A great deal of confusion surrounds the subject. Sometime in July 1948, the first prime minister (Liaquat Ali Khan) asked his countrymen to celebrate on August 15, 1948 Pakistan's independence day. There are stamps and other documents also depicting August 15, 1947 as the day the country was created. And that was a fact.
After Jinnah's death and the war of 1948 with India, some government chap who had nothing to do, questioned why Pakistan should celebrate its independence day on the same day that India did. He must've spoken to Liaquat (he certainly couldn't talk to Jinnah, as the latter had passed away). So it was decided to declare August 14 as the independence day of the country. A lot of fudging followed. The result of course is that young people today are more confused as ever. When I tell them that Jinnah couldn't speak Urdu, they're amazed. They've grown up hearing Jinnah's speeches dubbed in Urdu, so they thing I've lost my mind. Fortunately we have had many writers who saw and heard Jinnah speak, one of them was Roedad Khan (the retired bureaucrat) who said that even though the crowds in Peshawer couldn't understand a word of English, they would applaud loudly whenever Jinnah spoke (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGeSeth93Ts&feature=youtu.be).
Back to Pakistan's independence day, whether it was 14 or 15 August (https://tribune.com.pk/story/1160291/pakistan-created-august-14-15). The truth, of course, will never be acknowledged by those who have been brainwashed by those who censored Jinnah's August 11 speech, then removed it from government archives (because they simply couldn't bear the thought that Pakistan was created not only for Muslims but all minorities).
But would it really have mattered if we had continued celebrating the independence day on 15th August every year? I think it would have made no difference.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Post a Comment