It’s that time of the year again. Millions of Pakistanis and Indians celebrate the historic moment they were no longer answerable to the British. But have you ever wondered why we celebrate the same independence on different days?
The actual date of Pakistan’s independence has been the topic of several newspaper articles and opinion pieces. While some argue that August 14 is the correct date, historical facts reveal otherwise.
“If we use logic, any kind of logic, August 15 is the day on which we should celebrate our independence,” says senior journalist Shahida Kazi in an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune. Kazi explained how Pakistan was created via an act of the Westminster parliament called the Indian Independence Act, promulgated on July 18, 1947.
The first clause of the act clearly stated, “As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan.” Offering a theory for the date change, Kazi explained how the speech to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan by Viceroy Lord Mountbatten actually took place on August 14, 1947 in Karachi.
And since India had decided to hold its celebrations on the midnight of August 15, it would have been impossible for Mountbatten — who was still Viceroy — to be present in both Karachi and New Delhi on the same day. “Mountbatten administered the oath to Jinnah a day earlier in Karachi and then went to India. So this might be the point which struck them official. Even though the document says it’s the 15th they made it the 14th,” said Kazi referring to the Indian Independence Act.
