Today Is March 23

Pakistan Day, also Republic Day, is a national holiday in Pakistan commemorating the Lahore Resolution passed on March 23, 1940 and the adoption of the first constitution of Pakistan during the transition of the Dominion of Pakistan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on March 23, 1956.

Flag of Pakistan

Choudhry Rahmat Ali published a pamphlet entitled Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever? on January 28, 1933 while a student at Cambridge University's Emmanuel College. It was from Ali's small backstreet house, 3 Humberstone Road, Cambridge that he called for the creation of a Muslim state in northwest India that the young student termed "Pakstan" (without the letter "i").

“Pak” means spiritually pure in Urdu and “Stan” means land. The name coined by Ali was accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.

The Muslim League slowly rose to mass popularity in the 1930s thanks to fears of under-representation and neglect of Muslims in politics. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, greatly espoused the two-nation theory and led the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolution of 1940, popularly known as the Pakistan Resolution.

As the United Kingdom agreed upon partitioning of the Indian empire of British Raj, the modern state of Pakistan was established on August 14, 1947.

Queen Elizabeth II ended her role as monarch of Pakistan on March 23, 1956, when it became the first country in the world to declare itself an Islamic Republic.