UNIT 3:[QUAID -A GREAT LEADER]

Pre-Reading:

• Who do you think a leader is?
• Why do you think Quaid-e-Azam is a great leader?

Reading:

               It was August 7th,1947,when a silver aircraft circled over the airport at Mauripur,Karachi.It was watched by a vast ,excited crowd while smoothly landing. First to step out of the aeroplane was a tall and dignified man wearing a pure white sherwani. As soon as he appeared,the whole crowd roared with one voice "Pakistan Zindabad!Pakistan Zindabad".And every one Pushed forward to welcome him,to get as close to him as possible in order to see him clearly. For here was their great leader,Quaid-e-Azam, the founder and first Governor General of their new country. Here was their leader who had won Pakistan for them Muhammad Ali Jinnah. 

As he drove through the great sea of people that stretched from the airport to the city,through all the cheers and tears of joy and the never ending slogans of "Pakistan Zindabad",the Quaid showed no signs of his feelings. He rarely did so.If he felt pride or joy in what he had done ,he didn't let anybody see it.

Through all the excitement of those first days in the life of the young nation,the man who had made it possible remained calm,serious and sober.Perhaps he was thinking of the millions of people who had become homeless when India and Pakistan became separate countries. 

Perhaps he was thinking of the thousands who were being attacked and killed on the roads and railways as they tried to reach their homeland. There was much in those days of violence to saden Jinnah who was a man of very strong feelings although he rarely showed it.Yet those who were close to him on Independence Day sometimes Saw for a few moments a happier man.Once he went to the balcony of the Governor House,from where he could see without being seen ,and as he looked on the crowd still cheering in the streets outside,he smiled. In that smile could be seen the warm hearted man behind the stern Quaid-e-Azam. 

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was at this time tired and far from well but he had the satisfaction of knowing that the greater part of his work was done.By the force of his determination and leadership,a people who had once been a defeated group,with little to hope for,in an empire ruled by a foreign power,had become the greatest of the Muslim states and the 5th largest nation in the world .Seventy millions people,who once had no country to call their own,had become a nation _with great ideals and a great faith. A few days after he landed in Karachi,Muhammad Ali Jinnah told his people,"You are free to go to your temples:you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste _we are all citizens of one state. "He was ,of course reminding them of the Prophet Muhammad SAW teaching that all men are equal in the eyes of ALLAH.