Celebrating Pakistan’s Quarter-Final Win

Pakistan Celebrating

KARACHI: The Pakistani nation celebrated their team's victory in the World Cup quarterfinal on Wednesday in a no-holds manner with the city of Karachi reverberating with the sound of aerial gunshots as soon as Pakistan scored the winning runs against the West Indies.

In Karachi

Young boys and girls, families and senior citizens were seen streaming out on to the streets to join in the wave of celebrations with the sound of firing and car horns honking creating a festive atmosphere.

Image

"It is after a long time that we as a nation have something to celebrate about and I think these celebrations indicate just how frustrated we have been as a nation in recent times due to the manifold problems we face," a senior banker and cricket fan, Azam Khan said as he joined in the celebrations with his two wife and two daughters in Gulshan-e-Iqbal town.

Picture

Teenagers wearing Pakistan team shirts or green T-shirts flowed out on the streets and danced to Bhangra beats screaming "The World Cup is ours," and " India here we come."

Celebration

Momina Khatoon, a housewife joining in the celebration with her grandchildren said she was proud of being a Pakistani. "Our team has made us proud I pray they return home with the cup," she said.

Pakistan Winning Celebration

Television channels showed similar celebration parades and dancing from other cities as since afternoon the roads remained largely deserted and many markets remained closed because of the match.

CELEBRATION

"Today is Pakistan day and the team could not have given us a better gift on this occasion," said student Faiza.

Because of Pakistan day, the government had declared a public holiday allowing people to watch the match properly while leading hotels, clubs and restaurants had also made special arrangements to show the match on big screens drawing big crowds.

Pakistan's politicians also joined in the celebrations sending out messages of congratulations and taking advantage of the victory with patriotic speeches on television channels.Pakistan's former President, Pervez Musharraf also congratulated the Pakistan team players saying they had made the nation proud but the final word came from cricketer-turned politician, Imran Khan.