LAHORE - The enthusiastic youth of the Punjab broke the mass singing of the national anthem record here at the National Hockey Stadium on Saturday when Adjudicators of Guinness World Records (GWR) announced the attempt officially successful.
It was a remarkable moment when GRW adjudicators Gareth Daeves and Imran Javed gave thumb up to the Punjab youth’s attempt, boosting their fervour and making them to raise slogans ‘Pakistan Zindaabad’.
With this attempt, Pakistan broke the Indian record of maximum masses singing national anthem which the Indians had set with a gathering of around 15,000 people. Now Pakistan’s name will be written in the 2013 Guinness Book of World Record – a great achievement of Pakistani youth and a great honour for its inhabitants.
The record breaking attempt was closely watched and observed by the representatives GWR as they witnessed over 42, 813 participants singing the national anthem of Pakistan. As many as 15 cameras were installed at various places to see the record attempt closely.
Sahir Lodhi and Naeem Hanif were the two persons on the stage who boosted the zeal of jam-packed crowd and readied them to sing the national anthem with their heart and soul to get it registered in the Guinness Book of World Record.
Earlier, the participants of the Punjab Youth Festival 2012 gave an awesome performance during the opening ceremony to mark the start of the provincial level gala. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was the chief guest at the opening ceremony who declared it open.
The ceremony began with the recitation of the Holy Quran and Naat. Then a documentary of the festival was shown to the audience. Torch Rally was carried out afterwards and Rabia Nawaz, M Asif, Sahib Asra, Adil Haseeb, Frawa Babar, Waqas Akbar, Zeeshan Abid, M Babar and M Akram took the torch to the cauldron and national hockey star Rehan Butt lit it. Then came the folk dance, gymnastic show and march past of nine divisions of Punjab.
At the anthem record was set, CM Shabaz Sharif told the gathering that he had never seen such moments in his entire life. “The people of Punjab despite several odds, including the loadshedding, have shown great strength and they enjoyed the evening with zeal and zest.”
He said he hoped the youngsters of his province would make ‘Ali Baba and Chalis Chor’ run away from the country and they would play their active role in not only making it a developed and prosperous country but also earning it a good name and fame,” the CM said.
Looking to be in a good mood, the CM also sang popular Urdu song ‘Akalay na jana hamay chor kar tum…”, which was appreciated a lot by the zealous audience. Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan and Haroon Ahmed Khan were also present to see the enthusiasm of the youth.
Director General Sports and Youth Affairs Usman Anwar was the one who utilising all his energies inspired his team to fulfil this Youth Festival dream of Punjab chief minister and his teammates said he was still striving hard to make it a success and the best productive event to help in hunting talented and brilliant youth eager to do something good for their country.
Usman Anwar is being guided and supervised by Punjab Sports Board Chairman Mian Hamza Shahbaz and Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, who is also the chairman of the organising committee of the festival.
Punjab has done a superb job by making the country’s name written in the Guinness World Record Book. Now the festival will move towards individual events of GWR today (Sunday) at the Expo Centre and tomorrow (Monday), the attempt of the largest mosaic and the biggest human flag will be made by the youth.
Later, talking to the media, Guinness World Records Adjudicator Gareth Daeves officially announced Pakistan as Guinness World Record holder with 42,813 participants recorded singing national anthem of the country.
Talking to media here at the National Hockey Stadium, Gareth felicitated the entire nation for this great achievement. “Pakistan has broken the Indian record of 15,243 masses singing the national anthem of India and now Pakistan with the participation 42,813 people singing national anthem of the country registered a new record for which I would like to congratulate the entire Pakistani nation.”
The GWR representative then presented the certificate jointly to Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Rana Mashood Ahmad and Sports Board DG Usman Anwar and wished them good luck for the upcoming record breaking attempts.
Rana Mashhood on the occasion said: “With the unity and hard work, we have broken the record and gave a message to the entire world that our youth is capable enough to achieve the task whatever it will be assigned... We are ready to break 45 more records and I am hopeful we will break the maximum and prove the world that there is no dearth of talent and brilliance in the country and its youth.”