Pakistan, Sept. 27 -- I am Pakistan. I was born on a humid August night in 1947, after a long and painful struggle in which millions sacrificed their homes, possessions, honour and, above all, their lives. I did not come into this world as an ordinary state. I was carved out of a dream, watered with tears and blood, and entrusted to a people who had promised to make me a homeland where they could live with dignity, faith and freedom.

I still remember those first days. I was young, fragile and surrounded by uncertainty. Millions crossed borders carrying little more than memories, prayers and the hope of a better tomorrow. Trains arrived filled with refugees, and some arrived carrying only the dead. I watched mothers searching for children...