Daily Times

Are we celebrating the correct Independence Day in Pakistan? Some newspapers and the internet are full of this controversy. Under the British act of parliament that gave independence to India, both India and Pakistan came into existence exactly at midnight between August 14 and 15. So, technically speaking, India and Pakistan became independent neither on the 14 nor the 15 of August. A deep, dark conspiracy by perfidious Albion if you ask me to sow doubts in the minds of men involved in the freedom of India and the creation of Pakistan. All confusion could have been eliminated just by declaring India to have become independent a minute after midnight rather than at the stroke of midnight. What it means is that Pakistan and India do not have a real day they became independent. Or perhaps they never became independent and the last 68 years are a charade. Certainly there are some in Pakistan at least that will agree with that point of view but for reasons a trifle different.
A little bit of history of the independence of the US is in order. The fourth of July is celebrated as Independence Day whereas it was two days earlier that the ‘states’ declared independence and it was not until a month later that the declaration of independence was signed. The US definitely has a very proper attitude towards the celebration of historical holidays. For instance, it took different presidential birthdays, glommed them together and celebrates them on a Monday in February to give people a long weekend off. This means that for people in the US at least historical dates can often be quite unrelated to actual history.
Another important day in Pakistan history with which considerable ‘freedom’ has been taken is the so-called Pakistan Day. Originally Pakistan Day was the Republic Day, a day on which, after the passage of the 1956 Constitution, Pakistan became a republic instead of a dominion. However, after the first military dictator took over and abrogated that poor Constitution, he was still left with a holiday to account for. Since the Lahore Resolution was passed around the same time in 1940, the March holiday was renamed Pakistan Day for a resolution that interestingly never had the word Pakistan in it. More importantly, the resolution was passed a day later than the date on which it is now celebrated. However much that resolution is misinterpreted, the fact remains that it did not really ask for one Muslim majority ‘state’ in India but rather ‘states’, one in the east and the other in the west. Frankly, those that wrote and voted on that resolution knew what they were doing.
Having meandered around a bit, back to what exactly is the day on which Pakistan came into existence as a country. The answer is it was not any day at all but rather exactly between two days. Reminds me of the Urdu saying about two mullahs and an ill-fated chicken. That said, there is some sense in making the 14th the actual Independence day of Pakistan. After all, it was on the 14th that Jinnah took over as governor general of Pakistan. If there was no Pakistan then how could Jinnah have become the governor general of a non-existent country? More interestingly, Jinnah was elected the president of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan three days earlier. No Pakistan yet so where did the constituent assembly come from? Curiouser and curiouser.
So why then did Jinnah, the ultimate legal mind, take oath as governor general of a country that did not yet exist? There are many very reasonable explanations for this. First, of course, is that Jinnah realised that the Brits were up to no good by declaring independence at the stroke of midnight. Clearly, he understood that the stroke of midnight is exactly that. He was probably worried that on the morning of the 15th, the Brits could well say, “Sorry old chaps, you were all independent for that infinitesimal point in time at midnight, now back to the Raj.” You know it could have happened. To prevent the Brits from doing something as perfidious as that, Jinnah essentially, in his own way, declared independence before the midnight hour. A brilliant move I must say and it has increased even more the respect I have for Jinnah.
It also makes eminent sense for India and Pakistan to have different independence days. If they had the same Independence Day I can well imagine the amount of mutual belligerence and jingoism that would have accompanied independence celebrations on both sides of the border. It, however, does make me wonder why all this sudden need among certain Pakistanis to bring up the fact that both India and Pakistan became independent at the same time? Here again my superior conspiracy theory mind springs to action. Those so enamoured of having the same Independence Day are essentially those that never accepted the partition of India and now want partition to be reversed. Sadly for these poor souls, irrespective of what dates we in Pakistan celebrate independence, we are not going to let India become a part of Pakistan any time soon.
For those who just insist on historical accuracy I have a simple solution. Let us declare the 14th as well as the 15th of August as holidays. After all, if we never became independent, we could never have five holidays for Eid ul Fitr. I would not even mind at all if we had the entire week off to celebrate Independence Day. As it is the holiday comes smack in the middle of some of the hottest and muggiest days of the year. A week when everything is closed down might even allow no load shedding at all! And that alone, in my opinion, is a good enough reason to take an entire week off to celebrate something as important as the independence of our one and only country.

The author is a former editor of the Journal of Association of Pakistani descent Physicians
of North America (APPNA)