Pakistan 1st National Anthem Was?

We learnt in our Schooling days that Pakistan’s National Anthem was 1^st broadcasted in 1950’s. The question arose in my mind, why it took 3 years to write a National Anthem although we got Independence in 1947. 1^st answer I got from my mind was:

Its possible because many Nations are still living without even a National Anthem, then why can’t we live without it just for three years.

But, one day on Internet, I was trying to search the history, and was amazed to find the 1^st National Anthem of Pakistan written by a Hindu and approved by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Amazing!

Jagannath Azad (1918-2004), son of Lahore-based renowned poet Tilok Chand Mahroom, was the person, who actually wrote the National Anthem of Pakistan in 1947.

Azad was commissioned by Jinnah to write the anthem three days before the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

Why him? Read the lines said by Azad below:

I asked my friends why Jinnah Sahib wanted me to write the anthem. They confided in me that “the Quaid wanted the anthem to be written by an Urdu-knowing Hindu.” Through this, I believe Jinnah Sahib wanted to sow the roots of secularism in a Pakistan.”

The lyrics of the 1^st National Anthem of Pakistan written by Azad were:

Ae sarzameene paak

Zarray teray haen aaj sitaaron se taabnaak

Roshan hai kehkashaan se kaheen aaj teri khaak

Ae sarzameene paak’

(‘Oh land of Pakistan, the stars themselves illuminate each particle of yours/rainbows brighten your very dust.’)

His devotion to Allama Iqbal has been intriguing for many. But then, he has himself said:

Merey yaqeen ko dekh amal par nazar na kar
Mera yaqeen heh daulat-eeman liye huey
Ahl-i-haram mujhey na hiqarat se dekhna
Kafir hun eik qalb-e-Musalman liye huey

The National Anthem Committee (NAC), formed in December 1948, took two years to finalise a new anthem, finally choosing NAC member Hafeez Jullundhri’s poem from among 723 submissions.

The anthem commissioned by Mr Jinnah was just one of his legacies that his successors rejected, along with the principles he stressed in his address to the Constituent Assembly on Aug 11, 1947 — his political will and testament according to his official biographer Hector Bolitho.

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Find more about it Here and Here

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