ڈاکٹر سید عبداللطیف
ہماری بزم علمی کی پرانی یادگاریں روز بروز اٹھتی جاتی ہیں اور ہر مہینہ کسی نہ کسی کا ماتم کرنا پڑتا ہے، گذشتہ مہینہ دو نامور اہل علم نے وفات پائی، ہندوستان میں ڈاکٹر سید عبداللطیف نے اور پاکستان میں غلام رسول مہر نے، ڈاکٹر صاحب اس دور کے نامور فاضل اور انگریزی کے مشہور اہل قلم تھے، ان کی پوری زندگی علمی و تعلیمی مشاغل میں گذری، وہ جامعہ عثمانیہ میں انگریزی یا فلسفہ کے پروفیسر تھے، اس سے ریٹائر ہونے کے بعد ان کا سارا وقت تالیف و تصنیف میں گزرتا تھا، وہ راسخ العقیدہ مسلمان تھے، ان کے دل میں مذہب و ملت کا درد تھا، اسلامیات پر بھی ان کی نظر وسیع تھی، کلام مجید سے خاص شغف تھا، ان کی بیشتر تصانیف اور مضامین کلام مجید اور اسلامی تعلیمات اور تہذیت و ثقافت کے کسی نہ کسی پہلو پر ہیں، انھوں نے کلام مجید اور مولانا ابوالکلام آزاد کے ترجمان القرآن کا انگریزی ترجمہ کیا، یہ دونوں شائع ہوچکے ہیں، انگریزی تصانیف میں The Mind Al-Quran Builds زیادہ مشہور ہے، اس کا اردو ترجمہ چھپ چکا ہے، ایک کتاب اردو میں ’’اساس تہذیب‘‘ کے نام سے لکھی اس میں کلام مجید اور احدیث نبوی سے عالمگیر انسانی تہذیب کے عناصر دکھائے گئے ہیں، اردو شعر و ادب سے بھی ذوق تھا، انھوں نے غالب پر انگریزی میں ایک کتاب لکھی، اس میں ان کی زندگی کے وہ پہلو بھی دکھائے گئے ہیں، جن سے ان کے سوانح نگار اغماض برتتے ہیں، ان مستقل تصانیف کے علاوہ انھوں نے مذہب اسلام اور اسلامی تہذیب و ثقافت پر بکثرت مضامین لکھے، ان کا آخری کارنامہ یہ ہے کہ اپنی وفات سے پہلے انھوں نے قرآنی ٹرسٹ کے نام سے ایک ٹرسٹ قائم کیا اور اس کو اپنی تمام تصانیف کا حق...
The enmity and differences among nations have risen along with the increasing distances among people. Therefore, the need of hour is to develop the spirit of harmony and understanding among the followers of revealed religions. The Messengers and Prophets were designated by Allah to promote and promulgate, justice, tolerance, love and harmony among His creations. Islam is a religion based on characteristics of peace, love, respect, tolerance, dignity and denial of extremism, which are in the contemporary world ideal for interaction among nations. Islam teaches to respect all the religions and prophets to maintain and sustain the peace and harmony. The advanced technology of modern world and inventions demand intense responsibility to maintain and enhance the better human relations in Political, Social, Economic, Religious, and Cultural spheres of life. The present article envisions all those dimensions, which are essential for interfaith harmony.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan have historically been a source of support to people in multiple sectors, like community development, disaster relief, poverty alleviation, democracy and human rights advocacy etc. However, in past three decades, foreign funding glut and national security situation of the country has brought this sector under greater public scrutiny and scepticism. Media reports have created doubts in the minds of people about their nature of work and rational fortheir engagement in governance issues There are wide spread concerns on the creation, existence, accountability and the legitimacy of the NGO sector. Consequently, NGOs find themselves under tremendous pressure for performance showing measurable outcomes of their public engagements. Some NGOs in Pakistan have fat budgets and are favourites for national and international grants, while others have to struggle to survive government regulation and public antagonism. Pakistani academics have generally overlooked this sector in research. Resultantly, less is known about the relevance of this sector to the national polity and its scope in the contemporary democratic dispensation. In contemporary governance, NGOs are wielding influence in many aspects of public policy and are a powerful player in national and global affairs of Pakistan. In some sectors, they have even taken the lead in policymaking. Their unprecedented rise is weakening the institution of state which previously followed a very rigid governing model. Such increasing role in political power is leading them to face scrutiny and pressure to exhibit that they are legitimate actors and are accountable to someone, if at all. They face questions on their objectives, organizational structure and governance methods. While their existence has value for the Pakistani polity limited, attention has been paid towards the institutionalization of this sector. NGOs need legitimacy for their successful operation in any society. Their rational to exist should be accepted and approved by general public of a country. Pakistan does have few legal formalities to create and run a NGO. The regulation of NGOs is ensured through quiescent government departments and to an extent by the internal rules and procedures of NGOs. Since government is content on its laissez faire approach and a limited focus on implementation of its policies, there is need for a careful assessment of the existing milieu to discern if the organizations are functioning as visualized in their charters and national policies. There is also need to dissect the affairs of NGOs’ owners, donors, serviced communities, government agencies, and other stakeholders. It is in this context that this dissertation examines their relationships with government and people of Pakistan. It expounds the legitimacy and accountability of NGOs, because these have been an ambiguous concept for NGOs in Pakistan. The study has taken a mixed methods approach to observe the phenomenon of NGOs in Pakistan. Since NGO is a vast term, it focuses on the national NGOs, created in past three decades under a Social Welfare law of Pakistan. The research relies on the conceptual frameworks of Mark C. Suchman (legitimacy) and Alnoor Ebrahim (accountability), while making some modifications for its application in Pakistani context. At the same time it probes the development of these organizations in Pakistan, analyses regulations governing them, and suggests methods and techniques through which NGOs could become accountable and legitimate. It finds a number of deficiencies in both legitimacy and accountability dimensions and concludes that NGOs in Pakistan are neither accountable nor legitimate.