Three-day tribute begins in Dhaka

Special Correspondent: A three-day remembrance programme titled "The Architect Remembered" began on Wednesday at the NRC Centre in Purana Paltan, Dhaka, to mark the 78th death anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The event has been organised by the Jatiya Biplobi Parishad, a Muslim nationalist political forum. 

Speaking as the chief guest at the opening session, senior journalist, editor and poet Maruf Kamal Khan Sohel said that without Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan would not have come into being, and without Pakistan, the nation-state of Bangladesh would still have remained only a dream. Mr Khan, who served as press secretary to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, said the people of this region are inheritors of a long history of the subcontinent and are not a people with a disconnected past. He recalled that their forefathers had launched a movement under Jinnah’s leadership which led to the creation of Pakistan, and it was out of affection that they honoured him with the title of Quaid-e-Azam, meaning the Great Leader.

The senior journalist also observed that there is a need today to revisit the narrative about Jinnah that has been in circulation in Bangladesh in recent years. He described Jinnah as a prominent anti-colonial leader and the architect of an independent Muslim state in South Asia.

A concept paper titled "Reclaiming Jinnah" was presented by Tamima Zobaida, a PhD researcher at Waseda University in Japan. She said lessons from Jinnah’s life are relevant for the rebuilding of Bangladesh in the period following the July movement. She noted that Jinnah secured an independent homeland for Muslims from British colonial rule, and after independence he worked to lay the foundations of constitutional structures and democratic institutions. In a similar way, she said, Bangladesh now requires constitutional reconstruction and reform of its democratic institutions. She added that in the present climate, ideas of Muslim nationalism and democratic Muslim politics are drawing the interest of young people in Bangladesh, and because of this Jinnah is emerging again as an iconic figure for many of them.

The programme was presided over by Khomeni Ihsan, convener of Jatiya Biplobi Parishad, and conducted by the party’s member secretary Dr Nabil Ahmed. Among those who spoke were Professor Lt Col (Retd) Akram Ali, Dr Farid Uddin, Engineer AKM Rezaul Karim and Advocate Mostafa Jamal Chowdhury. Mohammad Kamran Saeed Usmani, president of Pakistan’s Young Muslim League, joined online and addressed the gathering. The welcome address was given by the party’s senior joint convener Mohammad Shamsuddin. Several other leaders and activists including Mezbauddin Ahmed, Mohammad Abdul Jabbar, Minhajul Abedin Sharif, Shah Nazmul Hasan Ferdous and others were also present.

The organisers said that a photo exhibition on the life of Jinnah will be open to the public every day of the three-day event from 11 in the morning until 7 in the evening at the NRC Centre. On the final day, Friday, a visit to the shrine of the National Three Leaders, who were comrades of Jinnah, will be held after Juma prayers, followed by a prayer meeting at the central mosque of the university after Asr prayers.

The programme brought together speakers and participants who discussed Jinnah’s role in the history of the subcontinent and reflected on how his ideas might be understood by new generations across the region.