Saturday, June 4 2005 18:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Karachi: Attempting to shed the Hindu hardliner image, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) President L K Advani today (Jun 4, 2005) paid homage at the mausoleum of Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, describing him as "a great man" who had espoused the cause of a secular Pakistan in an address to his Country's Constituent Assembly.

After placing a wreath at the 'mazar' of Jinnah, he said the founder of Pakistan was a "rare individual" who had "actually created history".

"There are many people who leave an inerasable stamp on history. But there are a few who actually create history. Quaid-E-Azam Jinnah was one such rare individual," he wrote in the visitors' book at the mausoleum, which he visited with his family amidst unprecedented security.

Recalling that freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu had described Jinnah in his early years as an "Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity", Advani reminded the people of Pakistan that their father of nation had favoured a secular State vis-a-vis the Islamic State it was now.

Jinnah's August 11, 1947 address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was really "a classic, a forceful espousal of a secular State in which while every citizen would be free to pursue his own religions, the State should make no distinction between one citizen and another on grounds of faith. My respectful homage to this great man."