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Etymology

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Role of Islam

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Declaration 23 March 1940
Independence 14 August 1947
Dominion status 23 March 1956
terminated
Eastern 16 December 1971
territory withdrawn
Current constitution 14 August 1973

Area
Total 881,913 km2 (340,509 sq mi)[b][9] (33rd)
Water (%) 2.86

Population
2022 estimate 249,566,743[10] (5th)
Density 244.4/km2 (633.0/sq mi) (56th)

GDP (PPP) 2022 estimate

Total $1.512 trillion[11] (23rd)
Per capita $6,662[11] (168th)

GDP (nominal) 2022 estimate

 Total $376.493 billion[12] (42nd)
Per capita $1,658[11] (177th)

Gini (2018) 31.6[13]

medium

HDI (2022) 0.544[14]

low · 161st

Currency Pakistani rupee (₨) (PKR)

Time zone UTC+05:00

+05:00 (PKT)
DST is not observed

Date format dd-mm-yyyy

yyyy[c]

Driving side left[15]

Calling code +92

ISO 3166 code PK

Internet TLD .pk

‫تان‬ ‫پاکس‬..

You may need rendering support to display the Urdu text in this article correctly.

Pakistan (Urdu: ‫ˈ[ پَا ِک ْست َان‬paːkɪstaːn]

ˈpaːkɪstaːn]),[d] officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ‫اِسْﻼمی‬
ِ ‫) َج ْم ُہ‬, is a country in South Asia
‫وريَہ پَا ِک ْست َان‬ Asia. It is the world's fifth-most
most populous country,
country
with a population of over 249 million people, and has the world's second--largest Muslim
population, just behind Indonesia Indonesia.[16] Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its
largest city and financial centre, followed by Lahore and Faisalabad.. Pakistan is
the 33rd-largest country try in the world by area and the second-largest in South Asia,
Asia
spanning 881,913 square kilometres (340,509 square miles). It has a 1,046-kilometre 1,046
(650-mile) mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is
bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, southwest
and China to the northeast.. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by
Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a maritime border
with Oman.
Pakistan is the site of several ancient cultures
cultures, including the 8,500-year-
old Neolithic site of Mehrgarh in Balochistan,[17] the Indus Valley civilisation of the Bronze
Age,[18][19] and the ancient Gandhara civilisation
civilisation.[20] The regions that comprise the modern
state of Pakistan were the he realm of multiple empires and dynasties, including
the Achaemenid, the Maurya,, the Kushan, the Gupta;[21] the Umayyad Caliphate in its
southern regions, the Samma
Samma, the Hindu Shahis, the Shah Miris, the Ghaznavids,
Ghaznavids
the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals,[22] and most recently, the British Raj from 1858 to
1947.
Spurred by the Pakistan Movement, which sought a homeland for the Muslims of British
India, and election victories in 1946 by the All-India Muslim League, Pakistan gained
independence in 1947 after the Partition of the British Indian Empire, which awarded
separate statehood to its Muslim-majority regions and was accompanied by an
unparalleled mass migration and loss of life. [23] Initially a Dominion of the British
Commonwealth, Pakistan officially drafted its constitution in 1956, and emerged as a
declared Islamic republic. In 1971, the exclave of East Pakistan seceded as the new
country of Bangladesh after a nine-month-long civil war. In the following four decades,
Pakistan has been ruled by governments whose descriptions, although complex,
commonly alternated between civilian and military, democratic and authoritarian,
relatively secular and Islamist.[24] Pakistan elected a civilian government in 2008, and in
2010 adopted a parliamentary system with periodic elections.[25]
Pakistan is a middle power nation,[26][27][28][29][30][31] and has the world's sixth-largest standing
armed forces. It is a declared nuclear-weapons state, and is ranked amongst
the emerging and growth-leading economies,[32] with a large and rapidly-growing middle
class.[33] Pakistan's political history since independence has been characterised by
periods of significant economic and military growth as well as those of political and
economic instability. It is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with similarly
diverse geography and wildlife. The country continues to face challenges,
including poverty, illiteracy, corruption and terrorism.[34] Pakistan is a member of
the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation, the Commonwealth of Nations, the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation, and the Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition, and is designated as
a major non-NATO ally by the United States.

Etymology
The name Pakistan was coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist,
who in January 1933 first published it in a pamphlet Now or Never, using it as
an acronym.[35] Rahmat Ali explained: "It is composed of letters taken from the names of
all our homelands, Indian and Asian, Panjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh,
and Baluchistan." He added that "Pakistan is both a Persian and Urdu word... It means
the land of the Paks, the spiritually pure and clean."[36] Etymologists note that ‫ پ اک‬pāk, is
'pure' in Persian and Pashto[37] and the Persian suffix ‫ ـ ستان‬-stan means 'land' or 'place
of'.[38][39][40][41]
Rahmat Ali's concept of Pakistan only related to the north-west area of the Indian
subcontinent. He also proposed the name "Banglastan" for the Muslim areas
of Bengal and "Osmanistan" for Hyderabad State, as well as a political federation
between the three.[42][43]

History
Main articles: History of Pakistan, Indus Valley civilisation, Vedic period, Maurya
Empire, Indo-Greek Kingdom, Gupta Empire, Kushan Empire, Sikh Empire, and Mughal
Empire
See also: Outline of South Asian history
Indus Valley Civilization

Priest-King from Mohenjo-Daro (c. 2500 BCE)

Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas
encompassing present-day Pakistan.[44] The earliest known inhabitants in the region
were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in
the Soan Valley of Punjab.[45] The Indus region, which covers most of present day
Pakistan, was the site of several successive ancient cultures including the Neolithic
Mehrgarh[46] and the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilisation[47][48] (2,800–1,800 BCE)
at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.[49]
Vedic Period

Standing Buddha from Gandhara (1st–2nd century CE)

The Vedic period (1500–500 BCE) was characterised by an Indo-Aryan culture; during
this period the Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed,
and this culture later became well established in the region. [50] Multan was an important
Hindu pilgrimage centre.[51] The Vedic civilisation flourished in the
ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, now Taxila in the Punjab, which was founded
around 1000 BCE.[52][46]
Classical Period
The western regions of Pakistan became part of Achaemenid Empire around 519 BCE.
In 326 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the region by defeating various local rulers,
most notably, the King Porus, at Jhelum.[53] It was followed by the Maurya Empire,
founded by Chandragupta Maurya and extended by Ashoka the Great, until 185 BCE.
The Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria (180–165 BCE) included
Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander (165–150 BCE),
prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region.[46][54] Taxila had one of the earliest
universities and centres of higher education in the world, which was established during
the late Vedic period in the 6th century BCE. [55][56] The school consisted of several
monasteries without large dormitories or lecture halls where the religious instruction was
provided on an individualistic basis.[56] The ancient university was documented by the
invading forces of Alexander the Great and was also recorded by Chinese pilgrims in
the 4th or 5th century CE.[57]
At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty (489–632 CE) ruled Sindh and the surrounding
territories.[58]
Islamic conquest
The Arab conqueror Muhammad ibn Qasim conquered Sindh in 711 CE.[59][60] The
Pakistan government's official chronology claims this as the time when the foundation of
Pakistan was laid[59][61] but the concept of Pakistan arrived in the 19th century. The Early
Medieval period (642–1219 CE) witnessed the spread of Islam in the region. During this
period, Sufi missionaries played a pivotal role in converting a majority of the regional
Buddhist and Hindu population to Islam.[62] Upon the defeat of the Turk and Hindu
Shahi dynasties which governed the Kabul Valley, Gandhara (present-day Khyber
Pakhtunkwa), and western Punjab in the 7th to 11th centuries CE, several successive
Muslim empires ruled over the region, including the Ghaznavid Empire (975–1187 CE),
the Ghorid Kingdom, and the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 CE). The Lodi dynasty, the
last of the Delhi Sultanate, was replaced by the Mughal Empire (1526–1857 CE).

Badshahi Mosque, Lahore

The Mughals introduced Persian literature and high culture, establishing the roots
of Indo-Persian culture in the region.[63] In the region of modern-day Pakistan, key cities
during the Mughal period were Lahore and Thatta,[64] both of which were chosen as the
site of impressive Mughal buildings.[65] In the early 16th century, the region remained
under the Mughal Empire.[66]
In the 18th century, the slow disintegration of the Mughal Empire was hastened by the
emergence of the rival powers of the Maratha Confederacy and later the Sikh Empire,
as well as invasions by Nader Shah from Iran in 1739 and the Durrani Empire of
Afghanistan in 1759. The growing political power of the British in Bengal had not yet
reached the territories of modern Pakistan.
Colonial period
Main articles: British India, Aligarh Movement, and British Raj

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898), whose vision formed the basis of Pakistan

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) served as Pakistan's first Governor-General and the leader of the Pakistan
Movement.

None of the territory of modern Pakistan was ruled by the British, or other European
powers, until 1839, when Karachi, then a small fishing village with a mud fort guarding
the harbour, was taken, and held as an enclave with a port and military base for
the First Afghan War that soon followed. The rest of Sindh was taken in 1843, and in the
following decades, first the East India Company, and then after the post-Sepoy
Mutiny (1857–1858) direct rule of Queen Victoria of the British Empire, took over most
of the country partly through wars, and also treaties. The main wars were that against
the Baloch Talpur dynasty, ended by the Battle of Miani (1843) in Sindh, the Anglo-Sikh
Wars (1845–1849) and the Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839–1919). By 1893, all modern
Pakistan was part of the British Indian Empire, and remained so until independence in
1947.
Under the British, modern Pakistan was mostly divided into the Sind Division, Punjab
Province, and the Baluchistan Agency. There were various princely states, of which the
largest was Bahawalpur.
A rebellion in 1857 called the Sepoy mutiny of Bengal was the region's major armed
struggle against the British.[67] Divergence in the relationship between Hinduism and
Islam created a major rift in British India that led to motivated religious violence in British
India.[68] The language controversy further escalated the tensions between Hindus and
Muslims.[69] The Hindu renaissance witnessed an awakening of intellectualism in
traditional Hinduism and saw the emergence of more assertive influence in the social
and political spheres in British India.[70] A Muslim intellectual movement, founded by
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan to counter the Hindu renaissance, envisioned as well as
advocated for the two-nation theory[71] and led to the creation of the All-India Muslim
League in 1906. In contrast to the Indian National Congress's anti-British efforts, the
Muslim League was a pro-British movement whose political program inherited the
British values that would shape Pakistan's future civil society.[72] The largely non-violent
independence struggle led by the Indian Congress engaged millions of protesters in
mass campaigns of civil disobedience in the 1920s and 1930s against the British
Empire.[73][74]

Clock Tower, Faisalabad, built by the British government in the 19th century

The Muslim League slowly rose to mass popularity in the 1930s amid fears of under-
representation and neglect by the British of the Indian Muslims in politics. In his
presidential address of 29 December 1930, Allama Iqbal called for "the amalgamation
of North-West Muslim-majority Indian states" consisting of Punjab, North-West Frontier
Province, Sind, and Baluchistan.[75] The perceived neglect of Muslim interests by
Congress led British provincial governments during the period of 1937–39
convinced Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan to espouse the two-nation
theory and led the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolution of 1940 presented
by Sher-e-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Haque, popularly known as the Pakistan
Resolution.[71] In World War II, Jinnah and British-educated founding fathers in the
Muslim League supported the United Kingdom's war efforts, countering opposition
against it whilst working towards Sir Syed's vision.[76]
Pakistan Movement
Main article: Pakistan Movement
Further information: History of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Indian independence
movement, and Partition of India
The 1946 elections resulted in the Muslim League winning 90 percent of the seats
reserved for Muslims. Thus, the 1946 election was effectively a plebiscite in which the
Indian Muslims were to vote on the creation of Pakistan, a plebiscite won by the Muslim
League. This victory was assisted by the support given to the Muslim League by the
support of the landowners of Sindh and Punjab. The Indian National Congress, which
initially denied the Muslim League's claim of being the sole representative of Indian
Muslims, was now forced to recognise the fact.[77] The British had no alternative except
to take Jinnah's views into account as he had emerged as the sole spokesperson of the
entirety of British India's Muslims. However, the British did not want colonial India to be
partitioned, and in one last effort to prevent it, they devised the Cabinet Mission plan.[78]
As the cabinet mission failed, the British government announced its intention to end the
British Rule in 1946–47.[79] Nationalists in British India—including Jawaharlal
Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad of Congress, Jinnah of the All-India Muslim League,
and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs—agreed to the proposed terms of
transfer of power and independence in June 1947 with the Viceroy of India, Lord
Mountbatten of Burma.[80] As the United Kingdom agreed to the partitioning of India in
1947, the modern state of Pakistan was established on 14 August 1947 (27th of Ramadan in
1366 of the Islamic Calendar), amalgamating the Muslim-majority eastern and northwestern
regions of British India.[74] It comprised the provinces of Balochistan, East Bengal,
the North-West Frontier Province, West Punjab, and Sindh.[71][80]
In the riots that accompanied the partition in Punjab Province, it is believed that
between 200,000 and 2,000,000[81] people were killed in what some have described as a
retributive genocide between the religions [82] while 50,000 Muslim women were abducted
and raped by Hindu and Sikh men, 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women also experienced the
same fate at the hands of Muslims.[83] Around 6.5 million Muslims moved from India to
West Pakistan and 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from West Pakistan to India. [84] It
was the largest mass migration in human history.[85] A subsequent dispute over
the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir eventually sparked the Indo-Pakistani War of
1947–1948.[86]
Independence and modern Pakistan
Main articles: Dominion of Pakistan and History of Pakistan
See also: Monarchy of Pakistan
Queen Elizabeth II was the last monarch of independent Pakistan, before it became a republic in 1956.
After independence in 1947, Jinnah, the President of the Muslim League, became the
nation's first Governor-General as well as the first President-Speaker of the Parliament,
but he died of tuberculosis on 11 September 1948.[87] Meanwhile, Pakistan's founding
fathers agreed to appoint Liaquat Ali Khan, the secretary-general of the party, the
nation's first Prime Minister. From 1947 to 1956, Pakistan was a monarchy within the
Commonwealth of Nations, and had two monarchs before it became a republic. [88]
The creation of Pakistan was never fully accepted by many British leaders, among
them Lord Mountbatten.[89] Mountbatten clearly expressed his lack of support and faith in
the Muslim League's idea of Pakistan.[90] Jinnah refused Mountbatten's offer to serve
as Governor-General of Pakistan.[91] When Mountbatten was asked by Collins and
Lapierre if he would have sabotaged Pakistan had he known that Jinnah was dying of
tuberculosis, he replied 'most probably'.[92]
17:49
The American CIA film on Pakistan, made in 1950, examines the history and geography of Pakistan.

"You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State
of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the State."
—Muhammad Ali Jinnah's first speech to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan [93]

Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, a respected Deobandi alim (scholar) who occupied
the position of Shaykh al-Islam in Pakistan in 1949, and Maulana Mawdudi of Jamaat-i-
Islami played a pivotal role in the demand for an Islamic
constitution. Mawdudi demanded that the Constituent Assembly make an explicit
declaration affirming the "supreme sovereignty of God" and the supremacy of
the shariah in Pakistan.[94]
A significant result of the efforts of the Jamaat-i-Islami and the ulama was the passage
of the Objectives Resolution in March 1949. The Objectives Resolution, which Liaquat
Ali Khan called the second most important step in Pakistan's history, declared that
"sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to God Almighty alone and the authority
which He has delegated to the State of Pakistan through its people for being exercised
within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust". The Objectives Resolution has
been incorporated as a preamble to the constitutions of 1956, 1962, and 1973. [95]
Democracy was stalled by the martial law that had been enforced by President Iskander
Mirza, who was replaced by the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army,
General Ayub Khan. After adopting a presidential system in 1962, the country
experienced exceptional growth until a second war with India in 1965 that led to an
economic downturn and wide-scale public disapproval in 1967.[96][97] Consolidating control
from Ayub Khan in 1969, President Yahya Khan had to deal with a
devastating cyclone that caused 500,000 deaths in East Pakistan.[98]
In 1970 Pakistan held its first democratic elections since independence, meant to mark
a transition from military rule to democracy, but after the East Pakistani Awami
League won against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Yahya Khan and the military
establishment refused to hand over power.[99][100] Operation Searchlight, a military
crackdown on the Bengali nationalist movement, led to a declaration of independence
and the waging of a war of liberation by the Bengali Mukti Bahini forces in East
Pakistan,[100][101] which in West Pakistan was described as a civil war as opposed to a war
of liberation.[102]