Sombre Pakistan marks 60th birthday
PAKISTAN: Pakistan celebrated the 60th anniversary of independence on
Tuesday with prayers and a national minute of silence, low-key
festivities for a country in the grip of political and religious
turmoil.
Major public buildings in the capital Islamabad were bathed in
brightly coloured floodlights but otherwise the mood was sombre and
serious, with security forces on high alert after weeks of unrest and
bloodshed.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz led a solemn flag-raising ceremony in the
overcast capital to mark 60 years since Pakistan, the world’s
second-largest Muslim-majority nation, was carved out of the remains of
British India.
Touching on a major source of friction with nuclear-armed neighbour
India, which was to mark its own independence on Wednesday, 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 Karachi, the country’s biggest city, navel cadets in crisp white
uniforms laid wreaths at the tomb of Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali
Jinnah, who died on September 11, 1948.
A 21-gun salute resounded at daybreak across the capital, matched in
provincial cities by military parades that anchored the commemorations.
But all eyes were on General Pervez Musharraf, the military president
who is facing the greatest challenge to his rule since he seized power
in a 1999 coup.
Accused of trying to skirt the constitution to remain as head of the
army as well as engineer re-election as president, Musharraf used his
Independence Day message to urge Pakistanis to vote in elections
expected by early next year.
“I urge all Pakistani citizens to get involved in the electoral
process and become the instruments of enlightened moderation in their
beloved country,” he said in a message carried by the state-run
Associated Press of Pakistan.
Islamabad, Wednesday, AFP
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