LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar while congratulating the nation on 72nd independence anniversary of Pakistan from the core of his heart said independence was a blessing for which our forefathers had rendered unprecedented sacrifices.

On the other side, he said the people of Indian occupied Kashmir were still struggling for their independence as India was making the lives of Kashmiris miserable with unabated cruelties and genocide.

He said today the whole Pakistani nation was celebrating Independence Day as Kashmir Solidarity Day.

People of Pakistan stand with their Kashmiri brothers and sisters in their struggle for the right to self-determination and liberation from Indian occupation. India, by revoking the special status of occupied Kashmir has proved its traditional mean mentality. Every man of conscience has rejected the controversial Indian step, he said.

He said this Independence Day was of great importance because the freedom movement of occupied Jammu and Kashmir had entered into its final phase.

India did not know that it was fighting against a nation which takes bullets on its chest and raises the slogan of Pakistan Zindabad, he added.

He said Delhi ignored that martyrdom was the goal of this nation. Kashmiri people were sacrificing their lives for their freedom, he added.

He said only those, who were deprived of freedom, can imagine the fruits of this blessing.

The chief minister said we salute those who sacrificed their lives in Pakistan movement. Getting a free motherland was the result of the hard struggle of Quaid-e-Azam and his companions.

He said this nation was passing through another revolutionary phase of its history for which complete unity was the only requirement. There was a dire need to be united by forgetting our mutual differences and disputes, he added.

He said today we have to remember the sacrifices of those martyrs who laid down their lives for maintaining peace and security in the country and we pay homage to those martyrs.

He said August 14, was the day of self-accountability, adding there was a need to motivate people of Pakistan with the same spirit which was the driving force of their ancestors in the Pakistan Movement.

He said our motherland was calling us and we could only repay it by adopting the principles of unity and solidarity.

The chief minister invited the countrymen to make a promise that we would continue our struggle for making Pakistan great, strong and prosperous by adopting the golden principles of father of the nation Faith, Unity and Discipline.

The chief minister also vowed that the nation would safeguard the sovereignty of Pakistan at any cost.