Conceived and nurtured in the Islamic faith, Pakistan has forged and maintained, since the day of its birth on August 14, 1947, strong fraternal ties with the Muslim world. Irrespective of the hue and colour of the governments, political or military-led, that governed Pakistan in the past 54 years, the country has continued to consolidate its relations with all other Muslim countries and vigorously supported the freedom struggle of colonially-oppressed Muslim people in breaking the shackles of alien bondage. General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s military ruler, pinpointed this fundamental feature of its foreign policy when he said in an address to the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Karachi, on June 23, 2000:

“….. It is our own ideological interest, preserving the Islamic identity, and it is because of this that we have deep relationship and concerns with the OIC, the ECO, with the Central Asian countries, with Iran, Turkey, the Gulf states and with the Middle East. Our relationships in the South East with Malaysia and Indonesia are also through ideological interest other than our economic interest. And also our concern when it comes to Kashmir, Bosnia, Azerbaijan or Chechnya….”

General Musharraf, while uttering these resonant words of Pakistan’s solidarity with the Muslim world, was undoubtedly drawing inspiration from Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Father of the Pakistani nation, who had pioneered the nascent Muslim state’s constructive involvement in the advancement of the global Islamic community – the Ummah. One of the many inspiring examples of the Quaid-i-Azam’s unserving commitment to the cause of Islamic solidarity was when he, as the Governor-General of Pakistan, banned the flight of Dutch aircraft through Pakistan to prevent the supply of weapons to the Dutch forces in Indonesia who were trying in vain to crush the Indonesian independence movement under Dr. Ahmed Sukarno in 1947-48. In recognition of Jinnah’s unfailing support to Indonesia’s freedom struggle its government and people, while celebrating the 50th anniversary of their independence, posthumously conferred on him Indonesia’s highest civil Award of Adipurna in 1996.

The Muslim world’s resounding appreciation for the active role played by Pakistan since its establishment in August 1947 in the world-wide movement for the resurgence of Muslims was reflected in the Summit-level assembly of the heads of state or government of some 54 Muslim states organised by the Jeddah-based Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city, on March 23, 1997 to greet and felicitate Pakistan on the golden jubilee of its establishment as a nation state. This festive event also recalled the historic day of March 23, 1940 when more than 100,000 Muslim League activists, who were gathered in Lahore under the leadership of Jinnah, had a tryst with destiny and adopted the “Pakistan Resolution”, demanding independent statehood for the subcontinent’s Muslim-majority areas.

The Quaid-i-Azam’s soul in the heavens would have been enormously pleased by this resplendent demonstration of the Muslim Ummah’s kinship with the Muslim state he had sired in 1947 to free the Subcontinent’s Muslims from alien rule – a trailblazer for many scores of other enslaved Muslim peoples to follow suit and step into the sunshine of freedom and independence. The glowing tributes paid in the OIC’s Islamabad summit concourse to Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah and his creation of Pakistan mirrored the respect he and his State command in the world of Islam.

Pakistanis cannot forget the fact that in 1947 the few independent Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Afghanistan and Jordan, hastened to accord recognition to the nascent Muslim State of Pakistan and established diplomatic ties with it.

One of the Muslim countries closest to Pakistan in fraternal friendship has been Saudi Arabia. When India’s British Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, announced his partition plan for the subcontinent on June 3, 1947, conceding Jinnah’s Pakistan, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz Ibne Saud rushed to Pakistan’s Founder a cable of joyous felicitations in which the Saudi monarch wrote “I pray to God Almighty that He may guide your steps and help you to be a strong factor in the cause of world peace and Muslim brotherhood…..” Immensely pleased and encouraged by the Saudi King’s message, Jinnah sent to him a cable of gratitude saying: “I join you in your prayer that the Almighty may guide our steps in the cause of peace and help us to cement the bonds of Muslim brotherhood and we may stand united on the solid rock of Islam.”