About Pakistan

Pakistan is created in the name of Islam

The nation of Pakistan is still young, but human history in the area reaches back for tens of thousands of years and Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a parliamentary federal republic in South Asia. It is the sixth most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people. It is the 36th largest country in the world in terms of area with an area covering 881,913 sq km. Pakistan has a 1,046km coastlines along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries as it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the subcontinent's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions to the east and west of the Subcontinent where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. Pakistan is a parliamentary federal republic consisting of four provinces and four federal territories. It is just an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similar variation in its geography and wildlife. A regional and middle power, Pakistan has the seventh largest standing armed forces in the world and is also a nuclear power as well as a declared nuclear-weapons state, being the only nation in the Muslim world, and the second in South Asia, to have that status. It makes a semi-industrialised economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector, its economy is the 26th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and 45th largest in terms of nominal GDP and is also characterized among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world. The post independence history of Pakistan has been marked by periods of military rule, political instability and conflicts with neighbouring India. The country continues to suffer from challenging problems, including overpopulation, terrorism, poverty, illiteracy, and corruption. Despite these factors it maintains strategic endowments and development potential while it has made significant progress in reducing poverty giving it the second lowest headcount poverty rate in South Asia. The nation has recently witnessed a rapid expansion of its prosperous middle class, the 18th largest worldwide. Pakistan's stock exchange is Asia's highest performing stock market and, as of 2016, is part of the MSCI's emerging markets index. 

It is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Next Eleven Economies, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, ECO, UfC, D8, Cairns Group, Kyoto Protocol, ICCPR, RCD, UNCHR, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Group of Eleven, CPFTA, Group of 24, the G20 developing nations, ECOSOC, founding member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, SAARC and CERN. After independence and the partition of India in 1947, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the President of Muslim League, became nation's first Governor-General as well as first President Speaker of the Parliament. Meanwhile, Pakistan's founding fathers agreed upon appointing Liaquat Ali Khan, the secretary-general of the party, the nation's first Prime Minister. With dominion status in the Commonwealth of Nations, independent Pakistan had two British monarchs before it became a republic. Maulānā Shabbīr Ahmad Usmānī, a respected Deobandī ʿālim who occupied the position of Shaykh al-Islām in Pakistan in 1949, and Maulana Mawdudi of Jamāʿat-i Islāmī played a pivotal role in the demand for an Islamic constitution. Mawdūdī demanded that the Constituent Assembly makes an explicit declaration affirming the, supreme sovereignty of God, and the supremacy of the sharī'ah in Pakistan. A significant result of the efforts of the Jamāʿat-i Islāmī and the ʿulamāʿ 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. Objectives Resolution has been incorporated as a preamble to the constitutions of 1956, 1962, and 1973. Democracy was stalled by the martial law enforced by President Iskander Mirza who was replaced by army chief, General Ayub Khan. Forming presidential system in 1962, the country experienced exceptional growth until a second war with India in 1965 which led to an economic downfall and wide-scale public disapproval in 1967. 

Consolidating control from Ayub Khan in 1969, President Yahya Khan had to deal with a devastating cyclone which caused 500,000 deaths in East Pakistan. In 1970, Pakistan held its first democratic elections since independence, that were meant to mark a transition from military rule to democracy, but after the East Pakistan Awami League won against Pakistan Peoples Party Yahya Khan and military establishment refused to hand over power. 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, with support from India. However, in West Pakistan the conflict was described as a civil war as opposed to the War of Liberation. Independents of Pakistan, 14th August 1947, Pakistan is a great and beautiful country, it is very rich in its culture. On 23rd March, 1940, muslims of subcontinent passed a resolution to create a new country called Pakistan. Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan. Pakistan has five provinces. Federal Administered Tribal Area called FATA and state of Azad Kashmir is also part of Pakistan. The landscape of Pakistan ranges from lofty mountains in the north, the Karakoram and the Himalayas, through dissected plateaus to the rich alluvial plains of the Punjab. Then follows desolate barrenness of Balochistan and the hot dry deserts of Sindh blending into miles and miles of golden beaches of the Mekran coast. Pakistan is located between latitude 24 and 37 degrees North and longitude 61 and 75 degrees East. The country is bounded to the West by Iran, to the south-east by India, Afghanistan to the north-west, China to the north-east and the Arabian Sea in the South. The lofty mountains ranges of Himalayas, the Karakorams and the Hindukush from Pakistan's northern highlands of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan. Punjab province is flat, alluvial plain with five major rivers dominating the upper region eventually joining the River Indus flowing south to the Arabian Sea. Sindh is bounded to the east by the Thar Desert and the Rann of Kutch and to the west by Kerth range. Balochistan Plateau is an arid tableland, encircled by dry mountains. 

The territory of modern Pakistan was home to several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation. The territory has been the home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including Hindus, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander of Macedonia, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire.The name Pakistan literally means, Land of the Pure, in Urdu and Persian. It was coined in 1933 as Pakstan by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never, using it as an acronym, thirty million Muslim brethren who live in Pakistan, referring to the names of the five northern regions of the British Raj, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan. The government of Pakistan is built on the much-amended constitution of 1973, which was suspended twice, in 1977 and 1999 and reinstated twice, in 1985 and 2002. According to the constitution, Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. The legislature, or parliament, is the Majlis-i-Shoora, consisting of the Lower House, which is known as the National Assembly, and the Upper House, or Senate. National Assembly members are directly elected for five-year terms. Senate members are chosen by provincial assemblies, with equal representation from each of the four provinces as well as representatives from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Islamabad Capital Territory. 

Both the Senate and National Assembly may initiate and pass legislation, but only the National Assembly can approve federal budgets and finance bills. However, parliament often has had little real political power. For example, in 2003 the single bill passed by the National Assembly was the national budget. With the exception of the temperate coastal region, most of Pakistan suffer from seasonal extremes of temperature and from June to September, Pakistan gets its monsoon season, with warm weather and heavy rain in some areas. The temperatures drop significantly in December through February, while spring is usually very warm and dry. Of course, the Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountain ranges are snowbound for much of the year, due to their high altitudes. Temperatures even at lower elevations may drop below freezing during the winter, while summer highs of 40°C are common. The record high is 55°C. Pakistan has great economic potential, but it has come under internal political unrest, a lack of foreign investment, and its chronic state of conflict with India. As a result, the per capita GDP is only $5000, and 22 percent of Pakistanis live under the poverty line in 2015 estimates. While GDP was increasing to 6-8 percent between 2004 and 2007, that slowed to 3.5 percent from 2008 to 2013. Unemployment stands at just 6.5 percent, although that is not necessarily the state of employment as many are underemployed. Pakistan exports labor, textiles, rice, and carpets. It imports oil, petroleum products, machinery, and steel. Pakistani rupee trades at 101 rupees / $1 US in 2015. Pakistan is a beautiful country and facing several problems nowadays.