The exhibition also displayed the sacrifices so many people made in order for this country to be created. People lived in tents in burning heat for long periods of time, they had cramped offices with a desk and no chairs, the train cabins were so tiny and confined. This shows us what people had gone through, just to give the people of today a whole new identity. And today, how many of us accept that identity?
Does anyone even know why we rejoice on 14th August anymore? Yeah, yeah, we got our separate homeland, a place where we can practice our religion and live as par our culture, in peace! This would be the typical answer any Pakistani would give. We all know very well that Pakistan was created as a result of hectic efforts on the part of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was the founder of Pakistan and our many leaders in the yesteryears. But how many of us are PROUD to be Pakistanis? How many of us call it our identity and who we are?
For instance, one of the principles Jinnah built Pakistan on, was the freedom to practice any religion freely. The Pakistan flag has a dark green background, emblematic of the large Muslim population in this country. Still, Muslims wanted people of all faiths to feel welcome in their country. For this reason, the flag of Pakistan has a wide white bar along the side that touches the flag pole. That bar signals a welcome to all religious minorities. But today, when we look at this country, are people allowed to practice their religion freely? There is enough discrimination within Muslims themselves, let alone any other religion.
All these made us think about our own identity and how it relates to the foundation of Pakistan, and being Pakistani. What does being Pakistani mean? Today, you barely hear people say they are Pakistani. Rather, you’d hear them say they’re Balochi or Sindhi or Punjabi. What happened to being one country, one nation? Since Pakistan is only 63 years old, its people identification is still in the making. However, this is not the case with the regions that make up Pakistan. For example, a person from Lahore will say he is Punjabi, and for him that is his identity, and he knows what it means. In addition, many people are ashamed of calling themselves Pakistani. Today, you will see many people who can afford it, running abroad to places like Canada and USA, to gain a foreign passport and give themselves a whole new identity. Suddenly, they’ll become “Canadian” or “American” instead of Pakistani. Is this what Jinnah had envisioned? People running away from their own identity? The identity that so many people died to give us?
Countless questions ran through my mind. I learnt about the decisions to form Pakistan, what people went through to make this country what it is today, how Pakistan developed, about the many philanthropists who funded the creation of this country, and so much more. And for the first time in life, I thought about what it meant to be a Pakistani, or to live in this country. What Jinnah had visualized and what we are today. The trip to the exhibition made us think about our own identity. After this trip, we try to research our roots and historical remains, and be Pakistani and feel thankful and proud of being one, irrespective of the province, caste or creed that we are a part of, considering oneself as just Pakistanis as that is who we really are. Self-respect lies within the self; no one can take it away from you. Be like water.
