HEINOUS CONSPIRACY
TO OUST ISLAM AND SMUGGLE COMMUNISM ALL PAKISTAN CONVENTION MANIFESTO WARNING TO YOUTH
An extremely heinous plot, a hotchpotch of dirty tricks and fraudulent maneuverings, is being cooked. A great conspiracy is being hatched to disrupt the very foundations of our state. An attempt is being made by a handful of persons to oust Islam and call a convention on purely secular grounds, and to form a national organisation of students.
Agents of political parties are busy in perpetrating this fraud. They are trying to befool the students and use them as instruments for smuggling the Communist way of life in our beloved country, which has been consecrated for Islam. They have set a part of our country on fire; they are busy in throwing the whole of Pakistan into a bloody conclusion and thus to pave the way for Communist revolution.
These people are using very high-sounding slogans and sympathy-winning catch-words to deceive the students. But these conspirators are cherishing great illusions. Pakistan has been established for Islam. The students want Islam, and Islam alone. The exploiters cannot deceive the youth by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tactics. They cannot bluff the youth. They cannot gather them on secular grounds. They cannot stem the rising tide of Islamic renaissance. Youth know only too well what the anti-Islamic elements are. Their real designs are now clear. Students can no longer be cheated!
Pakistan has been won only to establish the Islamic way of life. Hundreds of thousands paid its price in terms of blood and tears. The souls of the martyrs remind us of the great mission of Pakistan. Islam, and nothing else but Islam, can be established here.
The very existence of Pakistan is conditioned with the establishment of Islam in this country. So many rabid linguistic, cultural, and provincial prejudices are eating into the vitals of our state. They are threatening its very existence. Islam alone can fight all prejudices and cement Pakistan into one organic whole. Any attempt to call the nation on any other grounds cannot but lead to disruption and collapse (God forbid). Islam alone can be our manifesto for unity.
People of Pakistan have, in general, and the youth, in particular, demanded the Islamic way of life for the country. They long to see Islam bloom in Pakistan. They are struggling to translate it into practice and establish an Islamic state. Any movement which ignores Islam and demands something else would commit the greatest betrayal of our cause. Its Endeavor would be heinous and criminal. It would be tantamount to ridiculing the true feelings of the people.
But, believe it or not, Pakistan Convention, sponsored by the I.C.B., Karachi, has issued its statement of policy which has been published in “Students’ Herald”, the mouthpiece of a Communist-sponsored students’ body, and in this manifesto a systematic attempt has been made to oust Islam and smuggle Communism under a whole world of cloak and masks. It is a gross and flagrant betrayal of Pakistan and its mission Islam. The Communists have, it means, been successful in exploiting the authors of the draft and using them as their tools.
A very cunning attempt has been made to bring Communism by demanding security of employment. The proposed convention is nothing but a conspiracy against Islam. It is a great hoax, a swindle, an organised plot to pave the way for Communism. But with the release of the manifesto their designs have been unmasked. The lid is off their intentions. Now the true colour is visible. Students of Pakistan can never be a party to this political racket, this red scandal. They are out to defeat it and the Islam-loving youth shall oppose this policy statement with all the force at their command. We warn the students and ask them to be aware of the exploiters and descriptionists. We put forth our criticism over the said manifesto:
- By ignoring Islam, the sponsors have betrayed Pakistan and Islam both. Pakistan has been carved into existence only to translate into practice the tenets of Islam and to save humanity from the beastly clutches of Capitalism and Communism. We are not opposed to the idea of an All-Pakistan Students Convention. But the designs of the people who are calling it are most nefarious. They want to oust Islam. They are opposed to it. When the scrolls for the demand of an Islamic constitution were signed by students, a few of these very people who are now trying to convene this conference flatly refused to sign it. Now they have come out with a secular manifesto for an All-Pakistan organisation. It is a great conspiracy. It must be nipped in the bud.
- Not only have they ignored Islam, they have also positively presented Communism as the alternative, though in a roundabout and concealed manner. They say that:
“No student would like to roam about unemployed after the completion of education. Hundreds of young people leave their schools and colleges and have to waste their years to find out a job. This is a question that should be considered very seriously. Do we study just to remain unemployed? Should we not contribute towards the progress of our country by working somewhere? What will happen to those who depend on our earnings? The students must therefore raise a united voice to demand security of employment for all.”
This is a clever attempt to smuggle Communism into our country. First of all, they have tried to win the sympathy of the readers by saying that you must be employed and then have very cunningly asked them to demand the security of employment. Everyone wants that there should be no poverty, no unemployment, no starvation, no misery. But how to achieve it? Islam holds that it is the duty of the state to GUARANTEE THE BASIC NECESSARIES OF LIFE for every citizen, so that everybody should enjoy economic security and may have an opportunity to contribute his lot to the betterment of the nation and humanity at large. This is the only true solution.
Communism, on the other hand, says that the right to employment should be given. This means that all the economic resources of the country be nationalized, that the means of production should be owned and operated by the state. This means an all-out planned economy and cradle-to-grave regimentation. It means the Communist way of life and a grossly totalitarian regime. It means purge of all plenty and freedom and the development of a new menacing slave system on the Russian pattern, where man is reduced to the position of a cog in a gigantic machine, where he is robbed of all human dignity and is made a helpless screw, a lifeless nut, a chained beast-of-burden, getting the minimum of fodder which may enable him to linger on in the pain of existence.
From the viewpoint of history and practice, it has resulted in human misery and suffering. It is an attempt to smuggle Communism into our country because, due to lack of courage, they want to smuggle it under a mask; they make it wear the cloak of “security of employment.” Those who are demanding it are very unscrupulously exploited by the Communist agents. These students are carrying somebody else’s baby. No student can tolerate this exploitation. It must be arrested, here and now.
The manifesto has, in a very ambiguous way, discussed and then sidetracked the issue of the purpose of education. In Para. 2 it says:
A salient feature of the present system of education is that there is no purpose behind education. purpose. We need a complete reorientation and a new outlook on the problems of education so that we can be of use to the country. Our efforts should therefore be, to demand: –
(I) Revision of curriculum.
(ii) Higher salaries for the teaching staff so that capable men take to this profession and devote their time and energy to the building of the nation without having to face economic difficulties.
(iii) More and better libraries.
(iv) Improvement in the sports and cultural facilities so that the students can take to healthy extra-curricular activities.
(v) Periodical medical check-up and free medical treatment for all the students.
We ask: But what would be the PURPOSE of education? Revision of curriculum is OK, but on what lines? What changes should be made? Education cannot be endowed with a purpose by the mere revision of curriculum. Curriculum should be revised in the light of the purpose of education. You have failed to answer the question of the purpose of education only because you do not want Islam and thus you do not demand it, because you do not have the courage to say that you want Communism.
Thus, you have tried to create confusion by the jugglery of words. But students are unequivocal in their demand for an Islamic system of education. 92% of them are dissatisfied with the present system, and students have demanded the Islamic system of education which may cater for the requirements of our newly born independent Islamic state. But the manifesto betrays the cause of students by confusing this issue.
It is also strange that they say that to effect “reorientation and a new outlook on the problem of education”, their “efforts should be to demand” higher salaries, more libraries, sports, and medical check-ups. Either they do not know what the problems of the outlook and the purpose of education are, and these recommendations betray their colossal ignorance of the educational problems which we face, or they want to sidetrack the issue by bragging upon irrelevant things, which seriously questions their sincerity. Let them answer what they are.
- This manifesto is also extremely misleading. It says that in Karachi a historical victory has been won. It is adding insult to the injury of the Karachi students. If by victory they mean the victory of exploiters in creating much trouble and spilling the blood of innocent students to bribe the hounds of cheap popularity, it may be correct. But if by victory they mean that the demands of the students have been fulfilled, the statement is a bumper lie. 27 persons had to lose their lives and about 400 had to sustain injuries only because of the heartlessness of the government and the wrong leadership and their exploiting designs. And even after the loss of so much they find themselves exactly where they were not a single positive gain. This fact is borne out by the statement of the Secretary of I.C.B. itself, published in DAWN of Feb. 21, 1953 (the very day on which the manifesto was released), in which he very unambiguously admits:
“THE MEMBERS OF I.C.B. POINTED OUT TO THE MINISTER THAT NONE OF THE DEMANDS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE GOVERNMENT.”
Now, to follow the deception the conveners of the conference want to perpetrate and the misleading impression they want to create in the minds of the students of the rest of Pakistan (for students of Karachi cannot be deceived on this count), read what they say in the manifesto:
“Never before were such a resounding victory won by any section of the people. Never before has the democratic voice triumphed to such an extent in the history of our country. It will not be wrong to say that it was really the victory of the whole student community of Pakistan.”
Yes! Never before was such a “victory” winning a victory without any substance, a catchword their so-called leaders are using to smoke-screen their failure, an intoxicant the guilty leadership is employing to make the students forget the huge loss of lives and the severe pain of the injuries, arrests, and insults! In fact, never in the long range of history was such a “VICTORY” won!!
- In the manifesto, the support of the students has been sought for all those international movements which are Russian-sponsored and Russian-organised. Students of Pakistan are against both Capitalist imperialism and Communist imperialism. They are opposed to both the blocs and have no soft corner for any. We are not prepared to pawn ourselves at the altar of red imperialism. Only communists can do so, not the students of the Islamic state of Pakistan.
Thus, we find that this manifesto is a gross and flagrant betrayal of Islam and Pakistan, and no Islam-loving person can be a party to this swindle.
APPEAL
In view of what has been written above, let us hope that the students of Pakistan in general and Karachi in particular would realize the weight of responsibility towards building a bright future for their homeland, towards implementing the Islamic ideology and towards defeating the nefarious design of all mischief-mongers whose attempts at weakening the grip of Islam cannot but result in the disintegration of the national unity Such moves are a danger to the very existence of the State. Islam is THE ONE integrating factor, facing the out- slaughter of numerous powerful tendencies of disruption and chaos-class antagonism, provincialism, linguistic controversies etc.
It the duty of the youth-who played a glorious part in the struggle for the achievement of Pakistan-to face manfully and courageously those who are deliberately or otherwise serving the purpose of saboteurs of Pakistan and Islam. It is time that they rise to the height of the occasion and expose all disruptors and mischief-mongers, declare their unflinching faith in Islam and their determination to struggle and sacrifice to make it predominate in Pakistan-and ultimately the world over. It is the time to rally round the Islamic movement of students and prove to the world that no power on earth can prevent Islam from becoming a dominant force in the national life of Pakistan.
