ISLAMABAD: After a 7 year gap, Pakistan Day will be celebrated on 23 March with a joint military parade of Pakistan’s armed forces and it is likely that Chinese President Xi Jinping could attend as chief guest. Chinese authorities have reportedly been assured maximum security during the high-profile visit and both countries are working out details of the visit through diplomatic channels.
The last military parade in the country took place on March 23, 2008 during the tenure of Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf as a civilian president.
Dawn quotes sources in the military and diplomatic services to say that 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.
According to the report, the parade will be organised by joint staff headquarters in Rawalpindi, which oversees the three armed forces of Pakistan. The venue for the parade is yet to be finalised, with two vast compounds shortlisted as potential sites.
Due to security reasons, the military parade was canceled for the sixth time in a row, last year.
Defence sources had said in 2014 that The joint military parade has been cancelled due to security reason and deployment of troops at western borders engaged in the war against terrorism.
The daily reports that the decision to resume the military parade after seven years appears to reflect the militarys need to show its strength in the wake of the shocking attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar last year, which left over a hundred dead- mostly schoolchildren.
Observers are also likely to comment on the similarity between the proposed event and the just concluded Republic Day celebrations in India where Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited US President Barack Obama to attend as chief guest. That Pakistan should invite the President of China- Xi Jinping, could well be read as a tit-for-tat show of strength by Pakistan, which China has always described as an all-weather-friend in the emerging world order. Interestingly, Mr Modi is scheduled to visit China a couple of months later in May, around the time he celebrates one year as Indias PM.
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