The joint parade of the armed forces was scheduled to take place on March 23 but was postponed due to heavy rains. The parade could not be held last year due to corona outbreak.
The impressive ceremony kicked off with the fly past of fighter jets of Pakistan Air Force led by Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar presenting salute to the chief guest President Dr Arif Alvi.
Main feature of the parade was a massive display of aerobatics by jets of Pakistan Air Force and Turkish Air Force.
The ceremony was held in accordance with health protocols in the presence of President Arif Alvi, Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Minister of Defense, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, services chiefs, Ambassadors of Foreign Countries, Foreign Defense Attachés and other distinguished guests.
Contingents of Pakistan Army, Navy, Pakistan Air Force, Special Services Groups, Frontier Corps, Rangers, and Islamabad police, Frontier Constabulary, Airport Security Force and Boys Scouts marched past presenting salute to the chief guest.
Mechanized columns including tanks, armored personnel carriers, rocket launchers, air defense system, Radars, indigenously built UAVs and short and long range missiles Ra'ad, Nasr, Babr, Ghaznavi, Ghauri and Shaheen were showcased on the occasion. Engineering corps presented its state of the art equipment.
This was followed by the fly past of helicopters.
Paratroopers from Pakistan Army, Air Force, Navy, Bahrain, Iraq, Palestine, Turkey, and Sri Lanka performed free fall jumping from 10,000 feet above the ground and impressed the audience.
The last parade of the Pakistan Armed Forces was held in 2008, after which it was suspended for seven years due to security threats, but General Raheel Sharif, the then commander of the Pakistan Army, decided in April 2015 to resume the Pakistan Day celebrations.
In order to hold this ceremony peacefully and in order to prevent any sabotage, strict security measures were applied during the last ten days in the capital of Pakistan.
The President of Pakistan, as the keynote speaker, while emphasizing the need for a peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region, assured the continuation of his country's assistance to the maintenance of regional peace and stability, including helping to improve the situation in Afghanistan.
Referring to the Kashmir issue, Arif Alvi said: "Pakistan will continue its political, moral and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir until they achieve freedom."
He called on the international community to act in accordance with Security Council resolutions to prevent the suffering of oppressed nations, especially the Kashmir issue.
The President of Pakistan spoke of strong relations with China, Central Asia, West Asia and the Persian Gulf, adding: "We want to further strengthen relations with members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, one of the goals of which is to jointly confront the phenomenon of Islamophobia." .
"The Pakistani armed forces are always ready to defend the country's borders and has the ability to respond to any possible aggression," he said.
The President of Pakistan described March 23 as a historic and decisive day and said: "On this day, the Muslims of South Asia decided to form an independent state for the Muslims and with a lot of sacrifice and countless sacrifices, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Established.
Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League founding party in the subcontinent, led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, 81 years ago on March 23, 1940, in Lahore, issued a resolution establishing an Islamic state in the region, which later became known as the "Pakistan Resolution".
March 23 is another important moment in Pakistani history as 65 years ago, on this day the first constitution of Pakistan was adopted in 1956 and according to it, the name of this country was changed from "Pakistan" to "Islamic Republic of Pakistan".
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