A joint military parade of Pakistan’s armed forces will take place on Pakistan Day on March 23 after a gap of seven years.
The parade will be organized by joint staff headquarters in Rawalpindi, which oversees the three armed forces of Pakistan. The venue for the parade is yet to be finalized. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the Pakistan Day parade as chief guest.
The last military parade took place on March 23, 2008 during the tenure of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf as a civilian president. The decision to resume the military parade appeared to be a manifestation of the military’s show of strength in the wake of the shocking attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar last year, which left 150 people dead, including 132 schoolchildren.
Reports are emerging that few terrorists are planning to target the National Day parade. Few days before federal capital’s police arrested two suspected terrorists who confessed to planning an attack. A large cache of weapons was also seized from their possession.
After the Peshawar school carnage authorities gave orders to the school administrations to not open the institutes for certain period of time. But psychological experts were against the decisions as the act could have left a positive impact on the children and this is what terrorists wanted. Political and military leadership by eliminating all the threats of terrorism must continue with the program of military parade on our National Day.
Contingents of the Pakistan army, navy and air force are expected to arrive in Islamabad soon for parade rehearsals, with stringent security measures in place. Pakistan is fighting a successful war to eliminate the terrorists from its soil. By organizing the military parade we would give a thumping answer to all the anti-state elements that we are a nation with the capability to deal with the terrorists.