Pakistan, Jan. 19 -- Every institution/collective requires a mission statement, a message which communicates the said entity's animating ethos and purpose.

One must ask, therefore, what is Pakistan's mission statement?

Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, but to this day, debate rages on the viability of a project where one's religion becomes the criteria of citizenship, indeed a basis for an altogether new country.

Some had argued, long ago at pre-Partition, that such a project was dichotomous - Islam, with its focus on a global Muslim Ummah, was irreconcilable with the whole notion of a nation-state. Others argued the opposite: Islam as a faith tradition and set of distinct beliefs necessitated a separate land where Indian Musl...