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 It would not be false to say that Pakistan has some of the most beautiful natural scenic spots in the world. The majestic K-2 is the second highest mountain peak in the world, the romantic Silk Road linking China to Pakistan, the glorious Rakaposhi Mountain, the mighty Indus River, the mysterious Hunza valley whose very name is synonymous with the secret garden of eternal youth, Shangri-la, the Bolan Pass and the fascinating Thar Desert. Pakistan has some of the most beautiful and historical cities, the city of Lahore which has been immortalized by the love story of the Mughal emperor Jehangir and Anarkali and the writer Rudyard Kipling in his famous novel ‘Kim'. Pakistan is the home of many Sufi saints and poets. Among them being Baba Farid, Shah Husain, Sultan Bahu, Bulleh Shah, Sachal Sarmast, Khwaja Ghulam Farid, and Shah Latif Bhitai, who continued the finest traditions of poetry and music. Still today, the shrines of these Sufi saints host Festivals and carnivals abounding with Dhamal, the whirling in a ritual reverie. Men and women, in bright traditional robes dance and sing in a state of ecstasy. A traditional drum called Dhol beats deafeningly and hypnotically, making everyone dance, forgetting the surroundings and tread in a voyage of ecstasy. Another popular genre of Sufi music is Qawwali, a genre which has remained alive for more than seven centuries.
The founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a liberal thinking person. Overcoming the taboos of cross-communal relations, he had married a Parsi lady in the face of her parents' opposition. Jinnah maintained his inner secularism even in the seething cauldron of communal hatred following Partition, as is evident from the fact that he appointed Joginder Nath Mandal, a Hindu, to serve in Pakistan's first cabinet. His famous 11 August 1947 speech before the nation is the clearest possible exposition of a secular state in which religion and state are separate from each other:
‘We are starting with the fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State. . . Now I think that we should keep that in front of us as our ideal, and you will find that in due course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual but in the political sense as citizens of the state. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State.'
In an interview to Doon Campbell, Reuter's correspondent in New Delhi in 1946, Jinnah made it perfectly clear that it was Western-style democracy that he wanted for Pakistan: ‘The new state would be a modern democratic state with sovereignty resting in the people and the members of the new nation having equal rights of citizenship regardless of their religion, caste or creed.'
Jinnah had rejected the basis for a theocratic state. He had used the highly significant phrase ‘sovereignty resting in the people'. This is stated even more explicitly in his 1946 speech before the Muslim League convention in Delhi: ‘What are we fighting for? What are we aiming at? It is not theocracy, nor a theocratic state.' The historian K.K.Aziz has remarked that ‘on the record of their writings and speeches, Jinnah comes out to be liberal and secular'.
For many years after 1947 Pakistan had a good image in the Western world. Queen Elizabeth visited Pakistan in 1961, Jackie Kennedy visited Pakistan in1962, the Queen of Thailand, the Shah of Iran and many other great personalities visited Pakistan and were all impressed by the modernity and progress they found in the young country. The leaders of Pakistan were considered glamorous and cultured - General Ayub Khan, Prime Minister ZA Bhutto and the most glamorous of all, the late Benazir Bhutto.
In Pakistan's earlier years, there was less public role of religion and mullahs were relatively less important than today. Madrassas were few and far between and often viewed with pity as places for famished students. Today they have a lot of money, fancy computers, and the maulvis look very well-fed. But in spite of the massive flux of fundamentalism today, one finds many young girls working in all fields of life. These are girls who defy patriarchy and male chauvinism, get themselves education, often vocational education and then move towards jobs, earning to put their younger siblings through schools and looking after their parents. Through my own work and experience I have met innumerable such girls and have found their positive energy and enthusiasm both exhilarating and inspiring. And I truly believe that it is they who are bringing in the change in Pakistani society.
What was interesting about Pakistan was the diversity of the ethnic and religious variety of communities that lived here especially in the city of Karachi. When we were in school even in the 1960s in Karachi, there were many different religious communities living here. In my class we had Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians. But over the years all these communities have moved away from Pakistan. Today the Pakistani society is indeed gripped by a crisis and has moved towards factionalism as a protective move. It is both deeply class-ridden and sect-ridden. Entire mohallahs have only Shias, Bohris, Ismailis or Christians living within them. The rich have put enormous walls around themselves, and are increasingly putting physical barriers to prevent being visited by those from poorer parts of a city. In part, it is the state which has been responsible for creating separate abodes for the rich and the poor. Islamabad's different sectors, for instance, are designed for different socio-economic classes. Differentiation and discrimination, not integration, were built into the city's initial planning.
One of the biggest problems is the lack of good education. Science and scholarship is a product of thinking minds. In our universities we are not allowed to think, we are merely taught to reproduce what is already known. One sees growing conservatism on the campuses. We must stop constraining our students both intellectually as well as socially. Boys and girls are separated from each other, and our girl students are disappearing under the burqa. When you have girls thus hidden away, they are not going to be intellectually creative and curious. Instead they become passive note-takers. Mohammad Ali Jinnah had said in a speech: ‘No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live.'
What we need today is attitudinal change, a new culture that values learning, tolerance and humanism. What is positive is that one can still find very intelligent, thinking creative people in Pakistan today. There is no reason why Pakistan cannot stand amongst the civilized nations of the world. Its history and culture draw origins from one of the greatest civilizations of the world- the Indus Valley Civilization. Here stands the amazing city of Mohenjodaro a model for the modern city. Literature both in Urdu and in the English language find modern Pakistani writers who stand in line with the major publishing houses of the world. Pakistani Fashion designers are in great demand. Pakistani painters are selling their works in the international art market. Pakistani women are making great progress in all fields of life. Though they face much opposition, many women want to educate themselves and they are certainly not doing this simply to become housewives. In reality many women do unpaid work, other women "work as servants", or in the patriarchal labour market where unfortunately the men feel that women's work is always of less value. Once these attitudes change there is no reason why Pakistan would not be on the road to progress- indeed great potential lies in the land and its people. 
Sheema Kermani is a classical dancer, actor, theatre practitioner, women's rights activist and a peace and cultural activist. She is the founder of Tehrik-e-Niswan, a Theatre and cultural group.
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