Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The State Emblem of Pakistan and the need for change



Sometimes while conducting my training sessions, I ask people if they know what does the following symbol mean.  

      

 
Surprisingly majority doesn’t even have any clue about it and the best answer that I get is “This is the Government of Pakistan Sign”. This disappoints me a lot that people even don’t know about our state emblem. This has led me to write about the significance of the sign that goes on all official Government of Pakistan correspondences, documentation, and your NICs & passports.       

 

        

         
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* The State Emblem of Pakistan was adopted in 1954.  The emblem's green colour and the star and crescent at the top are symbols of Islam, the religion with which most Pakistani citizens identify.
* In the center is a quartered shield, with each quarter containing a major crop of Pakistan at the time of its adoption: cotton, jute, tea, and wheat.
* The floral wreath around the shield is Poet's Jasmine (the national flower) and represents the Mughal cultural heritage of Pakistan.
* The scroll at the bottom contains the national motto in Urdu, coined by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which reads from right to left: (Urdu: اتحاد ، ایمان ، نظم) Ittehad, Iman, Nazm translated as "Unity, Faith, Discipline".
   

    (All the readers should write very frankly in the comments that how many of you earlier knew about this design philosophy)

     

    The Need for Change  

    The two crops (Jute and Tea) are no longer Pakistan’s major crop after the separation of East Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh. To me its like not accepting the formation of Bangladesh. Thus, we should replace them with the current major crops of the country. I won’t comment on the “Unity, Faith, Discipline” motto for the very obvious reasons.

    Posted in | 3 Comments »

    3 comments:

    Unknown said... @ November 18, 2009 at 3:14 PM

    I really don't know about this before, nice work.

    Furqan said... @ November 18, 2009 at 3:36 PM

    i didnt know it in detail

    thanks for the info :)

    buttista said... @ December 11, 2009 at 4:22 PM

    lol i didnt knew abt the details too but after reading it feels like if i had just concentrated a lil bit it would not be that hard :D

    btw nice work :P

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