ISLAMABAD: Pakistan wants peace, not war, and that desiring peace should not be perceived as a sign of weakness, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on the eve of Independence Day.
Addressing the inauguration of Yadgar-i-Fatah — the monument built to honour martyrs in the 2025 conflagration with India and commemorate Marka-i-Haq — the prime minister said that Pakistan had been recognised as a “guarantor of peace” in the region, adding that the nation wanted to see a world “free from all sorts of conflict”.
“If anyone challenges Pakistan’s sovereignty and defence, they will receive an even stronger reply than in May 2025,” he warned.
Paying tribute to the architects and engineers who designed the monument, the premier expressed appreciation for its sleek design and for completing it in eight months.
Yadgar-i-Fatah inaugurated in capital on eve of Independence Day
“Yadgar-i-Fatah symbolises our resolve and determination and the domination of our armed forces over the enemy,” he said.
In his address, President Asif Ali Zardari noted that Pakistan’s military response to Indian aggression demonstrated that “we are not a small country for you to play with”.
“We are there as partners to the world, in the … family of countries,” President Zardari added.
“Life comes and goes … we’ve seen tragedies, we’ve seen successes [and] successfully managed to guide our system through,” he added. “I’m not saying there would not be weaknesses; there always are; but there is no nation in the world that can claim it has no weaknesses,” he said.
Monument
Prior to speeches by the country’s leadership, visuals broadcast on television showed a large contingent of personnel from the military, paramilitary forces and police presenting a guard of honour, accompanied by a military band.
The monument itself features five archways, which represent the five pillars of Islam, as well as the five pillars of Pakistan itself — the government, the military, the media, the people and the ideology underpinning the nation.
Additionally, they represent the three branches of the military — the Army, the Air Force and the Navy — as well as cyber-defence and space warfare.
As part of the inauguration, a light and sound show was presented with moving images projected directly onto the monument, state television showed. One of the sequences highlighted the history of Pakistan and its military up to Marka-i-Haq.
Iconic moments from the May war were also projected onto the monument, while PAF fighter jets performed a fly-past over the monument.
Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2026
