Sectarianism
Chief Editor: Mohammad Yaqub Khan
August 19, 1952.
The Pakistan Government´s directive to State ministers and officials prohibiting on pain of drastic action the preaching of their particular religious views to their subordinates or to those who come into contact with them in their official capacity will be universally welcomed. The practice is not only a gross violation of the public servants ‘conduct rules but is repugnant to the very basic essence of Islam which gives complete freedom of conscience the highest place in human values. Compulsion, coercion or pressure in any shape or form is foreign to the very conception of religion in Islam which is pre-eminently a matter of an individual´s own free choice. God Himself, as emphasised in the Quran, leaves man free to his own choice between right and wrong – a circumstance but for which religion ceases to be religion, even though imposed by God. All that the Quran claims to do is: “We have shown him the right path; it is for man to accept or reject it.” To establish freedom of conscience is one of the occasions on which it has been permitted to go to war, if necessary. Pressure of official position or public opinion is equally a form of coercion and in banning the first the Government has taken a step in the right direction. A minister of official of State should be above all sectarian, even religious views or predilections, the moment he occupies the official chair, he should cease to be Sunni, Shia, Wahabi, Hanafi, Ahmadi or any other persuasion. That was, in fact, the ideal which the Quaid-e-Azam had in view for every citizen of Pakistan – viz., that religion should be his private affair and that in the service and advancement of the State all should be just Pakistanis. It is one of the essentials of an Islamic State not to think in terms of Muslim and non-Muslim, Sunni or non-Sunni and so forth. It has been established beyond a doubt that if sectarianism is allowed to flourish, it will prove
the undoing of the State. The best way to ensure the eradication of this evil would be for the Government as such to be non-sectarian. The Government´s directive in question should go a long way to make the administration and general tone of society free from the canker of sectarianism which is eating into the vitals of Pakistan.
