Pakistan development journey continues despite challenges: President Arif Alvi

Pakistan is celebrating its 75th Independence Day today with enthusiasm; prayers are being offered for the prosperity and progress of the country.

The national flag hoisting ceremony was held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad on Saturday morning. President Arif Alvi was the chief guest at the event.

The president, while addressing the ceremony, spoke about the importance of independence and the successes of the country during difficult times.

He said that Pakistan made sacrifices in the war against terrorism and faced various challenges, including economic and health but it continues its journey of development despite trials and tribulations. He also congratulated the nation and Pakistani forces on their victory in the war against terrorism.

The president said the arms race continues in the region and despite this Pakistan has fulfilled the basic requirements to advance in the world. Along with agriculture, now it’s making progress in the industrial and IT sector and Pakistan's exports have reached 31 billion dollars, the president said.

Talking about hosting Afghan refugees, he said that nations are formed on the basis of morality. Without naming any country he said, elsewhere refugees are allowed to drown in the sea not given shelter, but Pakistan still hosts 3.5 million Afghan refugees.

The president also spoke about peace with neighbouring India.

“We once again offer peace to India but India is not ready to reciprocate and even returning the Indian pilot was also considered our weakness.”

He said that Pakistan will continue to support the people of Kashmir in their struggle for self-rule and freedom.

Meanwhile, a change of guard ceremony was held at Quaid-e-Azam's mausoleum in Karachi to mark the Independence Day celebrations. Pakistan Naval Academy cadets assumed ceremonial guard duty at the mausoleum.

74th or 75th Independence Day?

Every year a classic mathematical problem leaves many people confused about Pakistan's Independence Day.

The answer is a matter of mathematics and semantics or word meanings. It is the 75th Independence Day and the 74th year of Pakistan’s existence.

We follow how the state or government calculates it. Remember that
August 14, 1947, was Pakistan’s first Independence Day. It named the first day of our existence as a country the first Independence Day. If you include our first independence day and count forward, we have had 74 Independence Days or Youm-e-Azadi.

According to this calculation, in 2021 we have our 75th Independence Day.
But yes, if you counted the number of years of Pakistan’s “age”, it is indeed 74.

In that case, if we were to use the formula people use for their birthdays, our first year of existence wrapped up in 1948 when we became one year old. That would have been our first “birthday” like humans celebrate it.