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The Qaid-i-Azam has passed away, after long years of toil and sacrifice
and service in the cause of his people, his frail body has at last been
gathered unto rest and his soul called back to the abode of eternal
blessed. No name in the history of Indian Muslims has been loved and
acclaimed as the name Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

No man in living memory evoked such unquestionable loyalty, such

unqualified devotion, such unbounded faith, for the one -time
oppressed, rejected and broken Muslim nati on, Mohammad Ali Jinnah
was much more than a political leader. He was the father and the
brother, the friend and the counsellor, the guide and confidant, the
comrade and leader all combined into one. Millions hopefully whispered
his name in hours of anguish and blessed him in moments of joy. For
the best portion of his life he carried on his shoulders the burden of all
their cares, in his heart the ache of all their sorrows and in his bones the
weariness of all their labours. And now he is gone. The nation has been
deprived of his love and his wisdom that guided and sustained them, of
his leadership that held them so closely together, of his incorruptible
rectitude that set the standard for their moral and political conduct.

It is difficult in the shadow of this fateful hour to discourse

dispassionately on what consequences his bitterly mourned death will
engender for Pakistan and the rest of the sub-continent. The horizon
has never been so dark and cloudy as it is today and the people of India
and Pakistan have never faced more anxious days than the days we are
now passing through. Not only has the social, cultural and economic
renaissance that the dawn of freedom was expected to bring not yet
materialised but new dangers to national freedom and national
happiness have arisen that have to be fought and overcome.

A million homesteads are still drenched in tears for the loss, during the
dark and bloody days of a year ago, of whatever was dear to them on this
earth, and already the rumblings of fresh trials and n ew conflicts are
audible from a distance. Short-sighted fanaticism and heartless greed
are preparing to plunge both the dominions into another suicidal devil -
dance and the voice of the common man is getting feebler through
exhaustion. Both India and Pakistan need at this time all the wisdom
and humanity they can muster to save themselves from the cataclysm
that threatens, and it is a cruel irony of history that at precisely this time
both countries have been deprived of the two most wisest and most
humane men in the sub-continent. Ours is very much the greater and
more grievous loss.

We can show no greater devotion to our beloved leader and give no

greater proof of our loyalty to his memory than to base our conduct on
the pattern that he has immortalized and to conduct ourselves in a
manner that accords with his life-long preaching.

From the great grief that envelops the nation today, must emerge a new
courage and a new determination to complete the task that the Quaid -i-
Azam began, the task of building a free, progressive and secure
Pakistan, to restore our people the dignity and happiness for which the
Quaid-i-Azam strove, to equip them with all the virtues that the nobility
of freedom demands and to rid them of fear, suffering and want that
have dogged their lives through the ages.
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