Celebrating Independence Day in San Francisco

Once again the cars filled with their families came to San Francisco for the Aug. 14 event from surrounding cities, including Live Oak, Yuba City, Woodland, Davis, Sacramento, Lodi, Stockton, and even as far as Fresno. Add to that the Pakistani “locals” from Silicon Valley and the rest of the Bay and there you had a sea of green and white in the land of the red, white and blue.

This reporter arrived just in time to hear event emcee Anis Karim announce the rendition of Allama Iqbal’s “Lab pe aati hai dua” (A prayer comes to the lips) by a group of children dressed in Pakistani colors. A subsequent prayer call preceded the arrival on stage of Qari Bashir Sialvi of Sacramento who gave a fine speech in Urdu…