Saturday 21 April 2018

Imran Khan, PTI and Jinnah


Just happened to read this book (in French language) of the author Francois Kersaudy called Lord Mountbatten and published in 2006. It is mentioned in this book that in 1947 Lord Mountbatten (The last British Viceroy to India) had to meet all Indian leaders about leaving the India to local parties and he arranged meetings with Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah among others. The (intelligence) profile of Mr Muhammad Ali Jinnah is said to be like this (Page 242 on 2015 edition of the book):

"Jinnah represents Muslims but he drinks Whisky and Champagne, he eats pork, he smokes all day along, his knowledge of Quran is very limited and he rarely goes to the mosque".

It was completely new for me, although not shocking. I thought that nowadays in Pakistan, in certain govt departments, you have to be much better than Jinnah in religious obligations to get a junior post and yet he is the founder of Pakistan and father of the nation. This also clarifies whether Jinnah wanted an Islamic state or a secular one. The other question is that why Pakistan's state has been hiding these details about Jinnah? I respected Jinnah from my boyhood and still respect him, these details did not change my respect for him (Although many people may do otherwise and perhaps this is the reason for hiding such details). 

Now for PTI and Imran Khan posing as second Jinnah of Pakistan, is it good for Imran Khan to compare himself to Jinnah? I shall say that times have changed in Pakistan, people are more religious now and Imran khan has to stop comparing himself to Jinnah, same is true for the followers of PTI, stop comparison with Jinnah if you want to win votes in elections. It is sure that PTI lacks people who are experts in history.
PTI : Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf