On 14 August 1947, as the clock struck midnight, the air in newly born Pakistan was charged with a single electrifying word-Azadi. For millions, it was more than a political term; it was a lived feeling of freedom from colonial slavery, a promise of dignity, and the dawn of self-determination.

In his address to the Constituent Assembly, Muhammad Ali Jinnah did not use Azadi as a mere slogan; he embodied it in phrases like, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques You may belong to any religion or caste or creed-that has nothing to do with the business of the State.” In the newspapers of the time, Azadi was framed in celebratory headlines: “Pakistan Is Born-Nation Greets Freedom,” “A Dream Realised,” “New Dawn for Muslims of the Subcontinent.” The lexicon of 1947 was one of unity-our Azadi, our struggle, our future. There was little ambiguity in its meaning.

This Independence Day, perhaps our task is not to declare that we are Azad, but to ask, with honesty and urgency: What would it take for that to be true?

Seventy-eight years later, the meaning of the word, Azadi, has become more complicated and more fractured. We have a flag, a military, a parliament, and borders, but can we honestly say we are Azad when our national budget is negotiated in Washington and our economic survival depends on the “benchmarks” set by the IMF? The promise of Azadi has collided with the reality of economic dependency. The World Bank’s development projects........

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