Was Pakistan created on August 14 or 15?

Pakistan’s 78th Independence Day would be celebrated across the country with great enthusiasm, patriotic spirit, and ceremonial grandeur on August 14.

Official buildings, private residences, vehicles will proudly display the Pakistani flag, contributing to a couttrywide sphere of national pride.

Amid the celebrations, there remains a widespread belief in Pakistan that the country attained independence on August 14 1947. However, historical records and official documents suggest the matter is more nuanced.

According to the Indian Independence Act of 1947, “As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan.” This directly refutes the assumption that Pakistan became an independent nation on the 14th.

K.K. Aziz’s take on the confusion

Renowned historian K.K. Aziz, in his book The Murder of History, clarifies the confusion, writing: “The general impression… that Pakistan became free on 14th August is not correct. The Indian Independence Bill… laid down that the two new Dominions… shall become free at the midnight of 14-15 August.”

He explains the logistical reason for the 14 August ceremony: “Lord Mountbatten… could not be present in person in Karachi and New Delhi at the same moment. So the only practicable thing was for him to transfer power to Pakistan on 14th August.”

Statements from Jinnah and others

In a radio broadcast on 15 August 1947, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah said: “August 15 is the birthday of the independent and sovereign state of Pakistan.”

Former Prime Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali also affirmed the date in Zahoor-e-Pakistan: “On 15th August 1947, Quaid-e-Azam became the Governor-General of Pakistan… and Pakistan emerged on the world map.”

Other supporting references

The Ministry of Information’s 1989 publication Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: Speeches and Statements records Jinnah’s inaugural address to the nation, introduced as: “Message to the Nation on the occasion of the inauguration of the Pakistan Broadcasting service; August 15, 1947.”

Additionally, the country’s first commemorative stamps released in July 1948 also state “15th August 1947” as Independence Day.

Despite overwhelming documentary evidence, Pakistan began marking Independence Day on 14 August from 1948 onward, most likely to separate its celebration from India’s. As historian Syed Jaffar Ahmed once remarked,

“The document says it’s the 15th, but they made it the 14th.”