Dallas Pakistanis to Mark “Marka-e-Haq” Victory Day on May 4, Governor of Sindh to Attend
By Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada
DALLAS: The Pakistani community in North Texas has begun preparations for a series of commemorations under the banner “Marka-e-Haq Pakistan — Victory Day Celebrations,” with two formal events scheduled in the Dallas area in the coming weeks. The first will be hosted on May 4 by the prominent industrialist Hafeez Khan, and the second on May 10 by the organization Rising Pakistan. Together, the gatherings are expected to bring together a substantial cross-section of Pakistani Americans and to underscore, in the organizers’ framing, the patriotic sentiment that continues to bind the diaspora to its country of origin.
The first of the two events, scheduled for May 4, 2026, is being organized as a dignified evening intended to honor what its organizers describe as a moment of national achievement for Pakistan, and to invite reflection on the broader currents of national unity and pride that the occasion is meant to evoke. A significant turnout from across the Pakistani American community in the United States is anticipated, and the program has been positioned not only as a commemoration but also as a public expression of identity for a diaspora that remains closely engaged with developments in its homeland.
The chief guest for the May 4th program will be Syed Nehal Hashmi, the Governor of Sindh, while the guest of honor will be Syed Qamar Raza, Chairman of the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation. Abdul Hafeez Khan, the industrialist hosting the gathering, will serve as its formal host. The presence of such figures, organizers say, is intended to give the evening both political weight and the kind of stature appropriate to a commemoration of national significance.
The event will be held in Dallas, beginning at 6:00 p.m. Attendance, organizers have emphasized, will be strictly by invitation, in keeping with the formal character of the evening and the stature of the dignitaries expected to be present. According to the organizing committee, the choice of date and setting carries deliberate symbolic weight, with the gathering meant to recall a moment when, as organizers put it, the Pakistani nation and its armed forces stood with their heads held high, responded firmly to those who challenged them, and demonstrated the depth of their resolve and the strength of their collective will.
Beyond the ceremonial dimensions of the evening, the organizers have framed the event as something more lasting in purpose — an opportunity to bring younger members of the diaspora into closer contact with their inherited history, with the sacrifices that earlier generations made, and with the sense of national feeling that, in the view of community leaders, can sometimes thin across distance and across generations. Prominent members of the Dallas community have been invited to attend, with the aim, organizers say, of marking the day in a manner befitting its significance.
Members of the host committee — Ghazala Habib, Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada, and Iftikhar Darpan — have been designated as the points of contact for those wishing to confirm their attendance and secure their invitations.
The program is expected to close, organizers said, with chants of “Pakistan Zindabad” — long live Pakistan — a closing meant to reinforce the themes of unity and national pride around which the evening has been constructed. For many of those who will gather at the DoubleTree Hotel on the evening of May 4, the event will represent not only a commemoration of a moment in Pakistan’s recent history, but a deliberate and visible affirmation of belonging — a reminder that the bonds of identity, for the Pakistani diaspora in America, remain very much alive.
