Pakistan ushered in its 50th anniversary of independence yesterday with the Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, calling for peace with India and a solution to the Kashmiri conflict.
The Muslim country's celebrations took place a day before those in arch-rival India, the Hindu-majority state also carved from the British raj in the bloody 1947 partition of the sub-continent.
Pakistan, caught in an economic straitjacket, confined its golden jubilee events to fireworks, speeches and rallies, but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of crowds who took to the streets of Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi overnight.
In a flag-raising ceremony in the capital, Islamabad, Mr Sharif said Pakistan had initiated dialogue with India because of what he called a growing realisation on both sides that the bitter 50-yearold Kashmir dispute should be resolved.
"The . . . conflict and arms race between the two countries wasted billions of dollars. It also deprived the peoples of the two countries of peace and prosperity.
"I hope that India would also respond with the same sincerity by withdrawing its forces from occupied Kashmir and putting an end to atrocities there and hence pave the way for establishment of lasting peace in the region," he said.
In an earlier speech to the National Assembly (lower house) at one minute past midnight, Mr Sharif praised Kashmiri guerrillas fighting in the two-thirds of Kashmir under New Delhi's control.
"Today, mujahideen [guerrillas] are fighting for their independence in occupied Kashmir. God willing, the Kashmiri people will fulfil their mission one day," he said.
"Pakistan will continue to provide moral support to them. Our independence will be complete on the day all our Kashmiri brethren join us in celebrating independence."
Pakistan, which holds one-third of the Himalayan region, denies Indian accusations that it arms, trains and finances the guerrillas in mainly Muslim Kashmir, whose insurgency has cost an estimated 20,000 lives since it erupted in 1990.
From the start, India's independence was tinged with sadness as the stark division of the subcontinent into two nations - India and Pakistan - was accompanied by the massacre of hundreds of thousands and the uprooting of millions of families.
In Pakistan, the absence of military parades or lavish events reflected a mood of introspection and austerity in a country grappling with violence between militant Sunni and Shia Muslims and mired by economic crisis.
"State institutions and the infrastructure are crumbling, lawlessness threatens society, the debt trap is daunting and the economy is in dire straits," the English-language daily News said yesterday. "Government credibility and faith in its ability to turn things around is very low."
"Despite the general cynicism and despondency that overshadow the celebrations . . . Pakistan is not about to collapse," the newspaper said. "It is inherently viable and vibrant enough to belie those who declare it a failed state."