Islamic(or Peoples?) Republic of Pakistan

ANP and MQM suggested to change the official name of the country from Islamic Republic of Pakistan to Peoples Republic of Pakistan and this news reminded me of what I read once in ‘Shahab Nama’ by Qudrat-ullah-Shahab. This suggestion was on the desk of then President Ayub Khan, but was later given up. That was the time when Pakistanis were much less-religious than what are they now (apparently) but still it was not easy for government to remove ‘Islamic’ from the country’s name. The few arguments given in the favor of Islamic Republic of Pakistan are:

1. Pakistan was created on the name of Islam.
2. The only thing that differ us from other people in sub-continent is our religion Islam and this difference led to the creation of a separate homeland for Muslims.
3. If Afghanis, Turks, Iranians, Egyptians, Iraqis leave Islam, they will be still remain the same, but if we Pakistanis leave Islam, what will we be? So if we want the survival of Pakistan, we must keep Islamic Republic with its name.

Though, we don’t see the real Islam in the lives of Pakistanis, but still I had always realized that we Pakistanis are more inclined towards the religion than others and may be that’s why we are more hypocrites. We always thought our selves the custodians of Islam. Islamic Brotherhood is dominant in the minds of Pakistanis, and as a matter of fact, that’s why we always welcomed Arabs, Uzbiks and other nationals to Pakistan for Jihad in the name of religion.

Whether we like it or not but Pakistan is nothing without Islam, he wrote and I fully agree, Pakistan has no escape from Islam.