Pakistan

Context

The music was composed by Ahmed Ghulamali Chagla and was approved in 1954. The lyrics by Hafeez Jalandhari were officially adopted later. Notably, the anthem was performed instrumentally for seven years after independence before official lyrics were finalized. The anthem is in Urdu, though its vocabulary draws heavily from Persian.

Lyrics

Interesting facts

• • Pakistan used the anthem without lyrics for its first seven years (1947-1954), performing only the instrumental version at official events
• • The anthem is only 80 seconds long, making it one of the shortest national anthems in the world
• • Despite being written in Urdu, the anthem uses heavily Persianized vocabulary, with almost no words from everyday Urdu speech

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