Pakistan is a South Asian country. Bathed by the Arabian Sea (Indian Ocean) to the south, it borders Iran to the west, Afghanistan to the northwest, China to the northeast, and India to the east and southeast. The capital is Islamabad, with 1 365 000 residents (2015), and the largest cities are Karachi (16 618 000 residents), Lahore (8 741 000 residents), Faisalabad (3 567 000 residents) And Rawalpindi (2 506 000 residents).
Pakistan comprises almost the entire watershed of the Indus River. In the western part there are the Himalayas and in the western part an extensive plain that extends from northeast to southwest.
Climate
Pakistan’s climate is subtropical, influenced by monsoons from June to October. It also has vast areas dominated by aridity, such as the Thar desert, in the border region with India, as well as high mountain areas, where temperatures are very low.
Economy
This Asian country has deposits of coal, iron, crude metal, copper and other mineral resources that remain untapped. Pakistan owns hydroelectric power plants and large reserves of natural gas, but has no oil. In the 1960s there was a great industrial growth due to the help of the United States of America and the rich Muslim Arab nations. Much of this growth was made at the expense of agricultural production. 1/4 of the land is arable and much of it is irrigated. Exports consist of manufactured products, such as cotton textiles, based on their own raw materials. There are traditional handicraft industries, such as carpets and arms manufacturing. Pakistan’s main trading partners are the United States of America, China, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Population
The Pakistani population is estimated at 204 924 861 residents (2017). The birth and death rates are, respectively, 21.9% and 6.3%. Average life expectancy is 68.1 years.
Pakistan is a nation divided between the residents of the mountains and the peoples of the plains. The borders were drawn without taking into account ethnicities; were established by the British when they ruled all over India, with military security as their primary concern. As a result, the pathans of the northwest border spread between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the territory of the liques, still in the northwest, is cut in two by the border with India and, in the southwest, the baloches live on both sides of the border with Iran.
The mountain population lives largely outside the control of the central government, running their own arms business, practicing subsistence farming and herding goats and sheep. The lowland population lives in villages with mud and brick houses and is basically concerned with the implementation of irrigation plans and the state of the cotton and wheat crops. They have the Islamic religion in common, although the society is divided among several groups, castes and tribes.
The four main regional groups are Panjábis, Baloches, Sindhis and Patanes. The population results from a mixture of several indigenous peoples whose racial characteristics were affected by successive waves of Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Arabs. The languages are mainly regional (Panjabi, Baloche and Pastó), but the official language is Urdu, although English is also spoken.
History
For a century, the East India Company controlled Pakistani territory, but in 1858 the English government took over the region. Pakistan was born out of the Indian Empire of Great Britain when in 1947 India became independent. For Pakistan democracy and rights, please check homeagerly.
The establishment of borders with India was difficult, the massacres of that year were tragic because they both claimed the possession of Kashmir, which is now separated by a ceasefire line, which continues not to please both countries. The state did not remain united because it was impossible to reconcile the religious and cultural differences of the two main factions, Hindus and Muslims. Due to the Muslim leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah’s “divide and rule” campaign, Pakistan was created for Muslims.
The new state was made up of two separate territories from northern India. The eastern territory, predominantly Bengali, was the most important of Pakistan’s early days, supplying the largest jute in the world, but the wealth was not invested here, the Bengalis becoming the poor relatives of West Pakistan. Revolted, they began to demand autonomy for their own state.
In 1971, a guerrilla war broke out in the east, which the Pakistani government tried to repress by force. Millions of refugees fled to India, which was forced to intervene in the war. As a result, East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh in 1971. As of that date, West Pakistan struggled to find its own identity. Due to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, this country adopted Islamic culture as its own.
Major conflicts of interest continue to exist, coupled with the struggle for power between feudal lords, traditional religious masters and new military men who held power until 1988, when legislative elections were held.
Countryaah.com: Offers a full list of airports in the country of Pakistan, sorted by city location and acronyms.
Abbreviationfinder.org: Provides most commonly used abbreviations and initials containing the country name of Pakistan. Listed by popularity.
1UpTravel.com – Maps of Pakistan
View the city, country, regional, and historical maps of Pakistan, an Asian country. Includes maps of Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and a map showing Jalalabad and Peshawar.
