Pakistan celebrates March 23

Pakistan Day is being celebrated throughout the country with national enthusiasm and spirit.

Pakistan Day is being celebrated today (Wednesday) throughout the country with national enthusiasm and spirit.

The day started with a 21-gun salute in all provincial capitals.

A prestigious change-of-guards ceremony was held in the morning at Allama Iqbal's Mausoleum in Lahore as part of the celebrations.

A contingent of Pakistan Air Force took charge of Iqbal's Mausoleum replacing Pakistan Rangers.

Chief Guest Air Vice Marshal Saeed Ahmad Khan laid a wreath of flower at the Mausoleum at this occasion and offered prayers.

Meanwhile, to commemorate the 71st Pakistan Day, the governor and chief minister of Sindh visited Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi to pay tribute to the leadership and services of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

During their visit, the guard changing ceremony was also initiated at the mausoleum.

The officials then laid a garland of flowers on the Jinnah's grave.

Other attendees included representatives of all three armed forces and a large number of citizens.

The governor in his message on the day said that Pakistan can only come out of the current crisis by implementing the principles laid by its founder, while the chief minister called tackling terrorism the duty of the government.

March 23 is celebrated every year to commemorate the adoption of the Pakistan Resolution by the All India Muslim League in 1940 at Lahore's Minto Park. The resolution demanded a separate homeland for the Muslims in subcontinent.

The Lahore Resolution as it was called at the time proved a successful culmination of the long struggle by the Muslims of the subcontinent for their emancipation from British colonial rule.

It took about seven years after the Pakistan Resolution to give final shape to the new state of Pakistan, which has been described by the historians as a unique and unparalleled event in the history of the contemporary world.