Pakistan

Lore & Background

Pakistan is the site of several ancient cultures, including the 8,500-year-old Neolithic site of Mehrgarh in Balochistan, the Indus Valley Civilisation of the Bronze Age, and the ancient Gandhara civilisation. The regions that compose the modern state of Pakistan were the realm of multiple empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid, the Maurya, the Kushan, the Gupta; the Umayyad Caliphate in its southern regions, the Hindu Shahis, the Ghaznavids, the Delhi Sultanate, the Samma, the Shah Miris, the Mughals, and finally, 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 British India, which awarded separate statehood to its Muslim-majority regions and was accompanied by an unparalleled mass migration and loss of life. Initially a dominion of the British Commonwealth, Pakistan adopted a republican constitution in 1956 and became an Islamic republic with two geographically separate provinces, East Pakistan and West Pakistan. East Pakistan seceded as the new country of Bangladesh in 1971 after a nine-month-long civil war.

In Their Own Story

The call to prayer echoes over the bustling streets of Lahore as the sun dips below the horizon, casting a golden glow on the red sandstone walls of the Badshahi Mosque. A traveler winds through the narrow alleys of the Walled City, the scent of cardamom and roasting spices drifting from open-air kitchens. Above, the silhouette of the minarets stands against a twilight sky, while in the distant north, snow-capped peaks pierce the clouds, silent witnesses to centuries of history unfolding below.

Reader's Guide

Pakistan is considered a middle power and is a declared nuclear-weapon state, with the world's seventh-largest standing armed forces. The Pakistani economy is ranked amongst the world's emerging and growth-leading economies, with a large and rapidly growing middle class. 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 poverty, illiteracy, corruption, and terrorism. 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.

Did You Know?

• The name Pakistan was coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali in 1933, originally as 'Pakstan', using letters from Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan.
• The earliest known stone tools in the region, dating to the Lower Palaeolithic (~2 million years ago), were discovered in the Soan Valley of northern Pakistan.
• Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of higher education in the world, established during the late Vedic period in the 6th century BCE.