RENAME PAKISTAN AS “THE PAKISTAN”

 RENAME PAKISTAN AS “THE PAKISTAN”

PROF WAQAR HUSSAIN

      In English as a general grammatical rule a proper noun of a country, province, city, etc. must not have ‘the’ placed before it. But there are a few exceptions in this rule. For an instance, ‘The’ is used with the proper nouns of countries or provinces which denote the reason of their names, have geographic meanings or descriptive of the places, etc. For example, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, the Sudan, the Yemen, the Argentina, the Gambia, the Hague,  the Punjab, The Deccan, the Bengal, etc.

        When we say the United States of America it depicts that this country comprises of many states that are united, so it is meaningful. The United Kingdom means the union of different territories as it includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. The Netherlands means a below land as it is geographically low-lying country, with 20% of its area is located below sea level and 50% of its land lying less than one metre above sea level. Similarly, the Sudan means Aswad  (black or bluish dark grey) as the inhabitants are black. The Yemen means “on the right side” as the south is on the right when facing the sunrise. The Yemen also means “felicity” as the region is very fertile. The Argentina derived its name from the word argentum(silver) as the first Spanish conquerors arrived to the area following rumours of the existence of “silver mountain”, hence the name came into existence. The Gambia is a very small and narrow African country whose borders mirror the meandering Gambia River, thus country barrowed its namesake from the river. The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. The Hague has literal meaning the “count’s wood”, with connotations like “the count’s hedge, private enclosure or hunting grounds.” The Punjab is named as it possesses five rivers (Punj means five and aab means water i.e. five rivers). The Deccan means south as this province is situated in the south of India. The Bengal‘s name is derived from the Dravidian speaking tribe ‘Bang’ that settled in the area around 1000 BC. The Balkan means “chain of wooded mountains” as it is highly mountainous.

            Likewise, the word Pakistan is also a meaningful name, representing its demographic areas and historical achievements. It is the combination of seven Urdu letters, representing five parts of the country; Pay stands for the Punjab, Alif for Afghanis (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ), Kaf for Kashmir, Seen for Sind and Tan for last syllable of Baluchistan. So the word ‘Pakistan’ figures its different parts and is ideally expressive. Then the whole word Pakistan also has meanings: “a land of pure”. And this purity had been achieved through a myriad year’s struggle of the saints, ulema, conquerors, administrators and kings. The idolatry, satti (an act of burning alive a widow on the funeral fire of her husband.), child marriage, ban on widow remarriage, chariot sacrifice, blight of dowry, hoax of superstitions, etc,--all these evil, inhuman, tyrannical practices vanished in this chunk of land through the courtesy of Muslim rule and later by 1947 Partition and thus this area can rightly be called a land of purity. So the word Pakistan is meaningful not only in fragmented form but also in its totality. For this etymology, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali who coined the word Pakistan in 1933 deserves all the praise.

              It is astonishing: Why the word ‘Pakistan’ is not prefixed with an article ‘The’ just likes other countries/provinces having significant meaningful names? So with the courtesy of this newspaper I request the President of the Pakistan to promulgate an Ordinance that in future the word ‘Pakistan’ whenever written, spoken, etc., must be preceded by definite article ‘The’.                    

                Now the question arises: What is the benefit of this particularization with article ‘the’? Although some countries and areas have renounced the use of definite article ‘the’ but the most of the Western Countries are still using the definite article, for example; the United State of America, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, etc. In fact, the use of definite article particularize, specifies and characterize a country .Furthermore, its use is uncommon, unusual and unique as majority of countries are not entitled to use it. These traits attract the Westerns that are very conscious about their subtlety, significance and superiority; they love peculiarity, prominence and prestige; they never miss any opportunity which enhances their glory, glamour and grandeur. That is why they are still using this specific symbol of ‘the’. It shows their consciousness, cautiousness and commitment about their “self- respect”, and Sir John Herschel has rightly said: “Self-respect that corner-stone of all virtue”. We should take leaf out of their books and must call our country “The Pakistan”, it may prove for us as thin edge of the wedge.

(The ‘Concise Oxford Dictionary’ gives meaning of this idiom as: “change, measure, actions, etc., that will open the way to further changes or developments and is therefore of more importance than it seems.)