Pakistan
officially the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan is a sovereign country in South Asia. With
a population exceeding 180 million
people, it is the sixth most
populous country and with an area
covering 796,095 Km2 (307,374 sq mi), it is the 36th largest Country in the
World in terms of area. Located at the crossroads of the strategically
important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and Western Asia, Pakistan has a 1,046 Kilometer (650 mi) coastline
along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by
India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and
China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan
by Afghanistan’s
narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan
was home to several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze
Age Indus Valley Civilizations. 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 the
Great, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate,
the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh
Empire and the British
Empire. As a result of the Pakistan movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India’s
struggle for independence, Paksitan was independent in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the
east and west of India
where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan
adopted a new constitution in 1965,
becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East
Pakistan as the new country
of Bangladesh.
Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of four Provinces and four federal territories. It is 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 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 has a semi Industrialized
economy which is the 26th
largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and 45th largest in terms of nominal GDP. Pakistan’s post-independence history has been characterized by
periods of military rule, political instability and conflicts with neighboring India. The country continues to face challenging problems,
including overpopulation, terrorism, poverty, illiteracy and corruption. It is
a founding member of the organization of the Islamic Conference (Now the
organization of Islamic Cooperation) and is a member of the United Nations, the
Commonwealth of the Nations, the Next
Eleven Economies, SAARC, ECO, UFC, D8, Cairns Group, RCD and the G20 developing
nations.
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