Lahore wears green and white on Independence Day

LAHORE: The highly-charged and excessively excited citizens of the provincial metropolis have already started to celebrate the 71st Independence Day in every nook and corner of the city, every public & private educational and cultural institution with a great fervour even days before the most blessed day arrives on Tuesday (today).

The male and female students of various educational institutions in the city, including the Punjab University, the medical colleges in the public and private sector have not only decorated their respective institutions with huge number of green and white national flag and its related paraphernalia, but have also seen dressed up in the national colours.

Besides the educational institutions and the residential areas of the city, the government offices, art and culture institutions like Alhamra Arts Council, The Mall, The Alhamra Cultural Complex, Ferozepur Road, The Punjab Institute of Language and Culture, Punjab University's Department of Art and Design, National College of the Arts, Pakistan Institute of Fashion & Design, and many other such organisations have made elaborated arrangements to celebrate the Independence Day on a grand day which include the flag hoisting ceremony in every respective institution by its head and other officials and staff and special seminars on Independence Day.

The Alhamra Arts Council, The Mall has organised a special Independence Day exhibition of artworks by a special child. Besides the official art & culture related institutions, the private art galleries of Lahore are also putting up their fair share in the Independence Day related activities which include special exhibitions, workshops and screening of Independence Day related documentaries.

Our correspondent adds: The speeches of founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah made in the first Assembly for civil servants and the members of the armed forces are a beacon of light for all of us to take Pakistan forward towards the heights of development, progress and prosperity. This was stated by Information Technology University (ITU) founding Vice Chancellor Dr Umar Saif while inaugurating exhibition “Pakistan: The Making of a Nation” as a part of Independence Day celebrations curated by ITU Centre for Governance and Policy here on Monday.

Dr Saif added: “There were the founding principles on which this country was made and it was need of the hour to adhere to these principles, which demanded us to understand the profoundness of the words of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the profoundness of the founding father of this country. This exhibition showcases our past through a mix of pictures, documents, videos and readings of acclaimed writers, to vividly remind us of our history and heritage.”

We need to take care of all our minorities and create an inclusive, strong and united Pakistan, just as the Quaid wanted. For us, to run this country under such principles, through institutions, on inclusiveness and with principles to support and include every segment of the society, he said.

On this occasion Dr Umar Saif also launched the “partition portal” on ITU’s website, which is part of ITU’s collaboration with the South Asia Centre at Harvard University, a repository of material related to the 1947 partition of the Punjab. Being a great resource for academics and general public alike, this portal, for the first time, makes accessible all published government documents relating to the partition, including reports on partition violence, the exodus of refugees, and their rehabilitation. The portal also hosts a series of interviews of the living people who lived through the harrowing events of 1947 in the Punjab, taken by ITU students, thereby creating an important oral history repository.

Also, for the first time some rare pictures from the first year of Pakistan’s existence are being displayed, focusing on the father of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah while taking oath as Governor General and visits to all provinces of Pakistan and his meetings with various leaders. The exhibition also features original video clippings of the happenings of 1947 and readings of works by several literary figures like Saadat Hasan Manto, Amrita Pritam, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and Kaifi Azmi.