Flying 8,000m High, originally uploaded by jzakariya.

Pehchan kabhi na bhoolo
Sab ki nazron mein
Pakistan
Kabhi na bhoolo

Pakistan hai tumhara
Pakistan hai humara

- “Jazba Junoon” - Junoon

Since early childhood, I can remember standing in my classroom at reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. One of the most basic things that I learned in my time in the United States is that they foster national pride at every level of social development. Now, I know that the extremist view here in Pakistan is that America is “the Great Satan,” but realistically if we study what the Americans have done from childhood, we can develop a process that instills national pride into our citizens.

Let me start by explaining what I recall of my education in the United States. Every morning, when school started, the national anthem was played on the school’s internal announcement system. We all had to stand for the national anthem and place our hand over our hearts. After the national anthem, before sitting down, we would recite the pledge of allegiance. A pledge that is supposed to signify what it means to be an American

“I pledge allegiance to the flag…,”

The United States has federal laws protecting the American flag. It is not allowed to touch the ground. It can not be burned. It can not be treated with disrespect. These are all federal crimes for anyone in the United States, citizen or otherwise. Every developed country has laws protecting their national flag.

But it goes much deeper. When I was in school, part of the curriculum was to teach children about the flag and how it came to be, starting from the original 13 colonies, including the Confederacy, and concluding with the modern day American flag. We were taught about Betsy Ross and the tireless work she did to sew the first American flag.

We were taught that the first step to national pride was respecting the flag.

Now, I have noticed in Pakistan that the national flag is not a symbol of respect or pride. Before you all start to fume about that comment, think for a second… on your house, do you have the national flag flying or do you have a political party flag? When you see protestors on television burning the flag, does it burn you inside knowing that the symbol by which Pakistan is known in the world is being desecrated?

Would you tolerate it if a foreigner were to do that in front of you?

Then why do you tolerate it when Pakistanis do it?

A quick quiz…

What is the Pakistani flag called?
Who created the national flag?
When did it come into existence?
What does it mean?
Read more »

We have a flag. It is a beautiful flag. People would kill if that flag were to be threatened by outsiders or attackers. Yet, we treat that flag with so much disrespect and contempt that we don’t deserve to be called Pakistanis. If there is one thing that I firmly believe, it’s this: when you don’t respect your national flag, then you don’t respect your country.

In Pakistan, we don’t care if the flag hangs properly outside our homes or offices.

In Pakistan, we hang our flags upside down and say “it doesn’t matter.”

In Pakistan, we hang torn and dirty flags because we can’t be bothered to clean it before we hoist it above our homes.

In Pakistan, we treat the flag with the same contempt that we treat other Pakistanis….. ever think about that?