Official recognition to the national anthem, however, was not given until August 1954. It was played before the NAC on 10 August 1950. It was later played for Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan during his official visit to the United States on. The anthem, without lyrics, was performed for the first time for a foreign head of state on the state visit of the Shah of Iran to Pakistan in Karachi on 1 March 1950 by a Pakistan Navy band. On 21 August 1950, the Government of Pakistan adopted Chagla's tune for the national anthem. Chagla and submitted it for formal approval. The NAC also examined several different tunes and eventually selected the one presented by Ahmed G. The NAC chairman, then Federal Minister for Education, Fazlur Rahman, asked several poets and composers to write lyrics but none of the submitted works were deemed suitable. In 1950, the impending state visit of the Shah of Iran added urgency to the matter and resulted in the government of Pakistan asking the NAC to submit a state anthem without further delay.

When President Sukarno of Indonesia became the first foreign head of state to visit Pakistan on 30 January 1950, there was no Pakistani national anthem to be played. The NAC encountered early difficulties in finding suitable music and lyrics. The NAC was initially chaired by the Information Secretary, Sheikh Muhammad Ikram, and its members included several politicians, poets and musicians, including Abdur Rab Nishtar, Ahmad G. In December 1948, the Government of Pakistan established the National Anthem Committee (NAC) with the task of coming up with the composition and lyrics for the official national anthem of Pakistan. The prizes were announced through a government press advertisement published in June 1948. Ghani, a Muslim from South Africa's Transvaal, offered two prizes of five thousand rupees each for the poet and composer of a new national anthem for the newly independent state of Pakistan. Ahmed Rushdi recorded the National Anthem of Pakistan in 1954.

Pakistan qaumi tarana in urdo