Maybe We Need to Remember What We Have Forgotten
By Beena Khan
Yesterday was 11 August — the day we remember Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s historic address to the Constituent Assembly.
But perhaps we shouldn’t remember it only once a year.
Because what he spoke about that day feels painfully relevant today. He spoke of a Pakistan where people would be free to belong to their faith, their beliefs and their way of life. A Pakistan where citizens would not be defined by their differences, but united by their humanity and their shared country.
And I sometimes wonder…
Where did we lose that kindness?
When did disagreeing with someone become a reason to hate them?
When did someone's religion, sect, ethnicity, appearance, gender, beliefs or choices become an invitation for ridicule?
When did we become so comfortable with saying things that we would never want someone to say to us?
We don't have to agree with one another.
We don't even have to like one another.
But surely, we can learn to let one another exist with dignity.
Tolerance is not weakness. It is not surrender. It is not abandoning our beliefs.
Tolerance is the strength to say,
"You are different from me, but you are still a human being. You still deserve respect. You still deserve to be heard."
And perhaps this is what we need most today — not more outrage, not more judgement, not more people telling everyone else how to live.
Perhaps we simply need a little more humanity.
So, as we move towards 14 August, I have one small wish for all of us.
Before we ask what kind of Pakistan others should build…
let us ask what kind of Pakistan we are building through the way we treat each other.
Because the Pakistan of Jinnah's dream cannot be created by laws and speeches alone.
It begins with us.
With our words.
With our behaviour.
And with the kindness we choose to show when nobody is forcing us to.
Maybe that is the Pakistan we need to find again.
Not in history books.
But in ourselves.
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