Almost 60 people turned out at Tom Davies Square on Sunday morning for a ceremony officially marking the day Pakistan became a country.
There are more than 40 families in Sudbury who are of Pakistani heritage.
It was on Aug. 14, 1947, that the nation formally became independent, with the former imperial rule by Britain coming to and end. India and Pakistan emerged as separate nations, but not before a brutal migration of people between the two nations.
It's “a story of the largest ever migration from one part of the country to the other in the realm of the world history,” said Qazi M. Haque, President of the Pakistan Canada Cultural Society of Sudbury, in his remarks Sunday.
“It also surpassed all records of killings and commission of offences -- sexual or otherwise -- by one community against the other.”
Despite a difficult beginning, Pakistan has emerged has a proud and independent country.
Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh was on hand representing the city at Sunday's ceremony, where a proclamation was read declaring Aug. 14 as Pakistan Independence Day in Greater Sudbury.
