military establishments

finger prints over this overly simplistic solution to Pakistans problems. 

So if you have corrupt politicians ban politics, if you have tensions between ethnic groups

ban any reflections of ethnicitiy or diversity. And as the above quote shows...you do whatever it

takes to achieve the figleaf of legal support for your moves. 

It really would be funny if it wasn't so sad... 

Mind your language! Part 1

“This bill is anti-Pakistan and we will not allow anyone to go for the passage of this bill, which is contrary to the vision of the founding father, Quaid-e-Azam, who declared Urdu as the national language,” MNA Saeed Ahmed Zafar declared in an angry tone.

The bill in question? PML-Q MNA Marvi Memon had submitted the bill in the National Assembly Secretariat seeking regional languages including Sindhi, Pushto, Saraiki, Baluchi, Punjabi, Balti and Shena be given the status of national language.

Pakistan has had a tortured relationship with language and multicultural expression. To put things in context the unitary concept of Urdu and Urdu alone, as the lingua franca of Pakistan launched the Bengal language movement. On 21 February 1952 ,this movement culiminated  with the tragic killing of students, with police opening fire on demonstrators demanding Bengali being declared joint national language with Urdu. This date is now recognised as international Mother language day. So why does this issue trigger of  strong emotions, some will cite Jinnahs  "Urdu, and Urdu alone shall be the State Language of Pakistan" speeches in Dhaka (March 21, 1948), but this was based on an attempt to forge some sense of common identity in a nation that was so disparate.

If anything the events of 1971, should have shown to Pakistani nationalists, that the co-existence of different ethno-cultural groups is on the basis of each group getting the most out of a federation and not out of a created sense of identity.

A version of this post was published today in the DAWN