The Little Dragon of Pakistan: On this day in 1965, PAF Pilot M M Alam made history by downing five Indian aircrafts in less than a minute. First four of those were shot down within a span of just thirty-seconds. Overall, he downed nine and damaged two. He was awarded Sitar-e-Jurat twice for his exceptional flying skills and valour during the air combat. Photo: A scene inside a field air ops room during the Indo-Pak War 1965. Squadron Leader M M Alam is seen in the centre. — Dawn File Photo

Shashi Kapoor and Christopher Lee during the shooting of the film Jinnah at Dhabeji, outside Karachi, 1997. Credits: Arif Mahmood/White Star (Dawn)

Veteran PMLN politician Muhammad Hamza passed away on Sunday in Gojra. He was among the close aides of Ms. Fatima Jinnah and one of the few West Pakistan Assembly members who was quite vocal against General Ayub Khan while speaking on the assembly floor. Despite his criticism of Prime minister Sharif's second tenure, he stood by him when General Musharaf toppled the elected government. Muhammad Hamza was elected twice as the member of legislative assembly of West Pakistan, four times as MNA of Pakistan, and one time as the Senator. When amendment to add death penalty in Section 295-C of Penal Code (anti-blasphemy law) was proposed in 1986, he was the only one who opposed the amendment on the assembly floor. Muhammad Hamza, while conceding that a law may be required, objected that the legislation was being passed with undue haste. He argued that such an important law required greater deliberation, public consultation and careful review, as the tabled draft seemed to be vague and easy to misuse. In a country already blighted by sectarian conflict where accusations of kufr and blasphemy were too easily made, such a law, he suggested, would be misused by irresponsible people. The legislation required considered reflection, he said, otherwise it might pass a law that would “make a mockery of ourselves in the world”. When his suggestion to postpone the session to a later date was denied, he requested the Speaker to at least adjourn the session for few hours so that in the meantime all members can consult lawyers, relevant experts, religious scholars, politicians etc. for a comprehensive review of the proposed amendment. However, his lone voice was quickly drowned out by upwelling emotion in the assembly. One of the member, Nisar Fatima, warned that National Assembly would invite wrath on itself if it did not pass this law immediately. Faced with agitated emotions, the amendment was made part of PPC's Section 295-C. Source: A brief history of anti-blasphemy laws by Asad Ahmed, Herald Dawn; Hamza to retire from senate, The Nation.

Photo: Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani presenting first ever National Youth Peace Prize to a 14 year old Malala Yousufzai for her defiance of Taliban in Swat, 2011. At the age of only 11 years, Malala started maintaining a diary for BBC about living under Taliban's threats and influence. She became the first Pakistani child to be nominated for International Children's Peace Prize. Although, she did not win the award, but her efforts were recognised by Prime minister Gilani through the National Youth Peace Prize. The award was also renamed to National Malala Peace Prize. Almost a year later on 9th October 2012, Malala Yousufzai was shot by Taliban while heading home from school. Huge support started to pour in from all across the globe in recognition of her voice for girls' education despite life threats and insurgency in Swat. She was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad praying at Quaid-e-Azam's grave - Karachi, 1951.

“God is great” – Mujahideen propaganda poster from the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-89) showing a sword-wielding mujahid slicing up a hammer and sickle.⁣ ⁣ Such posters were mostly printed by and in the US, distributed in Pakistan to recruit freedom fighters, to fight the US war against Soviets in Afghanistan, aided by the military dictator General Zia ul Haq. "The mujahideen operated an Educational Center for Afghanistan during the 1980s. Pervez ‎Hoodbhoy gives the following examples from children's textbooks designed for it by the University of Nebraska ‎under a $50 million USAID grant that ran from September 1986 through June 1994. A third-grade mathematics textbook asks: "One group of mujahideen attack 50 Russian soldiers. In that attack 20 Russians were killed. How ‎many Russians fled?" A fourth-grade textbook ups the ante: "The speed of a Kalashnikov [the ubiquitous Soviet-‎made semi automatic machine gun] bullet is ‎800 meters per second. If a Russian is at a distance of 3200 meters from a mujahid, and that mujahid aims at the Russian's head, calculate how many seconds it will take for the bullet to strike the Russian in the forehead." ⁣ --Mahmoud Mamdani, Good Muslims, Bad Muslim

Quaid-e-Azam on Time Magazine's cover page dated 22nd April, 1946. The caption says: "Mohamed Ali Jinnah, His Muslim tiger wants to eat the Hindu cow.” On 24th June, 1946, the editor of the Time magazine wrote a letter to Mohammad Ali Jinnah enclosing the same cover page and requested an autograph of Jinnah on it. Jinnah declined to sign the cover page and wrote back to him: “As I think the description ‘Mohamed Ali Jinnah, His Muslim tiger wants to eat the Hindu cow’ is offensive to the sentiments of the Hindu community, I cannot put my autograph on the cover page of the Time magazine as requested by you. But I am sending my autograph on a separate paper since you are very keen about it." Source: Jinnah Papers (Credits: @_merajhasan, twitter)

Photo: The wreckage of Pak-1(General Zia's plane) a few miles from the Bahawalpur airfield. On this day in 1988, General Zia Ul Haq's, Pakistan's President and Army Chief, plane crashed near Sultej river. Total 31 people were on the plane, including Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Akhtar Abdur Rahman, Chief of General Staff Mohammed Afzaal, the American ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel and senior US military attaché Brig Gen Herbert M. Wassom. Only about 30 pages of a 365 pages long report were released to the public. The report concluded: “In the absence of a technical reason, the only other possible cause of the accident is the occurrence of a criminal act or sabotage." Later in 1992, on the behest of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Shafiqur Rehman Comission was formed to investigate the incident. However, the findings were never released to the public. Source: Mystery still surrounds General Zia's death, 30 years on by Naziha Syed Ali, Dawn. Photo Credits: White Star

Photo 1: Some of the suggested designs for Pakistan's national flag. Photo 2: Liaquat Ali Khan waving Pakistan's national flag for the first time. Coloured Photo Credits: @rangeen.pakistan In 1947, as the momentous occasion of the birth of Pakistan was approaching, many passionate and enthusiastic people sent letters with their designs for the flag to Quaid-e-Azam, explaining the meaning and significance of symbols, shades, colors used. Among those, there was a schoolboy named Syed Tehseen Ali Shah who sent a number of flag designs along with a note praying to Allah to bless the younger generation forever with the guiding light of Quaid-e-Azam. First five designs in the picture are from him. Sixth design in the picture was sent from someone named George D’ Castellas, he explained in the letter that three sides of the triangle represent religion, art and science; and as well as three great religions, Islam, Hinduism and Christianity. Further, white triangle looming up from a dark green background represents the purity of all the assurances which Pakistan offers its subjects irrespective of caste, colour, creed, majority, or minority. Next three designs in the picture were sent by N.C. Nag, whose signature introduces him as Proprietor of Narala Art Services. Other six resembling the Algerian national flag were sent by A.M.A Siddiqui. Apart from these designs, one interesting submission was from M. Ismail Khuraishy, who suggested a rainbow color flag with a crescent on it. He explained that both rainbow and crescent symbolize goodness and are signs of God. He added that different colors of rainbow represent several communities inhabiting Pakistan, whereas crescent is the symbol of Islam which stands for peace, progress, and prosperity. Nevertheless, the flag we see today was designed by Syed Amir-uddin-Kedwaii and it was adopted by the Pakistan Constituent Assembly on 11th August 1947. The flag was similar to the League's flag, but with an addition of white vertical bar representing minorities of Pakistan. May the Parcham-e-Sitar-o-Hilal always fly high. Happy Independence Day! 🇵🇰 Source: Jinnah Papers (ZH Zaidi)

Peace followed by a mysterious death: Picture: Soviet Union's Premier Alexei Kosygin and President Ayub carrying the coffin of Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Tashkent, 1966. On 10th January 1966, Pakistan and India signed a peace agreement moderated by Soviet Union in Tashkent to put an end to 1965 Indo-Pak war. However, just one day after signing of the agreement, Prime Minister Shastri passed away in Tashkent. His unexpected and untimely death raised suspicions among his family members and followers in India, which inevitably gave rise to several conspiracy theories. While Government of India declared cardiac arrest to be the cause of death, Lalita Shastri, Shastri's wife, maintained till her death that her husband was poisoned. In response to RTI (Right to Information) query in 2009, filed by Anuj Dhar, an Indian author and former journalist, India's Prime Minister Office said it had one document relating to Shastri's death but refused to declassify it citing exemption from disclosure on the plea that it could harm foreign relations, cause disruption in the country and cause breach in parliamentary privileges. To this day, death of India's Primer Minister remains to be a mystery. Source: Times of India

A Bishop who gave his life in protest against Pakistan's blasphemy laws and its abuse: John Joseph was born in Khsushpur in 1932. He was appointed as Bishop of Faisalabad in 1984, a position which he held until his tragic suicide. On 6th May 1998, Bishop Dr. John Joseph shot himself in Sahiwal Court in protest against the death sentence of Ayub Masih, a Christian, on blasphemy charges. Bishop insisted that Ayub Masih was falsely accused by his neighbours who wanted to steal his property. Bishop Joseph's suicide note read: “I shall count myself extremely fortunate if in this mission of breaking the barriers, our Lord accepts the sacrifice of my blood for the benefit of his people.” Four years later, Supreme Court acquitted Ayub Masih, overturning the decision of Session Court and High Court. It was brought on the record of the court that soon after the arrest of Ayub Masih, the complainant, Mohammad Akram, forcibly occupied his house and filed an application to the Director of Colonies, Punjab, for the allotment of the plot to him. The plot was allotted accordingly and the piece of land was also transferred to the complainant. The patwari of the area also confirmed that the land was transferred to Mohammad Akram. Before Ayub Masih's case, Bishop Joseph also fought for the cause of a fourteen years old, Salamat Masih and his uncles, Manzoor Masih and Rehmat Masih. All were accused of blasphemy. Manzoor was shot dead in April 1994 as he was exiting a hearing and other two accused got injured. Later in February 1995, both of them were sentenced to death by the Session Court, but Lahore High Court overturned the decision and acquitted both the accused. However, two years later in 1997, Justice Arif Iqbal Hussain Bhatti, who was on the bench of this case, was assassinated in his chambers at Lahore High Court. Picture 1: Bishop Joseph delivering a speech while holding a Christian cross. A black cloth around his right shoulder can be seen. Picture 2: Relatives of Ayub Masih paying their last respects to Bishop Jon Joseph. Photo Credit: AFP. Sources: High profile blasphemy cases in last 63 years, Dawn 2010; SC acquits blasphemy accused, Dawn, 2002.

A Dalit Hindu who believed in Jinnah's Pakistan: Jogendras Nath Mandal belonged to the lowest caste of Hindu religious hierarchy, also known as Dalits or Untouchables. On 10th of August 1947, Pakistan Constituent Assembly held its first inaugural session, where they elected J.N. Mandal as its temporary chairman. Loud cheers filled the chambers as the non-Muslim leader from East Pakistan came forward to sign the roll as founder member. He also had the honour to preside over the historic session of 11th August 1947, in which Jinnah was elected unanimously as the President. He was among the few non-Muslim members who defended and supported the resolution to award the title of 'Quaid-e-Azam' to Jinnah. Mandal was also one of the five members chosen by Quaid himself to represent Muslim League in the interim government set up after the elections of 1946. Earlier, he cooperated with Huq's ministry in Bengal and later helped Nazimuddin form the ministry in April 1943 with the support of 21 scheduled caste members after the fallout between Huq and Jinnah. Post independence, he served as Pakistan's first minister for law and labour. However, things took a turn for worse after the death of Jinnah. Consequently, on 8th October 1950, he submitted his heartfelt and detailed resignation letter to then Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. He mentioned anti-Hindu bias in administration, dissmal future of Hindus, unfulfilled promises, horrifics of 1950 riots, forced conversions in Sindh and several other reasons for his resignation. He wrote that Scheduled Castes have not received their fair share after the death of Quaid and pledges made are being flagrantly violated in complete disregard of Quaid's wishes. Further, Pir Ali Mohammed Rashidi states in his book Rodaad-i-Chaman that Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, cabinet secretary, became doubtful of Mandal's patriotism and tried to keep many cabinet documents away from the Law Minister. It was too much for Mandal. His pride was hurt. Betrayed and unwanted, he left Pakistan for Calcutta where he died in 1968. On Jinnah's death in 1948, he said: "Fate has ruthlessly taken Quaid-e-Azam from us at a time when he was most needed."