ISLAMABAD, 15 August 2007 — Pakistan celebrated the 60th anniversary of independence with nationalistic fervor and flag-raising ceremonies all over the country yesterday. However, political troubles for a pro-US president and fears of militant violence subdued festivities in several cities.
Cannons boomed a dawn salute and thousands of Pakistan’s olive-green and white flags were raised across the nation to mark its 60th anniversary on yesterday, which fell amid a political crisis and surging militant violence.
In Islamabad, 31 artillery guns were fired at daybreak, marking the start of ceremonies to celebrate Aug. 14, 1947, when independence was granted by British colonial rulers and the subcontinent was partitioned into Pakistan and India. The main ceremony was held at the Convention Center, where Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz hoisted the national flag.
In his address, Aziz declared, “We are militarily and economically strong enough to face any challenge.” Touching on a major source of friction with nuclear-armed neighbor India, Aziz said Pakistan’s atomic weapons had made the country the world’s “only Islamic nuclear power.” “Weak nations cannot establish peace,” Aziz said. “Our nuclear assets are a symbol of our national dignity and autonomy.
We will never tolerate anyone dare casting an evil eye on our nuclear assets.” In an apparent reference to talk among US officials about possible unilateral US strikes against terrorists in Pakistan, Aziz said, “We will never allow any foreign power to interfere in our frontiers.” Gunfire during boisterous Independence Day celebrations left two women dead and 19 people injured, officials said.
In Karachi, military cadets ceremonially changed the guard at the mausoleum of Quaed-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founder, who died on Sept. 11, 1948. Flag-raising ceremonies and more 21-gun salutes occurred across the country.
Rickshaw driver Dildar Khan took time off from driving his three-wheeler motorcycle taxi — festooned with Pakistani flags, flowers and blinking lights to celebrate independence — to take his children to pray at Jinnah’s mausoleum.
“We are going there to offer prayers and the children will enjoy,” Khan said. “I am going to salute the founder of Pakistan.”
Overnight, cheering revelers poured onto the streets in the otherwise staid capital in cars or motorcycles festooned with Pakistani flags. Fireworks crackled into the night, despite driving monsoon rains.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Pakistan’s 60th Independence Day was observed yesterday with calls for India to quit the Himalayan state. Pakistani and Kashmiri flags were raised at the presidential palace in the capital. A police contingent presented a guard of honor to President Raja Zulqarnain and Premier Sardar Atiq Ahmed Khan, officials said. Large banners read, “Kashmir will become Pakistan,” and “Happy Independence Day.”
Meanwhile, two women were killed when they were hit by stray pistol bullets during late night celebrations in Karachi, said Sarwar Channa, a doctor at the Civil Hospital where the victims were taken. Nineteen people were injured in gunfire.
Three people were injured in a brawl between two groups of revelers in another southern city, Hyderabad, police officer Imran Shaukat said.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Gordon Brown each sent messages of congratulations to President Pervez Musharraf and Aziz.
In a statement marking the anniversary, the president urged Pakistanis to reject extremism at the coming elections. “I urge all Pakistani citizens to get involved in the electoral process and become the instruments of enlightened moderation in their beloved country,” Musharraf said.
However, exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif led calls for Musharraf to step down. Sharif, addressing an opposition rally in Rawalpindi by telephone from Dubai, called on voters to decide “once and for all” to rid themselves of their military president and embrace the rule of law and democracy.
“Pakistan cannot be governed with the power of gun. We have to launch the struggle from today to save Pakistan and establish the rule of law,” Sharif said.
Musharraf in his address said the battle against terrorism is being waged for his own country’s sake and not America’s.
Al-Qaeda and other militant organizations using Pakistani border regions as a base for operations posed a threat to Pakistan and it was time they were dealt with, he said. “It is time that the entire nation rises against them,” Musharraf said, referring to Taleban and Al-Qaeda cells in the northwestern tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
“We are not confronting terrorism for America, we are doing it for ourselves,” he said in remarks quoted by state run Associated Press of Pakistan. “I see everything from Pakistan’s point of view.x
Musharraf has reacted angrily to accusations that he is not doing enough to deal with terrorist groups, and to threats from the United States that unilateral air strikes could be launched against the cells in northwest.
The threats from Washington were saber rattling; he was quoted as saying yesterday, but would not result on attacks on Pakistan’s sovereign territory.
“I am 200 percent sure that these are neither at official nor at government level,” he said.
