REHMANI ASHFAQ mediamanfrompk@gmail.com Face of freedom of expression The two phrases are synonymous. This is fundamental human right..

Historically such awareness in the writings f philosophers though dawned with Socrates it took firm roots with the beginning of age of enlightenment in Western Europe and the evolving of bourgeois revolution.. Human mind continues to gather information through five senses. The human ego or id forces man to point out inequalities. In Muslim history the prime example is of an Arab beduine who boldly questioned Omner as to how come that he was wearing two sheets of cloth and the Caliph Omer gave the satisfactory reply. Allama Iqbal said "fitrat mojhay pai ba pai nawa per majboor karti hai" That is the nature continuously impels the poet to express. Expression is the necessity of a thinking person. In Muslim history the greatest challenger to absolutism, despotism, tyranny and unilateralism was Imam Hussain. After his great example we find Imam Jafar Sadiq and Imam Abu Hanifa who laid down their lives for the sake of freedom and freedom of expression. Then there emerged the mutazalite movement which upheld the banner of freedom. But unfortunately the Muslim societies were engulfed by Feudalism.which ruthlessly gripped Muslim societies till 1914.. A new age of of freedom dawned with with the demolition of feudalism in 17th century in Great Britain and emergence of bourgeois thought. The absolute monarch Charles the 1st was beheaded in 1648. Feudalism was overthrown in France in 1789 as a result of French Revolution. In Muslim societies only powerful voice of dissent, freedom and freedom of expression was raised by. a Muslin Sufi and poet and writer Mansur Hallaj He said "anal haq" {i am the truth}. allama Iqbal has interpreted it as democratic right of an individual. Mansur Hallaj lived in Baghdad. He was executed in 922.by the orders of Abbasid CALIPH Al Muqtadar.. Had such philosophers prevailed Arab Spring would have emerged long ago. Our forefathers in the sub-continent were lucky enough that the British introduced Western Education system in India. The mughal education dars-e-Nizami as well as the Hindu vedic education were reactionary in approach.. They corroborated. the feudal mind set. WHILE It is true that if Ahmad Shah Abdali had not come to India to help the Mughal emperor Shah Alam Sani on the invitation of Muslim religious scholar Shah Wali Ullah and defeated Marhattas in the III BATTLE OF pan PAT the Muslims of India would have become Hindu slaves since that year, but it is also true that the great scholar of Delhi did not know that danger to the future of India and to the Muslims of India was the British.. In the 18th century and upto 1857 Muslim elan was Feudal. The endeavors of of Shah Wali Ullah and those of Bahadur Shah Zafar and his allied forces was restoration of Monarchy in India. The education system behind their thought was narrow and confined to the needs of feudal courts. Shah wali Ullah did not include subjects of modern history of Europe and England, Political Science, Economics and modern philosophy. The names of Lane Pole, Kant and Newton. Adam Smith, Malthus and Rousseau, and Voltaire were alien to Delhi Ulema. They were not aware of the famous quotation of Rousseau "Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains" Rousseau and Voltaire,s thought was the basis of the modern State which came into being as a result of French Revolution.

Whereas the most powerful tool of the freedom movement against the British was the modern consciousness attained by the Indian leaders, Hindus as well as Muslims, as a result of deep study of English Literature, modern Newspapers and modern history, current affairs and international affairs, economics and Pol.Science. The content of the modern subjects was revolutionary. While

Mullahs were enemies of modernity, the British educational institutions produced great names of Indian freedom movement. Newspapers were made the vehicles of revolutionary ideas. While British were against the press freedom for obvious reasons the feudals and clergy were against the establishment of modern schools and colleges where English was taught because the graduates passing out of these institutions challenged the socio-political suffocation clamped by reactionary forces. Luckily Muslim Bengal and Central and Northern India saw the emergence of men like Syed Amir Ali,Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Maulana Muhammad Ali Jahar, Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal. Maulana Zafar Ali Khan and above all Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. To cut the long story short, the achievement of Pakistan was the result of struggle for freedom that is for politcal rights and economic opportunities which were wrested from the exploitation of Hindu bourgeoisie and British imperialism. To achieve these goals the Quaid-e-Azam made full use of his power of oratory and legal skill. Freedom of speech is not granted it is snatch. Unfortunately the freedom of speech was snatched by the establishment after the coming into being of Pakistan. First victim of the establishment was the Quaid-e-Azam himself His 11th August, 1947 speech was not allowed to be printed so much so that this prophetic speech for writing of which the Quaid had spent many hours was not printed in, the paper daily Dawn, founded by him. Against this discriminatory policy the editor Altaf Hussain had to complaib to the Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan. .