Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 35
35 people ran to Pakistan with the expectation that there w ould be a place for them there they still wander about like nomadic tribes and find no place to settle. Whether it was right or wrong to believe they could find a place to settle in Pakistan, the [real] question is if Pakistan wasn’t able to provide shelter to the six million Muslims of East Punjab, then how can Baluchistan give shelter to the thirty million Muslims of Pakistan ? Its own population is close to four million. W ill Iran shelter the Muslims of Pakistan when its own population is close to ten million ? Can Arabia shelter them whe n its own population is between seven to eight million? Can Afghanistan provide shelter when their population is no more than ten million? Alas, which Muslim country exists which holds the capacity to accommodate thirty million people ? The defeat of Pakistan is tantamount to its death. Death lies within Pakistan and death lies outside of Pakistan. When death is such a certainty, then the question is not , ‘ where should Muslims go? ’ Rather t h e question then becomes whether they should face their death fighting in front of Lahore or drown by the shores of Karachi ? I said that t hese two deaths lie before you. Now, y ou pick which of the two ways you prefer to die. W ould you rather prefer to die while fighting the enemy outside of Lahore or would you prefer to run aw ay until you reach K arachi and drown there in the sea ? In any case , the only choice left for Pakistan is either vi ctory or death. For other countries , it is possible to relocate themselves since their population is small. B u t the population of Pakistan is so large that no Muslim country can give shelter to Pakistan. Pakistan’s population is either double or triple that of any other Muslim country, so the re is no country which can absorb its people. In fact, it would be improbable for them to even take twenty percent of the population of Pakistan , let alone for any country to be able to settle double the amount of people as compared to their own population. In the end , each Pakistani Muslim man an d woman should mentally accept t hat they either live a life of respect and victory or die a death of respect and pride. Th is is the only way left for a righteous person to tread; either he triumphs over the enemy, or he die s a noble death.