Pakistani nation is all set to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the country's independence on Monday (today) with the national zeal and zest. Pakistan's Independence Day will dawn in Karachi with a 21-gun salute. Special prayers will be held for the prosperity and stability of the country and solidarity of the nation.
Various political and religio-political parties including Pakistan People's Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen and others have extended their greetings to entire nation on the Independence Day and urged that every Pakistani has to play his role to make Pakistan a great egalitarian and role-model Muslim country in accordance with the vision of the founding fathers.
The cadets of the Pakistan Naval Academy will perform the ceremonial guards' duty at the mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair, will perform the flag-hoisting ceremony at the Mazar-e-Quaid. He will also lay a floral wreath and offer fateha on the occasion. People from various walks of life will also visit the Mazar-e-Quaid to pay homage to the father of the nation. The Pakistan Air Force will organise a special air show at the Sea View on Monday afternoon. The main public and private buildings in the metropolis have been decorated and illuminated to mark the celebrations.
A number of organisations have chalked out programmes to observe the Independence Day in a befitting manner. The newspapers will publish special supplements while television channels and Radio Pakistan will air special programmes in connection with the Independence Day. A number of stalls have been set up across the city to sell the badges, stickers, buntings, flags and gorgeous items. The streets, markets and public places have become the sources of public attraction.
In his message on the eve of Independence Day, the PPP Chairman said that the 70-year age was enough for achieving maturity as a nation but dictatorships and their political clients have marred the level of our progress and achievements. "Democracies have been only small intervals in our history while the most of the time, country had been under dictatorial or unconstitutional rules where masses were subjected to ruthless physical and economic atrocities and under perpetual subjugation," he lamented.
Bilawal said that people of Pakistan had been deprived of testing the fruits of freedom and independence. He said enemies of the ideology of Pakistan introduced terror, heroin and Kalashnikov culture against the people to crush their dreams.
"Being the true torchbearer of the ideology of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the PPP has to pay heavy price in the form of sacrifices of its leadership, workers and the supporters," he said, vowing that the struggle for the democratic and basic rights of Pakistanis won't subdue.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari paid homage to those who fought for independence and eventually achieved freedom through innumerable sacrifices of lives, properties and dignity. "Today, we remember the heroes of the independence movement and salute them for carving out a separate country for their next generations to thrive as a vibrant, progressive and strong nation," he said, adding that we cannot forget more than 50,000 martyrs who laid down their lives in nation's fight against terrorism, which was targeting common people, law enforcing agencies, students, women, and youth. He said that right from schools to hospitals, garrisons to mosques, government to private installations, NGOs to political parties; the terrorists were targeting everything, which strengthen Pakistan.
He called upon all the citizens of Pakistan to stand up against extremism, terrorism and their facilitators to safeguard the freedom and independence. He said Pakistan has a great potential to lead the third world and Muslim Ummah into peace and prosperity. We all need to explore that potential, he urged. He promised people that PPP would do all it can to revive the Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam.