Owais Mughal, Adil Najam,
Bilal Zuberi and Darwaish

Today we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Pakistan’s birth.

We could talk about what was promised of Pakistan. What has become of it. Or what should be done to improve it. But we try to do that at Pakistaniat (ATP) everyday. And we do realize that ..aah ko chahiyay ik umr asar honay tak.

Today we want to talk about Pakistan and Pakistaniat in a much more personal way. We realize that different people’s Pakistaniat can be expressed in very different ways. We share the same flag, but we each wave it in our very different ways. While we may not approve of putting Mickey Mouse or missiles or even Jinnah on the flag, around this time Pakistaniat becomes a very personal expression. One wants to celebrate every expression of Pakistaniat (except, maybe, putting missiles on the flag). It is in this individual ownership of the concept that the concept will derive whatever meaning it is to ultimately have. At the end of the day our Pakistaniat will be defined not by what the government says it should be, nor even by what the founders wanted it to be, but only by what we ourselves make it out to be.

Adil Najam

As we think of ‘independence,’ maybe we should think beyond slogans and naaras. Maybe we should think about what independence really means. Why it is important. How it is lived. Maybe Talib can help us understand all of that.

We have featured a number of videos from the BBC series Shehr Kahani (here, here). It is a wonderful series and never fails to inspire.

Owais Mughal

We had this post originally published in August of 2006. This one is an updated repost. Many of us may know this singer from Pakistan named Shahida Mini. Apparently Ms. Mini gives a statement every year before Independence Day, which Nawaiwaqt dutifully prints every year. The funny part is that the statement remained exactly the same for three years running viz 2004, 2005 and 2006. This year however, the statement got slightly changed and we’ll see below what happened.

Each year, it seemed, she had a big show planned abroad. And then, at the last minute, each year she decided that she was going to cancel her trip abroad because her patriotism couldn’t allow her to be away from Pakistan on Independence Day. In 2007 she has finally managed to fly away and do her shows abroad to celebrate the Independence day.