Jinnah's Concept of State Administration and Pakistan's Early Administrative Structure (1947-1958)

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah‟s vision for administrative structure of Pakistan. It is an attempt to analyze the various factors and circumstances led the country slowly and gradually away from his ideals, principles and vision. He envisioned a modern Muslim State, the constitution of which would be democratic embodying the essential principles of Islam such as democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech and expression, women‟s rights, human rights, equality, tolerance, justice and fair play for all to all, a country where all citizens could freely practice their religious beliefs and achieve political and economic independence. It is only in this perspective that the high ideal of the freedom of belief acquired great significance. His assurance to the citizens of Pakistan that all of them were „equal citizens of one State‟ should leave no one in doubt that Pakistan guides enshrined as a modern liberal state guided by the Islamic ideals set in practice by Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) himself. He made it crystal clear that whether it was the question of relations between the democratically elected representatives of the people and the Civil-Military Bureaucracy, or the deliberation of its citizens, or the issue of rapid development, he was optimistic and convinced that Pakistan would emerge as strong modern country. This would be possible, he emphasized, only when the principles of „service above self‟ and „fair play‟ ruled supreme in translating high ideals into policies of good governance. The Quaid-i-Azam‟s speeches and statements touch on every pertinent issue that a new state had to face. Quaid-i-Azam‟s guidelines on every issue should serve as a source of inspiration. Nowhere in these speeches and statements has the founder of the nation lost sight of the ideals which shaped his mind from the beginning of his political career. He appears to have retained that proverbial cool, even in times of great stress, which is a hall mark of all those great men who have done great things in spite of impossible odds. The third and forth chapters analyse the vision of Quaid-e Azam for the new state and show how his guidelines and principals were ignored by the rulers that caused a serious administrative challenge to the state. Have we lived up to his expectations and carried his mission forward about built Pakistan into a strong, politically and economically viable country or have we succumbed to the designs of enemies of Pakistan by following ourselves to be embroiled in parochial, regional, religious, racial and ethnic differences, fanaticism and violence. The vision of democracy as constituting a political order involving political process, tolerance, freedom of the media, careful political handling of issues as to avoid instability of the state and denial of law, order and security seem to have evaded a nation which was born with the power of vote, the power of speech and the power of the pen.