Pakistanis came onto the streets, draped in their national flag, to celebrate their cricket team’s win against India in the Champions Trophy finals held on Sunday.
Fireworks and gunfire echoed as young men danced to the beat of drums across major cities.
The stunning turnaround in form of Pakistan, which was thrashed by India in their opening game of the tournament and largely written off, has gripped the nation of 190 million people.
55-year-old Haris Ali who works as a stock broker in the coastal metropolis of Karachi was extremely happy.
I was not expecting that Pakistan will win the match, it was an unbelievable turnaround.Haris Ali
I’m so excited Allah has answered our prayers.Nek Amal Khan, a 42-year-old street vendor in Peshawar
In the western city of Quetta, thousands chanted "Pakistan Zindabad" while vendors distributed sweets. "I'm so happy," said Babar Khan, selling mangoes out of a pushcart.
Considering the nature of relations between India and Pakistan, a loss is often more bitter than losing from another team, for the people.
"I would have had no regrets had Pakistan lost to other teams, but it would have hurt me and the entire nation had the Indians defeated us," said university student Nauman Khan, 28, in Peshawar.
"The country needed this victory at a time when everything has been going wrong for so many years," said Yasser Latif Hamdani, a lawyer who hosted a screening in his home in a well-heeled area of Pakistan's capital Islamabad.
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