The "" ( ur, , ; "National Anthem"), also known as "" ( ur, , ; "Thy Sacred Land"), is the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

of the

Islamic Republic of Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and formerly the

Dominion of Pakistan Between 14 August 1947 and 23 March 1956, Pakistan was an independent federal dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, created by the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British parliament, which also created the Dominion of ...

. It was written by Hafeez Jalandhari in 1952 and the music was produced by Ahmad G. Chagla in 1949, preceding the lyrics. It was officially adopted as Pakistan's national anthem in August 1954 and was recorded in the same year by eleven major singers of Pakistan including

Ahmad Rushdi ), Rushdi Sahab ( ur, ) , birth_date = , birth_place =Hyderabad Deccan, British India , death_date = , death_place = Karachi, Pakistan , origin = Pakistani , instrument = Vocalist , genre = , ...

, Kaukab Jahan, Rasheeda Begum, Najam Ara, Naseema Shaheen, Zawar Hussain, Akhtar Abbas, Ghulam Dastagir, Anwar Zaheer, and Akhtar Wasi Ali.

History

In early 1948, A. R. Ghani, a Muslim from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

's Transvaal, offered two prizes of five thousand rupees each for the poet and composer of a new national anthem for the newly independent state of Pakistan. The prizes were announced through a government press advertisement published in June 1948. In December 1948, the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...

established the National Anthem Committee (NAC) with the task of coming up with the composition and lyrics for the official national anthem of Pakistan. The NAC was initially chaired by the Information Secretary, Sheikh Muhammad Ikram, and its members included several politicians, poets and musicians, including

Abdur Rab Nishtar Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar (13 June 1899 – 14 February 1958) was a Pakistani Muslim League politician from North-West Frontier Province.Ahmad G. Chagla and Hafeez Jullundhri. The NAC encountered early difficulties in finding suitable music and lyrics. When President

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

became the first foreign head of state to visit Pakistan on 30 January 1950, there was no Pakistani national anthem to be played. In 1950, the impending state visit of the

Shah of Iran This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of th ...

added urgency to the matter and resulted in the government of Pakistan asking the NAC to submit a state anthem without further delay. The NAC chairman, then Federal Minister for Education, Fazlur Rahman, asked several poets and composers to write lyrics but none of the submitted works were deemed suitable. The NAC also examined several different tunes and eventually selected the one presented by Ahmed G. Chagla and submitted it for formal approval. On 21 August 1950, the

adopted Chagla's tune for the national anthem. The anthem, without lyrics, was performed for the first time for a foreign head of state on the state visit of the Shah of Iran to Pakistan in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

on 1 March 1950 by a

Pakistan Navy ur, ہمارے لیے اللّٰہ کافی ہے اور وہ بہترین کارساز ہے۔ English: Allah is Sufficient for us - and what an excellent (reliable) Trustee (of affairs) is He!(''Qur'an, 3:173'') , type ...

band. It was later played for

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Liaquat Ali Khan Liaquat Ali Khan ( ur, ; 1 October 1895 – 16 October 1951), also referred to in Pakistan as ''Quaid-e-Millat'' () or ''Shaheed-e-Millat'' ( ur, lit=Martyr of the Nation, label=none, ), was a Pakistani statesman, lawyer, political theoris ...

during his official visit to the United States on 3 May 1950. It was played before the NAC on 10 August 1950. Official recognition to the national anthem, however, was not given until August 1954. The NAC distributed records of the composed tune amongst prominent poets, who responded by writing and submitting several hundred songs for evaluation by the NAC. Eventually, the lyrics written by Hafeez Jullundhri were approved and the new national anthem was broadcast publicly for the first time on Radio Pakistan on 13 August 1954
sung by Hafeez Jullundhri himself
Official approval was announced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 16 August 1954. The composer, Ahmed G. Chagla, died in 1953, before the new national anthem was officially adopted. In 1955, there was a performance of the national anthem involving 11 major singers of Pakistan, including

, Kaukab Jahan, Rasheeda Begum, Najam Ara, Naseema Shaheen, Zawar Hussain, Akhtar Abbas, Ghulam Dastagir, Anwar Zaheer and Akhtar Wasi Ali. In 2021, Interior Minister at the time Fawad Chaudhry announced that the Qaumi Tarana will be re-recorded with better quality. The project was completed in 2022 during

Shehbaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: , ; born 23 September 1951) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who is currently serving as the 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan, in office since 11 April 2022. He is the current president of ...

’s tenure. 155 singers, 48 musicians and 6 bandmasters participated in the re-recording, it wa
released
on 14 August, 2022.

Music

The "Qaumī Tarānah" is a rendering of a three-stanza composition with a tune based on eastern music but arranged in such a manner that it can be easily played by foreign bands. The music, composed by the Pakistani musician and composer, Ahmad G. Chagla in 1949, reflects his background in both eastern and western music. Typically twenty-one musical instruments and thirty-eight different tones are used to play the "Qaumī Tarānah", the duration of which is usually around 80 seconds.

Lyrics

The lyrics which are in classical Urdu are written by the Pakistani Urdu-language poet Hafeez Jalandhari in 1952. Each word of the anthem was carefully picked to make sure it was a valid Urdu word and it cohered with the tune of the anthem. Most words of the anthem have commonality with the

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken an ...

,rendering them

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as a ...

in both Urdu and Persian. No verse in the three stanza lyrics is repeated. The lyrics have heavy Persian poetic vocabulary, and only use one exclusively Urdu word, "kā".

Urdu official

English translation

Milestones

* 1947 – The new state of Pakistan came into being on 14 August. * 1949 – Music for the "Qaumī Tarānah" is composed by the Pakistani musical composer, Ahmad G. Chagla (running time: 80 seconds). * 1950 – anthem, without lyrics, was performed for the first time for a foreign head of state on the state visit of the Shah of Iran to Pakistan in Karachi on 1 March 1950 by a Pakistan Navy band. * 1952 – Verses were written by the Pakistani poet, Hafeez Jullundhri, are selected from amongst 723 entries. * 1954 – Officially adopted as the national anthem and broadcast for the first time on Radio Pakistan on 13 August * 1955 – Sung by 11 famous Pakistani singers including Ahmad Rushdi, Shamim Bano, Kokab Jehan, Rasheeda Begum, Najam Ara, Naseema Shaheen, Zwar Hussain, Akhtar Abbas, Ghulam Dastgir, Anwar Zaheer, and Akhtar Wassi * 1996 – Rendered in electric guitar for the first time by Pakistani rock band Junoon in their album '' Inqilaab'' * 2009 – Rendered as an acoustic instrumental for the first time by Pakistani musician

Jehangir Aziz Hayat Jehangir Aziz Hayat ( ur, جہانگیر عزیز حیات, Jehāngīr Azīz Hayāt) (born 5 June 1989), also known simply as Jehangir Aziz, is a Pakistani singer, guitarist and composer.Hafeez, Zara (16 March 2014)."New age musicians: Rock on" ...

* 2011 – On 14 August, 5,857 people gathered in a stadium in

to sing the "Qaumī Tarānah" and set a new world record for most people gathered to sing a national anthem simultaneously. * 2012 – On 20 October, 70,000 people gathered in a stadium in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th List of largest cities, most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is th ...

to sing the ''Qaumee Taraanah'' and set a new world record for most people gathered to sing a national anthem simultaneously, which was certified by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. * 2017 – ''Coke Studio'' released a collaborative rendition of "Qaumī Tarānah" on 4 August by the featured artistes, to celebrate the 70 years of Pakistan in the tenth season. * 2022 – The anthem was re-recorded with modern instruments and in a higher quality. It was released on Pakistan’s 75th Independence Day.

Notes

References

External links

Pak Sar Zameen Shad Bad Lyrics

Pakistan: "Qaumī Tarānah" – Audio of the national anthem of Pakistan, with information and lyricsarchive link
*
National Anthem of Pakistan

Pakistan National Songs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Qaumi Taranah National anthems National symbols of Pakistan Pakistani music Pakistan national anthems National anthem compositions in B-flat major National anthem compositions in C-sharp major