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By Masroor Gilani
ISLAMABAD: 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 colored floodlights but otherwise the mood
was somber 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 rainy capital to mark 60 years since
Pakistan, now the world’s second-largest Muslim-majority nation,
was carved out of the remains of British India.
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 reelection 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.
Musharraf flirted last week with establishing
emergency rule to try to cope with a wave of public anger and
Islamist unrest that have threatened to destabilize the nation.
In recent weeks, a raid on a radical mosque in
Islamabad followed by a suicide bombing at a public rally left
around 200 people dead. Meanwhile there has been growing Islamic
militancy in tribal areas along the Afghan border.
The president has also come under increasing
criticism from close ally the United States for allowing Pakistani
territory to be used by Taliban and al-Qaeda cells to plan attacks
in the region and around the world.
But as the first celebrations began on Monday
night with fireworks in the sky over President House, Musharraf went
on national television and reassured his handpicked audience that he
would fight terrorism seriously.
He also rejected US suggestions that the United
States might launch a unilateral strike on Pakistani territory to
target militants.
“I am fully confident and very sure that there
will be no action across the border, and if there is any action it
will be taken by Pakistani forces,” he said.
When British colonial rule ended in 1947, India
was divided along religious lines. Muslims settled in West Pakistan
and East Pakistan—now Bangladesh—while India was dedicated for
Hindus.
An estimated 10 million people crossed the
borders to be with their fellow believers—one of the largest such
migrations in history, and one accompanied by a frenzy of mob
violence that killed 500,000 to one million people.
India and Pakistan have since fought three wars,
two of them over the disputed territory of Kashmir, but the rising
economy of its neighbor now seems one of the least of the challenges
facing Musharraf’s nation.
With security forces keeping a close watch on
public places, fireworks were banned and public gatherings were
being kept to a minimum, police in the capital and other cities
said.
“This year the threats are serious,” said
Aftab Cheema, police chief in the eastern city of Lahore.
“We have therefore deployed police in plain
clothes and installed closed-circuit cameras at key places to avert
an incident in major cities and towns,” he said.
One of the largest ceremonies was expected to
take place at Wagah, near Lahore and the overland crossing with
India, where crowds from both sides were to greet each other at a
flag-raising ceremony.
--AFP
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