News & Updates

Pakistan and its Democracy:  The annual meeting of All India Muslim League for the year 1930 was organized at a big Haveli in Allahabad. When the official proceedings of the meeting began, there were less than 75 people in the enclosure, causing panic among the ranks of party officials. According to the party laws, the minimum requirement for meeting quorum at an annual meeting had to be at least 75 people. As a last resort, a famous Urdu poet was tasked with reciting one of his long poems until new members could be recruited by the officials—a process that took two hours. Finally, the official meeting commenced and the Presidential address was read by a Punjabi poet and politicians. The presidential address contained six references to democracy and all of those arguments were against the democratic system of governance. That particular address has been quoted ad nauseum by right-wing commentators and writers of Pakistan’s textbooks—very often the same people—as the first t...