There was no edition of the newspaper on Sept 7, 1969, on account of Defence of Pakistan Day. The following excerpt is from the previous day’s edition.

KARACHI: The area forming Azad Kashmir was a gift made by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah through his wisdom and knowledge of military strategy, retired Maj-Gen Mohammad Akbar Khan said here on Thursday [Sept 4].

Addressing a meeting at a local hotel on “The Quaid as a military genius”, he said that during the 1947 armed conflict in Kashmir, Pakistan had a total of only 7,000 fighters who included Army jawans, tribesmen and Azad Kashmir volunteers.

He paid tributes to those fighters who, “with outdated war equipment and inadequate ammunition”, displaying superb gallantry fought with outnumbering Indian troops consisting of Sikhs and Gorkhas and liberating the area forming the present day Azad Kashmir.

Maj-Gen Akbar Khan said the success was mainly due to the Quaid-i-Azam, who, in keeping with Islamic military traditions, kept up the morale of the fighters.

Similarly, he said it was due to the Quaid’s wise and far-reaching political and military policies that Pakistani fighters successfully repulsed an Afghan attack on Pakistan in 1948. He also referred to an upsurge initiated in Quetta by a Sikh Army man soon after the birth of Pakistan, which was put down by the Quaid.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2019