By Afshain Afzal
Sri Lanka is celebrating 74th National Independence Day on 4 February 2022. Beside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa other important digitanaries would would participate included Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army, General Shavendra Silva, Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne, Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force, Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana, Major General Ranjan Lamahewage (Retd), Director General, Civil Security Department and Major General P.W.B Jayasundara (Retd), Director of National Cadet Corps, Advisors, Secretaries, Governors, Ministers, Diplomats, Chief of Defence Staff, Tri service Commanders, Inspector General of Police and others. On the occasion, a number of prisoners will receive a special presidential pardon and other welfare incentives will be announced.
Sri Lanka was always a peaceful Kingdom comprising of Buddhists and Muslims, However, Europeans invaded the country and Portuguese were in the 16th century. The island was partitioned into seven conflicting kingdoms and to divide and rule and make the local population enemy of each other. After gaining the control, Portuguese forced the Buddhist and Muslim majority to convert to Christianity which gave birth to hatred against various religions. The Portuguese and later Dutch in order to further make the situation volatile and complex, immigrated Hindus from Indian states to create a balance in religion, especially Muslims, and Buddhists. The British eventually took control of the coastal areas in 1796 and named it Ceylon. By 1815, the British brought the entire island under their rule and made the majority population into an amalgam of diversified religions. The Sri Lankan gained independence from British invasion on 4th February,1948 and Christian ruler Don Stephen Senanayake became its first Prime Minister. On 22 May, 1972 Ceylon was renamed as Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has relations with present day Pakistan since centuries. In fact, Islam was there is Sri Lanka and adjoining States since the time of prophet Muhammad Alhe Salam (Sal Allah Ho Alhe Wasalam). Pakistan consider the people of Sri lanka as their brothers and sisters. Pakistan has Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with Sri Lanka but the volume of trade is not that impressive. The people of Pakistan as well as that of the Sri Lanka desire to enhance this relationship. In February 2022, the Pakistani Prime Minister and other important dignitaries visited Sri lanka. During the visit, both states agreed to further enhance bilateral relations through investment, trade, technology, science, tourism and culture and agreed to boost connectivity and in this regard they signed a number of Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) pertaining to these areas of mutual interests including tourism, Boards of Investment, cooperation between Sri Lanka’s Industrial Technology Institute and Karachi University’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences, cooperation between Industrial Technology Institute and Comsats University Islamabad.and University of Colombo and Lahore School of Economics. Pakistan has also announced 100 scholarships for Sri Lankan students as part of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Higher Education Cooperation Programme.
The commemoration of the 74th National Independence Day on the theme “Abhiyoga Jayagath Asirimath Heta Dinak Sawubhagyamath Mawubimak” (An affluent tomorrow and prosperous motherland with challenges overcome) at Independence Square. The theme affluent and prosperous tomorrow is an avenue which both countries must take benefit by enhancing Pakistan-Sri Lanka relations and give boost to religious, cultural traditional links, defense cooperation, and economic activities. The people and the government of Pakistan pray for a prosperous and strong Sri Lanka.