Nation celebrates Pakistan Day with zeal, fervour

The nation is celebrating Pakistan Day with patriotic zeal and fervour today (Sunday) with Aiwan-e-Sadr hosting the iconic military parade to commemorate the 1940 Lahore Resolution.

President Asif Ali Zardari is the chief guest of this year's Pakistan Day parade — also attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, services chiefs and other dignitaries — which is being held at Aiwan-e-Sadr instead of the Shakarparian Parade Ground — which traditionally hosts the parade.

This day is celebrated to commemorate the Lahore Resolution passed on 23 March 1940 and the adoption of the first Constitution of Pakistan on 23 March 1956 making Pakistan the world’s first Islamic Republic.

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Pakistan Resolution was passed/adopted by the then Indian Muslim League, led by Quaid-i-Azam M.A.Jinnah, at the Minar-e-Pakistan Lahore on 23 March 1940, that called for establishing an independent federation, to be named Pakistan, comprising provinces with a Muslim majority located in north-western and north-eastern regions of British-controlled territories in India.

The day dawned with thirty-one-gun salute in the federal capital and twenty-one-gun salute in provincial capitals.

Special prayers were offered in mosques after Fajr prayers for progress and prosperity of the country.