Broken record: A 'holocaust' in East Punjab, literacy rates and the Palestine question

Two weeks after independence, communal violence, particularly in East Punjab, dominated the headlines, with the Quaid-i-Azam having to make a fervent appeal for peace. In other major developments between Aug 25 and 31, 1947, Madar-i-Millat Ms Fatima Jinnah reiterated the need for women’s literacy, Pakistan opened its first embassy in Washington DC, while different solutions to the Palestine question were discussed in the United Nations. In the Aug 25 issue, the headline of the main story on page one quoted the Quaid urging his countrymen to “Preserve peace for [the] sake of Pakistan’.” “Those…