Distorting Pakistan ideology

This is probably the first time that an eminent Pakistani writer on politics and economy Mr Shahid Javed Burki, has questioned the validity of the Two-Nation Theory which formed the basis of the creation of a Muslim State - Pakistan, carved out of the Indian sub-continent to provide a safe haven for the Muslims of India wherein they could safeguard their endangered religious and cultural identity and have a life of dignity and self-respect away from the hatred and bigotry of Hindu India.

Surprisingly, Mr Burki has debunked this theory after 61 years of Pakistan's existence. He writes in an English daily, "Jinnah's Two-Nation Theory is now 70 years old. It resulted in the partition of British India and the creation of two separate political entities. One of those split into two and what was once British India is now three separate states with their own histories and their own imperatives.

Two of them - Bangladesh and Pakistan - are still searching for answers that would help them forge the meaning of nationhood. How should Pakistan define itself at this critical juncture in its history?

"Notwithstanding the bloody campaign launched by some stateless groups, religion can't be the basis of Pakistan's nationhood. There are too many different interpretations of what can be called an Islamic State for Pakistan to risk its future on that concept.

For the same reason, ethnicity can't be the defining concept. We have to be pragmatic: "we need to define the Pakistani identity and the Pakistani idea on the basis of geography rather than on the basis of culture and religion."

This reminds me of a conversation I had in Washington DC with an American student of history way back in the sixties. He said, "Pakistanis are probably the first people in the world who have violated the definition of 'State' given by Plato, that the first imperative for the creation of a 'State' is a contiguous boundary."