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Jinnah's diary 'stolen'

The ongoing debate on the growing sectarian and ethnic intolerance in Pakistan has been sharpened by the news that a diary of the country's founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has been stolen from the Quaid-e-Azam museum in Karachi.

The diary was reported missing last month from the museum which was earlier the home of Jinnah's sister Fatima, who possessed important documents on her brother's life and struggle for creating Pakistan. During her life -- she died in 1965 -- she refused to part with these documents.

Writing in the Dawn, M H Askari expressed the suspicion that soon after Jinnah's death in 1948, this diary could have been 'usurped, distorted and purloined.'

While launching his Islamisation programme, General Zia-ul Haq had claimed that he had chanced upon Jinnah's diary which favoured an Islamic system for Pakistan. But his claim was refuted by many who knew Jinnah.

Askari writes that 'torn by religious, sectarian and other factional divisions, ridden with corruption, governed by rulers who seldom feel committed to any principles or established code of ethics, Pakistan today is a complete travesty of everything that the Quaid believed in.'

The columnist recalls that even Jinnah's address to the constituent assembly in August 1947 has been 'censored, misrepresented, misquoted or quoted out of context.'

However, when Zia claimed he had got Jinnah's diary, K H Khursheed, once Jinnah's personal assistant, refuted the Pakistan president's claim, saying the late leader kept no diary. Khursheed later headed the Liberation League in occupied Kashmir.

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