Pakistan's National Anthem: Journey from concept to reality

A national anthem is the unique identity of a country. Its lyrics and melody are distinctive, reflecting the cultural and religious values of the country. The story behind the creation of Pakistan's national is intriguing and interesting.

Since childhood, we are taught that Pakistan's national anthem was written by Hafeez Jalandhari and composed by Ahmed Ghulamali Chagla (G. A. Chagla), and it was first aired on Radio Pakistan on August 13, 1954. However, the subject is not that simple and has been surrounded by years of controversy. From 1947 until 1954, when the final national anthem was approved, various other national songs were broadcast on the radio on national occasions.

According to an Urdu article written by well-known historian and researcher Dr Aqeel Abbas Jafri for BBC Urdu, “Pakistan ka Qaumi Tarana: Dhun ki tayyari se lekar tarane ki manzoori tak paanch baras men kiya kiya hua” printed on August 15, 2021:

“It must be surprising for many that at one point, there was a proposal to adopt Surah Al-Fatiha as the national anthem of the country, which however was dismissed.”

Dr Jaferi in the foreword of his book “Pakistan ka Qaumi Tarana kiya haqeeqat kiya fasana” has mentioned that a new controversy in India and Pakistan started when a few days before his death in 2004, Jagannath Azad gave an interview to Luv Puri, an Indian journalist, in which he claimed to have written Pakistan's first national anthem. The interview was published in The Milli Gazette 's issue of 16-31 August, 2004. He also claimed that the Quaid-i-Azam himself had asked him to write that anthem.

Dr Aqeel asserts that at the time of Independence, Azad was in Lahore and affiliated with a daily newspaper. According to Jagannath, on August 9, 1947, a 'friend' (not named in the interview) working at Radio Pakistan's Lahore station brought him a message from the Quaid-i-Azam, stating that the Quaid wanted Azad to write Pakistan's national anthem. He also claimed that the Governor General approved it and that it was Pakistan's first national anthem and was broadcast from Radio Pakistan's Karachi station, the then capital of Pakistan. Later, due to the worsening law and order situation, Azad migrated to India.

The interview did not have much impact. However, Luv Puri wrote a report based on the same interview, which was published on June 19, 2005, in “The Hindu”, the third-largest English daily in India. The report titled: "A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem: Luv Puri - How Jinnah got Urdu-knowing Jagannath Azad to write the song."

The report stirred up the Pakistani media. Aqeel Abbas Jaferi has also mentioned in his book the writings of various Pakistani writers and intellectuals who endorsed Azad's point of view. He also referred to a TV talk show on Geo TV. In that program, everyone except Dr. Khwaja Muhammad Zakariya tried to endorse Azad’s claim. Jaferi dismissed all these claims in his book.

Jaferi’s book contained his detailed research on the first national anthem as well as national songs written and presented before, during and after the Independence movement.

Journalist Sen Roy in his article for BBC Urdu endorsed the proofs collected by Aqeel Abbas Jaferi in his book, according to which the preserved records from the log books of Radio Pakistan Lahore and Peshawar, don’t substantiate Azad’s claim that his national anthem was aired on those stations. As far as Karachi radio is concerned, Aqeel saheb asserts, “Radio Pakistan Karachi station was established on 14th August 1948, a year after the creation of Pakistan, so airing national anthem on this station was out of question.”

In his article on BBC, Jaferi gave a complete detail of the entire process through which the national anthem was written, composed and approved by the government.

Quoting from the Rukhsana Zafar’s book, “The National Anthem of Pakistan,” he wrote: “While Jinnah was still alive, on January 14, 1948, Z.A. Bukhari, the Controller of Pakistan Broadcasting Service, sent a note to the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Interior. This note mentioned that a British musician, Mr Joseph Welsh, had sent a piano-recorded tune for Pakistan's national anthem, which was recorded at Radio Pakistan Lahore.

According to Rukhsana Zafar, Bukhari further proposed that Surah Al-Fatiha be adopted as the national anthem. The Ministry of Interior reviewed Bukhari’s note in a high-level meeting held on February 9, 1948. But the records of this meeting show that the proposal was not seriously considered. However, Joseph Welsh’s tune was heard and finally rejected.

The meeting decided to invite prominent poets to write the national anthem of the country, and a committee of experts would be formed to evaluate the submissions and recommend how they could be set to music.

On February 18, 1948, Ahmed Ali, Deputy Secretary General of the Government of Pakistan, summarized the meeting's proceedings for the Ministry of Interior, including Bukhari’s note dated January 14, 1948.

On February 27, 1948, the cabinet discussed the matter. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan emphasised the necessity of having a national anthem and suggested that an appropriate tune should be prepared first, followed by inviting poets to write lyrics that matched the tune.

On June 2, 1948, the Government of Pakistan issued a press note stating that it had accepted the offer from Mr. Ahmed A.R. Ghani of Clerics Drop City of Transvaal, a province of South Africa, who had pledged two prizes of five thousand rupees each—one for composing the tune and the other for writing the lyrics of the national anthem. Mr. Ghani had offered this amount in memory of his late father, Mr. A.R.A. Ghani.

The government set June 30, 1948, as the deadline for submitting the tune, later extending this date by one month.

Who wrote the first Anthem?

Official records don’t substantiate Azad’s claim. From the proposal by Z.A. Bukhari to the approval of Ahmed A.R. Gani's suggestion, Jinnah was not only alive but also present in Karachi. If Jinnah had indeed declared Azad’s composition as the national anthem, was it possible that during his lifetime, efforts to create a new national anthem would have been considered let alone implemented? Jinnah passed away on September 11, 1948. Three months later, in December 1948, the government of Pakistan announced the formation of a nine-member national anthem committee, chaired by Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar and supervised by S.M. Ikram.

The national anthem committee started receiving numerous compositions and tunes from across the country. Hafeez Jalandhari, in his article "The Tale of the National Anthem" published in the Hafeez special edition of the monthly Afkar, wrote that the committee received over 200 poems and about 63 tunes in total.

On July 4, 1949, two six-hour sessions of the committee were held under the chairmanship of Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar to review these compositions. Subsequently, the government of Pakistan formed two sub-committees of experts to evaluate the received poems and tunes.

The tune by A. G Chagla

Among the members of one of the sub-committees formed on July 4, 1949, was Ahmed Ghulamali Chagla. He presented his tune, along with some other selected tunes, to the committee. The Royal Pakistan Naval Band performed these tunes on H.M.P.S. Dilawar, using bagpipes.

On July 20, 1949, Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar was appointed Governor of West Punjab and assumed his position on August 2, 1949. Consequently, the chairmanship of the committee was handed over to Pirzada Abdul Sattar. The Shah of Iran was scheduled to visit Pakistan within a few months. The committee believed that Pakistan’s anthem should be played on this occasion. Hence, on August 21, 1949, the committee approved Chagla’s composition as the interim national anthem.

A few months later, during the Shah of Iran’s visit to Pakistan, the interim national anthem was played by the Pakistan Navy band under the leadership of Abdul Ghafoor at Karachi Airport on March 1, 1950. This was the first occasion when Pakistan's national anthem was played at an official event. Subsequently, during Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan's official visit to the United States from May to July 1950, the same tune was played at official ceremonies.

Meanwhile, the search for a suitable permanent national anthem continued. After reviewing all submissions, the committee approved two tunes - one of these was Chagla’s interim tune, the other was composed by the famous musician Sajjad Sarwar Niazi.

On August 10, 1950, the committee finally approved Chagla’s tune as Pakistan's permanent national anthem. After this approval, on December 6, 1950, Z.A. Bukhari presented his lyrics set to Chagla’s tune to the cabinet. However, the cabinet found the lyrics difficult for the public to understand.

On February 28, 1951, the cabinet was requested to hear a national anthem written by Hakim Ahmad Shuja. The committee considered Hafeez Jalandhari and Hakim Ahmad Shuja’s anthems to be relatively better but also suggested that two poems by Allama Iqbal and Qazi Nazrul Islam be officially recognised as national songs.

Difficulty in putting words together

The committee began receiving submissions from renowned poets across Pakistan, in both Urdu and Bengali. The committee felt that Chagla’s tune was somewhat difficult, making it challenging for poets to set lyrics to it. Consequently, the committee sent Sajjad Sarwar Niazi’s tune to BBC London for re-recording.

When the re-recorded tune arrived, choosing the best tune became an issue again. On June 4, 1953, a subcommittee of the cabinet met aboard H.M.P.S. Dilawar, where the Naval Band played both tunes for the committee. On December 29 and 30, 1953, both tunes were presented in a cabinet meeting and played once again.

On January 2, 1954, the federal cabinet announced the approval of Chagla’s tune as the national anthem's official tune. Now the search for suitable lyrics began. The cabinet also decided that the lyrics written by Hafeez Jalandhari, Hakim Ahmad Shuja, and Z.A. Bukhari should be harmonized with Chagla’s tune and presented. The cabinet listened to the lyrics and suggested creating a new anthem by combining the first stanza from Bukhari’s lyrics with the remaining stanzas from Jalandhari’s. However, Jalandhari refused this compromise, insisting his anthem be accepted or rejected in its entirety.

Due to Jalandhari’s clear stance, the cabinet postponed the selection and officially approved Chagla’s tune as the final anthem tune on June 2, 1954.

Approval of the Anthem

On August 5, 1954, the cabinet officially approved Jalandhari’s anthem without any alterations. Few know that before his anthem for Pakistan was approved, Jalandhari had written a national anthem for Kashmir in 1947, still broadcast daily on Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s official radio, starting with "Watan Hamara Azad Kashmir."

According to the records of radio Pakistan, renowned singers who participated in the recording of this anthem included Ahmed Rushdi, Zawar Hussain, Akhtar Abbas, Ghulam Dastagir, Anwar Zaheer, Akhtar Wasi Ali, Naseema Shaheen, Rasheeda Begum, Najma Ara, Kokab Jahan, and Shamim Bano. Thus, the world has received another beautiful national anthem.

— Sheher Bano

—The article has been prepared with the help of various writings on this subject by different writers