By Mahnoor Sajid

14th August is the day when millions of Pakistanis celebrate the most important and cherished day in the history of our country, the day of birth of our home and motherland Pakistan. It is the glorious day when Muslims of Indian sub-continent got their much desired freedom from the oppressive rule of British and Hindu Majority under the great leadership of our founding father Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The cost of this freedom was massive as many Muslims sacrificed their lives and homes for the greater cause of this freedom.

The need to celebrate the Independence Day is very genuine and comes natural to patriots of this country. But the way it has been celebrated in the past few years has changed very drastically and unfortunately for us as a nation, not in a positive manner. Nowadays people celebrate this event with focus on extravagance and lavishness. While it is enviable to feel the pride by hoisting the white-green flag of Pakistan on the top of our houses or decorate our lawns with green and white lights or light up a few fireworks, some people tend to ruin all the fun by forgetting the true spirit of this day.

People waste a lot of money to cover their houses with thousands of paper flags of Pakistan for decoration but the next day, all these flags go to the waste baskets and all the money that was spent on buying these flags goes down the drain. This money could be used for much better purposes such as helping the poor people or students who cannot afford their books.

On the roads, some people start screaming, dancing and sticking their head out of their sunroofs which causes a lot of noise and headache to other people on the roads. A few People start dancing in the middle of the road blocking the traffic and all the other people who want to go anywhere are stuck because of these people. I have personally seen an ambulance trying to find way to hospital but couldn’t and this could have been very disastrous for someone. Instead of dancing on the roads we should dance in our own houses if we really want to do so we don`t block the traffic.

We should not destroy the fun of others who want to enjoy with their families celebrating in the right way. I suggest that we all should celebrate this day in a true spirit so that everyone can realize the actual essence of this day. We could do a lot more positive things on this day. For instance, we could hold forums to discuss about our heroes who sacrificed their lives to give us independence. We could get together with friends and families and hold a competition of singing patriotic songs. We can take our kids to historical monuments like Minar-e-Pakistan and describe its importance to them.

Pakistan is our home and we love its birthday every year but it is very important to not forget the true essence of this day and we should all thank God for blessing us with an independent country. Long live Pakistan and happy Independence Day to all my countrymen.

Published in Young Nation Magazine on August 12, 2017