In his first presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, Quaide Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah said, “Now if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor […] if you change your past and work together in a spirit that every one of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this state with equal rights, privileges and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make.”

The Quaid made a case for equality of all citizens of Pakistan regardless of their colour, caste, or creed.

In the same speech, he said, “I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”

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Christmas is just around the corner. We must remember Jinnah’s words. We must keep this in mind if we want Pakistan to progress. Recently we saw the case of a minor Christian girl Arzoo Raja’s forced conversion and underage marriage. Both the Sindh government and the federal government played their part in ensuring that justice was served. Every year, we see hundreds of cases of forced conversions in the country, most of them young Hindu and Christian girls. This is a worrying trend.

Christians, Hindus and people belonging to other minority faiths have equal rights as citizens of Pakistan according to our Constitution. Unfortunately, we see discrimination against minorities around us all the time. From giving separate utensils to minority workers at our homes, workplaces to using derogatory terms for them, we show our bigotry and racism without even acknowledging it. We casually remark on people’s colour or caste or religion without realising how wrong it is.

On this Christmas Day, and every other religious celebration of minorities, we should ensure that we don’t discriminate. Due to COVID-19, this year’s celebrations may not be as festive as in the past but through kindness and interfaith harmony, we can spread a message of love and cheer.