Pakistan: Difference between revisions
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=== Sports === |
=== Sports === |
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Field Hockey is the national game of Pakistan but the most popular sport in Pakistan is [[cricket]]. Pakistan has produced several of the best batsmen and bowlers in the world, including [[Imran Khan]], [[Wasim Akram]], [[Waqar Younis]], [[Javed Miandad]] and [[Inzamam-ul-Haq]]. Almost every district and neighborhood in Pakistan has its cricket team and most people start playing from a young age. Pakistan has won some international cricket events, including the [[Cricket World Cup|World Cup]] in [[1992]]. |
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Other popular participatory and spectator sports in Pakistan include: |
Other popular participatory and spectator sports in Pakistan include: |
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Revision as of 18:04, 17 January 2006
- See 2005 Kashmir earthquake for the 8 October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Islamic Republic of Pakistan ﻥﺎﺗﺴﮐﺎﭙﻪﻴﺮﻮﻬﻣﺠﻰﻤﻼﺳﺍ Islāmī Jamhūriya-i-Pākistān | |
|---|---|
| Motto: Yaqeen-e-muhkam, ittihād, nazm (Urdu: Faith (self confidence), Unity, Discipline) | |
| Anthem: Pak sarzamin shad bad (Blessed Be The Sacred Land) | |
 | |
| Capital | Islamabad |
| Largest city | Karachi (also financial capital) |
| Official languages | Urdu, English |
| Government | Federal republic |
| Independence | |
• Water (%) | 3.1 |
| Population | |
• 2004 estimate | 162,419,946 (6th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2004 estimate |
• Total | $360.8 billion (26th) |
• Per capita | $2567 (135th) |
| HDI (2003) | 0.527 low (135th) |
| Currency | Rupee (Rs.) (PKR) |
| Time zone | UTC+5:00 (PST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+5:00 (not observed) |
| Calling code | 92 |
| ISO 3166 code | PK |
| Internet TLD | .pk |
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: ﻥﺎﺗﺴﮐﺎﭙﻪﻴﺮﻮﻬﻣﺠﻰﻤﻼﺳﺍ, islāmī jamhūriya i pākistān), or Pakistan (Urdu: پاکستان, pākistān) is a country located in South Asia but bordering the Middle East and Central Asia, bordering Iran, Afghanistan, China, India and the Arabian Sea. The name "Pakistan" in Urdu and Persian means Land of the Pure. It is the sixth most populous country and the second largest Muslim country. Pakistan is a member of the UN, the World Trade Organisation, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the Economic Cooperation Organisation, the Commonwealth of Nations and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
History
See main article for detailed information: History of Pakistan (Including pre-history, civilizations of the region, and modern events to date)
Related articles: History of Afghanistan, History of Iran, History of Tajikistan, History of South Asia, History of Central Asia, History of India.
As one of the cradles of human civilisation, the Pakistani region has long been at the crossroads of history. It was the birthplace of some of the most ancient civilisations and a strategic centre of historic trade routes, including the Silk Road. Pakistan was the site of much of the Indus Valley Civilisation and was subsequently occupied by many groups, including Dravidians, Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, White Huns, and Scythians. This period saw the country advance in trade and culture to a level where the Gandhara region and the great city of Taxila (Takshashila) became a great center of learning and development.
Ancient History
Unknown neolithic populations lived in the region for millennia until sporadic settlements sprang up along the Indus Valley. These ancient settlements eventually culminated with the Indus Valley Civilisation of Pakistan around 3000 BCE. Some have hypothesised that the founders were a Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian people, but this remains difficult to verify as the Indus Valley script has not yet been deciphered. The Indus Valley Civilisation spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline just prior to the invasion of Indo-European Aryans. A branch of these tribes called the Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic Civilization that may have existed somewhere between the Sarasvati River and Ganges river in modern India around 1500 BCE. The Vedic civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia.
Nearly all of ancient Pakistan was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid dynasty that ruled the area for over two hundred years beginning in 540 BCE. In 326 BCE, Alexander the Great defeated the king Porus (Paurava) at the Hydaspes near Jhelum and annexed the area to his Hellenistic empire. After Alexander's death and brief Seleucid control, Chandragupta Maurya gained control of the territory. His grandson Ashoka is known as one of the greatest proselytizers of Buddhism, which spread in the region. After the overthrow of last ruler of the Mauryan dynasty in 185 BCE, Demetrius of Bactria conquered Gandhara and Punjab in 184 BCE, establishing an Indo-Greek kingdom that lasted nearly two centuries, until around 10 BCE. To the south, this kingdom captured Sindh and extended to the coast of the Arabian Sea. One of the most prominent Greco-Bactrian kings was Menander, who ruled from 155 to 130 BCE and is believed to have been a convert to Buddhism. His territories covered the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of Bactria (from the areas of the Panjshir and Kapisa, now in Afghanistan) and extended to the Pakistani province of Punjab with diffuse tributaries to the south and east, possibly even as far as Mathura in modern India. Sagala (modern Sialkot) became his capital and prospered greatly under Menander's rule. The last Greek king to rule independently was probably Strato II, whose reign ended about 10 CE. Various Greek kings ruled into the beginning of the 1st century CE, as petty rulers (such as Theodamas) and as administrators, after the area was conquered by various Central Asian groups, most notably the Tocharian Kushans.
The Kushan kingdom stretched from modern-day Uzbekistan to Pakistan. The kingdom was founded by King Heraios, and greatly expanded by his successor, Kujula Kadphises. Kadphises' son Vima Takto conquered territory now in India, but lost much of the western parts of the kingdom, including Gandhara, to the Parthian king Gondophares.
Later invaders included the Scythians, and White Huns. While the Punjab remained under the Huns and Scythians, the Sassanian Persian Empire then came to control most of western Pakistan, Balochistan and NWFP, and parts of Sindh and Punjab came under the rule of Hindu rajas.
Arrival of Islam
In 712 CE, the Umayyad dynasty sent an Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim and it conquered Sindh and Multan in Southern Punjab. The arrival of the Arab Muslims to the regions of Sindh and Punjab set the stage for the geographic boundaries of the modern state of Pakistan and formed the foundation for Islamic rule which eventually spread across much of South Asia. Following the rule of various Islamic empires, including the Ghaznavid Empire, the Ghorid kingdom, and the Delhi Sultanate, the region was controlled by the Mughals from 1526 until 1739. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia. The Muslim Sufi missionaries played a pivotal role in converting the millions of native people to Islam. From 1739 until the early 19th century the region of Pakistan was ruled briefly by Nadir Shah and then by the Afghans and later still the Balochis and Sikhs came to control Sindh and the Punjab.
Pre-colonial History
The five thousand year history of Pakistan reveals that the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan and the Gangetic Valley Civilization of India have remained always separate entities. In fact, ancient Pakistan based governments ruled over northern India more often and for much longer periods than Indian based governments have ruled over Pakistan territories. What is more important, ancient Pakistan as an independent country always looked westward and had more connections ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, commercial, as well as political with the Sumerian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Central Asian civilizations than with the Gangetic Valley. It was only from the Muslim period onward that it became subservient to northern Indian governments. Even this period is not devoid of revolts and successful assertion of independence by people of Pakistan. In the pre-Muslim period, India’s great expansion covering large portions of the South Asia took place only during the reigns of the Mauryas (3rd century BC), the Guptas (4th century AD), Raja Harsha (7th century AD), the Gurjara empire of Raja Bhoj (8th century AD) and the Pratiharas (9th century AD). It is important to note that except for the Maurya period lasting barely a hundred years, under none of the other dynasties did the Indian based governments ever rule over Pakistan. They always remained east of river Sutlej. Persian Achaemenian Empire conquered ancient Pakistan and it remained part of Persian empire for more than two hundred years. Alexander the Great also conquered Indus satrapy, modern Pakistan, and did briefly cross into India but returned after his army refused to advance further into India. Ancient Pakistan remained part of the Hellenic world for next hundred fifty years. During the Arab rule, the territories of Pakistan were known as 'Sindh' and Indian territories were known as 'Hind'. The Arab dynasties ruled Pakistan from Baghdad in Iraq and from Damascus in Syria for more than two hundred years.
Pakistan, a part of the Indus land, is the child of the Indus in the same way as Egypt is the gift of Nile. The Indus has provided unity, fertility, communication, direction and the entire landscape to the country. Its location marks it as a great divide as well as a link between Central Asia and South Asia. But the historical movements of the people from Central Asia and South Asia have given to it a character of its own and have established closer relation between the people of Pakistan and those of Iran, Afghanistan and Turkistan.
British rule
The British originally arrived in South Asia to trade in Tea, Tobacco, and Poppy, and formed the British East India Company which would eventually spearhead a colonial domination over South Asia. The shrinking Mughal Empire fell prey to the East India Company's conspiracies and the eventual collapse of the freedom struggle against the British by the Muslim leader Tipu Sultan from 1749 to 1799 left the remnants of the Mughal Empire completely vulnerable. The British did not gain strong footholds in the Pakistani region until the early 19th century and annexed the entire area during the Great Game rivalry with the Russian empire.
While the Anglo-Afghan wars for freedom continued well into the 20th century, the Indian War of Independence, dubbed "Sepoy Mutiny" by the British, in 1857 was the region's last major armed struggle against the British. The last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was used as a figurehead by the rebellion, so the British decided to oust the Emperor and exiled him to Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar). Bhadur Shah Zaffar, known as the Poet King, contributed some of Urdu's most beautiful poetry, with the underlying theme of the freedom struggle. The Emperor was not allowed to return and died in solitary confinement in 1862. The Emperor's three sons, also involved in the War of Independence, were arrested and beheaded at the Khooni Derwaza (Blood Gate) in Delhi by Major Hudson of the British Army, and their heads were then put up for display at the Delhi Court.
Even though the War of Independence was a joint Muslim-Hindu struggle to oust the British, the brunt of British retaliation was directed at the Muslim population of the empire, employing the infamous "Divide and rule" policy. This suppression and subjugation helped set the stage for the creation of Pakistan - a state for the Muslims of South Asia. Muhammad Ali Jinnah a British-educated South Asian Muslim leader who had once been hailed as the "best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity", adopted the cause, and later earned the title of Quaid-e-Azam (Urdu: قائد اعظم) meaning "great leader" and founder of Pakistan.
Independence and After
After a 60 year formal and generally unarmed struggle for independence, Pakistan came into existence on 14th August 1947 from the British Empire. The British divided up their empire into three parts: the central part, with a Hindu majority, became modern-day India, the western part along with parts of the Punjab became West Pakistan, while East Bengal (the Muslim majority part of Bengal) became East Pakistan. The Partition of India resulted in the worst ever recorded communal riots in the region and perhaps one of the worst in modern history. An estimated 1 to 5 million Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and others lost their lives as a direct consequence and millions more became refugee migrants to the newly formed Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
In 1971, economic and political discontent in East Pakistan – geographically separated from West Pakistan by India – and violent political repression escalated into a civil war (see Bangladesh Liberation War) in East Pakistan and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, resulting in the secession of East Pakistan, which formed the independent state of Bangladesh (now an independent and sovereign nation with the world's third largest Muslim population). Relations thawed in 1973 when Pakistan formally accepted diplomatic relations with Bangladesh. Today Bangladesh is one of Pakistan’s leading trading partners in cotton, fresh produce, machinery, and military equipment.
Present day Pakistan does not include some of the regions originally allocated to it. The Muslim-majority princely states of Hyderabad, Junagadh and Manavadar, Kapurthala and the district of Gurdaspur were quickly occupied by Indian troops, whilst the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir was eventually occupied by Pakistan and India.
Both Junagadh and Hyderabad were formally annexed and integrated into India on November 1st 1956. Jammu and Kashmir is still an unresolved dispute as the two countries have fought three conventional wars (1948, 1965, 1998) on this issue.
Origin of the name
The name is believed to have been coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali. He devised the word and first published it on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never [1]. He saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the "homelands" of Muslims in South Asia. (P for Punjab, A for Afghania the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Baluchistan, thus forming 'Pakstan.' An 'i' was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing Pakistan.) In the Persian language, the concepts of "Pak" meaning "Pure" and "stan" for "land" or "home", gave the meaning Land of the Pure.
Arabic-speaking countries refer to Pakistan as باکستان (Bakistan), as the Arabic alphabet lacks the letter "P."
Politics
Domestic Politics
Main article: Politics of Pakistan
Form of Government
Pakistan is a federal republic, with four autonomous Provinces – Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, and NWFP (North West Frontier Province) (Sarhad) plus the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Federal Capital Territory. Pakistan also exercises de facto control over the state of Azad Kashmir (Azad meaning Free in Urdu) and the Northern Areas.
The bicameral federal legislature comprises the 100-member Senate (with seats equally distributed among the provinces and the FATA and the capital) and the 342-member National Assembly (both chambers have reserved seats for women and religious minorities). Senators are elected for six-year terms (with half retiring every three years), whilst members of the National Assembly are elected for five-year terms.
The President of Pakistan is the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, and is elected for a five-year term by the Electoral College of Pakistan – comprising the Senate, the National Assembly, and the four Provincial Assemblies. The President’s appointment and term are constitutionally independent of the Prime Minister’s term.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan is usually the leader of the largest party in the National Assembly, and is assited by a cabinet of ministers drawn from both chambers of the federal legislature.
Each province has a Provincial Assembly elected for five year terms through competitive multi-party elections, and which in turn elects a Chief Minister – the executive head of the province. The Chief Minister nominates the governor and the Provincial Assembly ratifies the nominee for a five year term.
The last National Assembly elections were held in October 2002, and Senate elections in February 2003. One notable outcome was the election of 91 women to Parliament – the largest number (and the largest percentage) of women in the parliament of any Muslim-majority country, according to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union. [2]
Political Parties
Before and during the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the largely secular and centrist All India Muslim League supported the creation of Pakistan while the far-right religious parties such as the Shia Conference , Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind and leaders such as Maulana Azad opposed the creation of Pakistan and supported a united South Asia.
The liberal, leftist Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) emerged as a major political player during the 1970s. During the 1980s, a new political, anti-feudal movement was started by unorthodox and educated urban dwellers of Sindh, especially Karachi, now known as MQM.
Currently, the largest party in Parliament is the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML-Q) and the second largest is the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP). The PML-Q obtained a plurality in the October 2002 elections. Besides these major players, there are several other political parties active in Pakistan.
See also: List of political parties in Pakistan
Foreign Relations
Main article: Foreign relations of Pakistan
Pakistan was an ally of the United States for much of its early history as a modern nation-state, from the 1950s and as a member of CENTO (Central Treaty Organisation) and SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation). At the time, its relationship with the USA was so close and friendly that it was called the United States's most-allied ally in Asia. However, this changed after the war with India, when, during the height of the Cold War, the US placed heavy military sanctions on Pakistan, forcing Pakistan to agree to a cease-fire, ending a war that was heading for a stalemate. Pakistanis felt betrayed and ill-compensated for the risks incurred in supporting the USA – after the U-2 Crisis of 1960, Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev had threatened the nuclear annihilation of Pakistani cities.
In 1964, Pakistan signed the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) Pact with Turkey and Iran, when all three countries were closely allied with the USA – and as neighbors of the Soviet Union, wary of perceived Soviet expansionism. To this day, Pakistan has a close relationship with Turkey. RCD became defunct after the Iranian revolution, and a Pakistani-Turkish initiative led to the founding of the ECO in 1985, an organization that now also includes Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
After the 1965 war, Pakistan had somewhat distanced itself from the US, and its relations with China became stronger and soon both nations declared their close friendship, causing concern in the Western powers. Despite US opposition, Pakistan dropped out of CENTO and SEATO – both organizations eventually collapsed after Pakistan's departure. It established better relations with China and supported the resolution to move official recognition for the Chinese seat from the Taiwan-based Republic of China to the Beijing government.
The United States maintained a lukewarm relationship until the Nixon administration. In 1971, Pakistan was involved in a civil war which led the secession of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Many Pakistanis believed that the August 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Peace and Cooperation encouraged Indian belligerency during this crisis. China supported Pakistan and did not accept the new nation of Bangladesh for over 3 years, even though in 1973 Pakistan itself had. The US also did not accept Bangladesh in favor of Pakistan until after the Shimla Accord. Pakistan used its friendship with both China and the USA to bring the two countries together, arranging the visit of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Beijing.
The Soviet involvement in the war and the Chinese influence on Pakistan prompted USA to bolster ties with its distanced ally, but the alliance would not approach its former strength until the Afghan war. In the 1980s, Pakistan was supplied by the US with necessary arms and helped in training and supporting anti-Soviet freedom fighters in Afghanistan. The US promised to provide Pakistan with F-16 fighter jets, although (because of the Pressler amendment) only a few were eventually supplied. However, China chose to remain out of this alliance, providing moral support instead.
After the Afghan war, which ended in favor of the anti-Soviet alliance, the relationship with the US deteriorated when sanctions were imposed on Pakistan along with India for their nuclear programs. All military aid was again barred. China came to Pakistan's aid, helping it further develop its military and air force and infrastructures – notably, Pakistan and China jointly funded the development of the JF-17 fighter jet.
After September 11th, 2001, and in support of the subsequent American-led assault on Afghanistan, current Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf aligned his government again with the US and attempted to seal borders with Afghanistan and silence Islamic radicals along the border. Since this strategic re-alignment towards US policy, economic and military assistance has been flowing from the US to Pakistan.
Besides the above-mentioned countries, Pakistan enjoys alliances with many Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. PAF pilots fly fighters for these two countries. Among former Soviet allies, Libya and Syria are the only two middle eastern countries with whom Pakistan enjoys excellent relations.
Pakistan is also an important member of the OIC, which brings it closer to every Muslim country. Pakistan has used the OIC as a forum for Enlightened Moderation, its plan to promote a renaissance and enlightenment in the Islamic world. Besides the OIC, Pakistan is a member of the South Asian union of SAARC. The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is another major regional cooperation organization seeking to promote socio-economic development of its member states on the basis of their common needs and in keeping with the challenges taking place on the global economic scene. The Organization was founded by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey as the successor organization of the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD). In 1992, it was expanded to include Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan.
Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country in terms of population and its status as a declared nuclear power and the only Islamic nation to have that status also plays a part in its international role.
Political History
Pakistan has been ruled by both democratic and military governments. The first decade was marred with political unrest and instability resulting in frequent collapses of civilian democratic governments. From 1947 to 1958 as many as seven Prime Ministers of Pakistan either resigned or were ousted. This political instability paved the way for Pakistan’s first military take over. On October 7th 1958 Pakistan’s civilian and first President Iskander Mirza in collaboration with General Mohammad Ayub Khan abrogated Pakistan’s constitution and declared Martial Law.
General Ayub Khan was the president from 1958 to 1969, and General Yahya Khan from 1969 to 1971. Civilian rule continued from 1972 to 1977 under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but he was deposed by General Zia-Ul-Haq. General Zia was killed in a plane crash in 1988, after which Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. She was the youngest woman ever to be elected the Head of Government and the first woman to be elected as the Head of Government of a Muslim country. Her government was followed by that of Nawaz Sharif, and the two leaders alternated until the military coup by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999. Since the resignation of President Rafiq Tarar in 2001, Musharraf has been the President of Pakistan.
Nation-wide parliamentary elections were held in October 2002, with the PML-Q winning a plurality of seats in the National Assembly of Pakistan, and Zafarullah Khan Jamali of that party emerging as Prime Minister. Jamali resigned on June 26, 2004. PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain became interim PM, and was succeeded by Finance Minister and former Citibank Vice President Shaukat Aziz, who was elected Prime Minister on August 27, 2004 by a National Assembly vote of 191 to 151.
Geography
- Main article: Geography of Pakistan
K2 - the second-tallest mountain in the world
Pakistan has a total area of 803,940 square kilometres (land area of 778,720 km²), approximately the combined land areas of France and the United Kingdom.
To Pakistan's east is India, which has a 2,912 km (1,809 mile) border with Pakistan. To the west is Iran, which has a 909 km (565 mile) border with Pakistan. To Pakistan's northwest lies Afghanistan, with a shared border of 2,430 km (1,510 miles). China is towards the northeast and has a 523 km (325 mile) border with Pakistan. To the south is the Arabian Sea, with 1,046 km (650 mile) of coastline.
The northern and western areas of Pakistan are mountainous. Pakistani-administered areas of Kashmir contain some of the highest mountains in the world, including K2 and Nanga Parbat. Northern Pakistan has many areas of preserved moist temperate forest.
In the southeast is the Cholistan or Thar Desert which extends into India. West-central Balochistan has a high desert plateau, bordered by low mountain ranges. Most areas of the Punjab, and parts of Sindh, are fertile plains where agriculture is of great importance.
Economy
- Main article : Economy of Pakistan
- See Also : List of Pakistani companies, List of Pakistani banks
Overview
Pakistan, a developing country, is the sixth most populous in the world and has faced a number of challenges on the political and economic fronts. Although a very poor country when it became independent in 1947, in the 1960s Harvard economists proclaimed it to be a model of economic development. In each of its first four decades, Pakistan's economic growth rate was better than the global average, but imprudent policies led to a slowdown in the late 1990s. Since then, the Pakistani government has instituted wide-ranging reforms, and economic growth has accelerated in the current century. Pakistan's economic outlook has brightened and its manufacturing and financial services sectors have experienced rapid expansion. The growth of the non-agricultural sectors has changed the structure of the economy, and agriculture now only accounts for roughly one-fifth of the GDP. There has been a great improvement in its foreign exchange position and a rapid growth in hard currency reserves in recent years.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005, Pakistan's GDP growth rate was 8.4% which is (after China) the second-highest among the ten most populous countries in the world. [3]
Tourism
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Pakistan's culture, people and landscape are very diverse. Pakistanis pride themselves on their tradition of hospitality "Mehman-nawazi" to guests. Tourism has become a growth industry in Pakistan. Pakistan has in the past been invaded and occupied by many different peoples, including Huns, Persians, Arabs, Turks, Mongols and various Eurasian groups, all of which left differences in culture among the various ethnic groups in matters such as dress, food, and religion. Pakistan also contains the ruins of anceint places such as Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Kot Diji, Thatta, Bhambore, Gandhara and Mehrgarh.
There are many tourist attractions in Pakistan. In the North, some of the highest mountains in the world attract mountaineers and adventurers from around the world. The Northern Areas of Pakistan are one of the most scenic places to be found with many old army fortresses, towers and other architecture. Among the most beautiful valleys in this area are Chitral and Hunza. The Kalasha valley (Wadi-e-Kalash) in Chitral is famous for its small community called Kalasha who follow pre-Islamic animist religion. The Kalasha claim descent from the army of Alexander the Great.
In the east, the Punjab province offers a view into the many different civilisations that settled there. Lahore is Pakistan's cultural capital and a historic city. There are many examples of Islamic Mughal architecture, such as Badshahi Masjid andthe Shalimar Gardens in Lahore. Pakistan's film industry, Lollywood is also based there.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Pakistan
Population Statistics
Pakistan has the world's sixth largest population, more than Russia, but less than Brazil; because of Pakistan's high growth rate, it is expected to overtake Brazil in population in the year 2020. Population projections for Pakistan are relatively difficult because of the apparent differences in the accuracy of each census and the inconsistencies between various surveys related to fertility rate, however it is likely that the rate of growth peaked in 1980s (Feeney and Alam, 2003, PDF).
According to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) 2005 World Data Sheet the population of Pakistan was 162,400,000 on July 1st, 2005. The fertility rate was 34 per thousand and death rate was 10 per thousand. The rate of natural increase was 2.4%. Pakistan also had high infant mortality rate of 85 per thousand births. The Pakistan's population is estimated to be around 166,300,000 in 2006.
Religion
Over 98% of the people of Pakistan are Muslim of which an estimated 75% are Sunni and 25% are Shia, making it the second largest Sunni population after Indonesia and the second largest Shia population after Iran. Nearly all Pakistani Sunnis adhere to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, whilst most Pakistani Shias belong to the Ithna 'ashariyah school of jurisprudence. Smaller but influential Muslim sects include the Ismailis and the Dawoodi Bohras.
The small non-Muslim population comprises Christians and Hindus, with small numbers of Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Jews, Ahmadis and Animists (mainly the Kalash in Chitral). Pakistan's religious demographics were influenced by the exchange of populations, which led to the movement of 7 million Muslim refugees into Pakistan from India and 6 million Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan to India.
Languages
- Main article : Languages of Pakistan
Urdu and English are both recognised as the official languages of Pakistan. English is used in government and corporate business and by the educated urban elite. Most universities use English as the medium of instruction for degree courses. Urdu is the lingua franca of the people, being widely spoken as a second language, although it is the mother tongue of only 7.57% of the population, mainly Muhajirs (Muslim refugees from India after 1947), while an unknown percentage of Punjabis of urban areas appear to be switching to the usage of Urdu as well.
Besides these, nearly all Pakistanis speak mutually-intelligible regional Indo-Iranian languages of the Indo-European family. The most widely spoken is Punjabi, followed by Pashto, Sindhi, and Balochi. Other Indo-European languages spoken in Pakistan include Seraiki, Dari, Hindko, Pothohari, Gujarati, Shina, Wakhi, Kashmiri, Marwari Khowar and many others. In addition, small groups of non-Indo-European languages are also spoken including Brahui which is a Dravidian language and Burushaski which is a language isolate.
Ethnic Groups
According to Pakistan's census, Punjabis comprise the largest ethnic group in the country at 44.15%. Other important ethnic groups include: Pashtuns (15.42%), Sindhis (14.1%), Seraikis (10.53%), Muhajirs (7.57%), Balochis (3.57%), and others (4.66%).[4][5] Numerous other ethnic groups are mainly found in the northern parts of the country such as Turwalis, Kafiristanis, Hindko, Brahui, Kashmiris, Khowar, Shina and so forth. Pakistan's census does not include the sizeable numbers of refugees from neighboring Afghanistan, who are found mainly in the NWFP and Baluchistan. Since starting from the 1980s, Pakistan accommodated over three million Afghan refugees - the largest refugee population in the world, which includes Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Hazaras among others. If Afghan refugees were added to Pakistan's official population, total figures would presumably alter the percentages of Pashtuns and the category of others. A sizeable number of Bengali immigrants are mainly concentrated in Karachi, while hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Iran are scattered throughout the country.[6] People of Sephardic Jewish descent are also found in the country, but probably number less than 200 since the creation of Israel. There is also a sizeable community of Persians, Chinese, Myanmarians (Burmese), and Africans; there are additional minorities of Arab, British, and Greek descent.
Subdivisions
Main article: Subdivisions of Pakistan, Districts of Pakistan.
Pakistan has 4 provinces, 2 territories, and also administers parts of Kashmir. The provinces are further subdivided into a total of 105 districts.
Provinces:
- Two provinces, NWFP and Balochistan, also have PATA (Provincially Administered Tribal Areas.) It is expected that these will be developed into regular districts.
Territories:
Pakistani-administered portions of Kashmir region:
Society and Culture
- Main article : Culture of Pakistan
- See Also : World Heritage Sites in Pakistan, sherwani, Pakistani literature, Pakistani poetry, Cuisine of Pakistan, Music of Pakistan
Pakistan has a rich and unique culture, and has actively preserved its established traditions throughout history. Prior to the Islamic invasion, many Punjabis and Sindhis were Hindu and Buddhist. This later changed during the expansion of Islam through Pakistan by the Ummayad General Muhammad bin Qasim and later by Mahmud of Ghazni and others. Many cultural practices, foods and monuments, shrines, have been inherited from the rule of Muslim Mughal and Afghan emperors in all of Southern Asia. The Pakistani national dress, Shalwar Kameez is one of the clothing styles inherited from these rich cultural roots. Women wear brightly coloured shalwar Kameez with embroidery for special ocassions such as weddings while men often wear the sherwani.
Pakistani society is largely multilingual and multicultural. Religious practices of various faiths are an integral part of everyday life in society. Education is highly regarded by members of every socio-economic stratum. Traditional family values are highly respected and considered sacred, although urban families have grown into a nuclear family system, owing to the socio-economic constraints imposed by the traditional joint family system. The past few decades have seen emergence of a middle class in cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Peshawar, Gujrat, Abbottabad, Multan, etc. The Northwestern part of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, is highly conservative and dominated by centuries-old regional tribal customs.
Roots
The modern nation of Pakistan has inherited a very rich cultural and traditional background going back to the Indus Valley Civilization, 2800 BCE–1800 BCE. The region that is now Pakistan has in the past been conquered and settled by many different peoples, including Elamo-Dravidians, Aryans, Greeks, White Huns, Persians, Scythians, Arabs, Turks, Afghans, Mongols and various Eurasian groups. There are regional differences in culture among the different ethnic groups in matters such as dress, food. Traditional Sufi practices of Islam are very stong in Pakistani culture
Film, Television & Music
Until the 1990s, the government-owned Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) was the dominant media player in Pakistan. However the past decade has seen the emergence of several private TV channels (news , entertainment) such as the INDUS TV, MASHRIQ, HUM, GEO TV, ARY, AAJ channels etc. Traditionally the bulk of TV shows have been plays or soap operas – some of them critically acclaimed. Various American, European, and Asian TV channels and movies are available to a majority of the population via Cable TV. As of 2005 there are around 50 Pakistani Television channels operating.
Pakistani music is rich and represented by a wide variety of forms. It ranges from traditional styles such as Qawwali and Ghazal gayaki to more modern forms that try to fuse traditional Pakistani music with western music. The Qawwali maestro, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, is internationally renowned for creating a form of music which synchronized Qawwali with western music. Pakistan has produced many renowned Ghazal singers such as Mehdi Hassan, Farida Khanum, Abida Parveen and Iqbal Bano. Popular forms of music also prevail, the most notable being Film music. In addition to this are the diverse traditions of folk music in all four provinces. The emergence of Afghan refugees in the frontier provinces has also rekindled Pashto & Persian music in Pakistan. Peshawar has become a hub of Afghan musicians, and a distribution center for Afghan Music abroad. Afghan singers have become famous throughout the Frontier and some have even married within the local population strengthening the ethnic kinship of the Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand line.
An indigenous, but tiny movie industry exists in Pakistan known as Lollywood based in Lahore exists, that is famous for churning out movies of sub-standard quality.
Globalization
Increasing globalization has increased the influence of "Western culture" in Pakistan. Pakistan ranks 46th in the world on the Kearney/FP Globalization index. Many Western restaurant chains have established themselves in Pakistan, and are found in the major cities.
A large Pakistani diaspora exists in the West. Whereas Pakistanis in the United States, Canada and Australia tend to be professionals, the majority of them in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Scandinavian nations comes from a rural background and belongs to the working class. Pakistan has more expatriates than any other Muslim country, with a large number of expatriates living in the Middle East. Pakistani emigrants and their children influence Pakistan culturally and economically, keeping close ties with their roots by travelling to Pakistan and especially by returning or investing there.
Sports
Field Hockey is the national game of Pakistan but the most popular sport in Pakistan is cricket. Pakistan has produced several of the best batsmen and bowlers in the world, including Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq. Almost every district and neighborhood in Pakistan has its cricket team and most people start playing from a young age. Pakistan has won some international cricket events, including the World Cup in 1992.
Other popular participatory and spectator sports in Pakistan include:
- Field Hockey. Pakistan men's team has won three gold medals at the Olympics and lifted the Hockey World Cup four times. It has also won the most number number of Asian gold medals and is the only Asian team to have won the prestigious Champions Trophy. It has been consistently ranked amongst the top 5 teams in the world.
- Polo, which is believed to have originated in Central Asia, and continues to be an important sport there with several large annual competitions. The Shandur Polo Tournament, played at the world's highest pologround, is one of the biggest tourist draws to Chitral and Gilgit in Northern Pakistan.
- Squash. Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan are considered to be two of the greatest squash players of all time. Pakistan has won the squash World Open 17 times, the highest by any nation.
- Football (Soccer) is played mostly on a local level, primarily in Baluchistan and North West Frontier Provinces. Those areas provide most of the players on the national team.
- Tennis. Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi recently defeated Paradorn Srichapan of Thailand to win the Asia-Oceana Zone 1 section of the Davis Cup.
- Formula One motor racing, NBA basketball, rugby, table tennis, chess, Kabaddi and badminton.
Mercantile Culture
Pakistan's service sector accounts for 53% of the country's GDP. Wholesale and retail trade is 30% of this sector. Shopping is a popular pastime for many Pakistanis, especially among the well-to-do and the thirty-million strong middle class. Karachi city is especially known for the great contrast in shopping experiences - from burgeoning bazaars to modern multi-story shopping malls.
See also
- 2004 in Pakistan
- List of Pakistanis
- Education in Pakistan
- List of Universities in Pakistan
- Karachi Stock Exchange
References
External links
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
Facts about Pakistan
History
Economic and demographic data
Pakistani Government Links
- The Official Web Gateway to the Government of Pakistan
- Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, DC
- Government of Pakistan
- Official Website of the President of Pakistan (Pervez Musharraf)
Tourism in Pakistan
Collections of images of Pakistan
- Picture Page on Pakistan
- Four Pakistan picture galleries on bottom of page
- Flikr. Many images reusable under a Creative Commons license.
- Pakistan Photos and Picture gallery
- Streetphotos.net: everyday photographs from all around Pakistan, and a weblog focusing on perceptions of Pakistan
- Picture Page on Pakistan
Pakistani IT industry
- Pakistan Software House Association
- FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan
- Pakistan Software Export Board
- Open Source Resource Centre
- Ministry of Science & Technology
Pakistani Publications & News
Sindhi-Language
English-Language
- "Kashar" Latest News
- Associated Press of Pakistan
- Business Recorder: Financial Daily
- Daily Times
- Dawn Newspaper
- Herald Monthly Magazine
- Frontier Post Newspaper
- Newsline Monthly Magazine
- 'Gwadar News'
- Pak Tribune
- Pakistan Link
- Pakistan News
- Pakistan Times
- Pakpositive Daily Pakistani News
- The Friday Times Weekly Newspaper
- The News International
- Spider - Pakistan's Internet Magazine
Urdu-language
- South Asian News Agency
- Daily Nawa-i-Waqt
- Jasarat Interactive
- Daily Ummat Karachi
- Global Science: Pakistan's Leading Science magazine
- Daily Jang
- Daily Islam
- Akhbar-e-Jehan
- Urdupoint: All topics in Urdu
Maps of major cities
Other external links
- Ansar Burney Trust - human rights organisation
- WikiPakistan, a WikiCity about Pakistan