Full text of the Resolutions passed by the World Seminar on ‘What Future for Pakistan?’, London, 16-18 August, 1984. Published in Crescent International, September 1-15, 1984. Reprinted in Issues in the Islamic movement, vol. 5, 1984-85 (1404-05), pp. 54-56.
Resolutions passed by the World Seminar on ‘What Future for Pakistan?’, London, 16-18 August, 1984.
Preamble
A world seminar to consider the question What Future for Pakistan? met in London from August 16-18, 1984. It was attended by ulama, scholars and others from many parts of the Ummah. The seminar heard papers covering the emergence of Pakistan in 1947 and the many problems the country has encountered since then.
The seminar is of the view:
1. That the Muslims of the subcontinent were right to demand and secure a separate State for themselves at the end of the British raj in India. In the Muslim struggle for a separate State, Mr M. A. Jinnah’s dynamic and firm leadership played a crucial role.
2. That many of the problems of identity and legitimacy that the State of Pakistan has faced have their origin in the use of the secular idea of nationalism to formulate the demand for separate Statehood, and in the non-implementation of the Islamic system in Pakistan. This meant that partition saddled the ‘Muslim nation’ with a crisis of identity and led directly to the country’s dismemberment in 1971.
3. That the westernized elite that has ruled Pakistan since 1947 has failed the country and its people in every respect and has also made the country subservient to the political, economic and strategic interests of the United State of America.
4. That politics in Pakistan has been secular, devoid of moral content, and an arena for personal and group rivalries. The people of Pakistan have been systematically denied their right to participate in the affairs of their country.
5. That the State of Pakistan continues to be run by a clique of military and civilian bureaucrats in the harshest traditions of British colonialism. This ruling group has opened the country to exploitation and the wholesale importation of corruption from the west in a deliberate attempt to undermine the Islamic foundations of the society and the political culture of the people.
6. That the original moral consensus of the Muslim masses that led to the creation of the State of Pakistan has been abandoned by the country’s rulers. This, together with their greed and incompetence, has brought the country to the verge of another crisis threatening its existence.
7. That the present regime in Pakistan is so void of legitimacy that it has no right to speak in the name of Islam. Its present policies of ‘Islamization’ are calculated to deceive the people, to bring Islam into disrepute, and to divert the people’s attention from the oppressive nature of the regime.
The Future
The seminar is of the view that the survival of the State of Pakistan is a vital interest of the Ummah as a whole and, therefore, the factors that have jeopardised its existence must be eliminated. The future of Pakistan can only be secured in the following framework:
1. The creation of an Islamic movement taking its inspiration from the Islamic Revolution in neighbouring Iran, leading to a similar Revolution in Pakistan and the establishment of an Islamic State in that country. This will be a new moral consensus renecting the political culture and the unfulfilled hopes and aspirations ol’ the Muslim mum of Pakistan.
2. The emergence of a muttaqi leadership from the ranks of the ulama of Pakistan who are close to the people and are prepared to lead a mass movement against the post-colonial order.
3. The new Islamic movement must have a global dimension and must undertake jihad against the influence of kufr in Pakistan and the forces of kufr abroad.
4. The factors of secular nationalism and regimes subservient to the west are a feature common to all Muslim nation-States and only a global Islamic movement can lead the struggle of the Ummah against them.
Crescent International, September 1-15, 1984.