What happens when kids wave national flags and cheer for Pakistan, town after town, city after city and province after province, from Karachi to KPK!

It echoes a resolve stronger than steel and higher than the Himalayas, for the love and care, and for the sanctity and sacrifice for Pakistan indeed.

Come Independence Day on August 14, Pakistan’s promising kids chant and dance their hearts out — whether in the decorated streets and roads of Karachi, or the bustling and beautifully lit Minar-i-Pakistan, or rejuvenating lanes of Quetta, or the packed bazaars of Peshawar — in true letter and spirit.

Waving flags, decorating homes and streets, chanting national slogans, and shining over the national horizon are our blooming kids, aspiring adolescents and spirited youth. Sounds of national songs fill the air, be it Jeeway Jeeway Pakistan, Hum Zinda Quam Hain, Watan Ki Mitti Gawah Rahna, Ye Watan Humara Hai, Jug Jug Jeeway Mera Pyara Watan, Chand Meri Zameen Phool Mera Watan, Ai Watan Ke Sajelay Jawano, and many more.

Inherent in the hearts, minds and souls of the youth of the nation is the all-purpose enlightening motto of ‘Unity, Faith, Discipline’, as the beacon light of success. Kids also sing our national poet Allama Iqbal’s prayer Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua Ban Ke Tamanna Meri and his message of inspiration to the young nation ‘Tu shaheen hai parwaz hai kam tera, teray samnay aasman aur bhi hain’, towards new horizons in life and career excellence.

Beyond the hale and hearty rhetoric and rituals, our kids go to implement the spirit of Independence by learning, be it in the slums of cities or small villages, such skills, trades, arts and crafts that earn them respectable livelihoods, enabling them to stand on their own feet with grace, dignity and honour.

At the formal academic level, our students continue to earn value-adding diplomas, degrees, awards, honours and credentials in multiple disciplines, both home and abroad, speaking volumes of their potential.

Such beloved kids of the soil humbly and nobly, become models of national piety, promise and pride. It is here that the sun continues to shine over the national horizon with all its vigour and vitality, towards a better and brighter Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 14th, 2021