Portal:Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country by area. Bounded by the Arabian Sea on the south, the Gulf of Oman on the southwest, and the Sir Creek on the southeast, it shares land borders with India to the east; Afghanistan to the west; Iran to the southwest; and China to the northeast. It shares a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman, and is separated from Tajikistan in the northwest by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor.
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 Gandhāra, the Achaemenid, the Maurya, the Kushan, the Parthian, the Paratarajas, the Gupta; the Umayyad Caliphate in its southern regions, the Hindu Shahis, the Ghaznavids, the Delhi Sultanate, the Samma, the Shah Miris, the Mughals, the Durranis, the Sikhs and most recently, the British Raj from 1858 to 1947. (Full article...)
Selected article -
Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan has over 231.6 Million adherents of Islam (excluding the administrative territory of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan ). As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam and around 97% of Pakistanis follow Islam. Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is represented by the Barelvi and Deobandi traditions.
About 97% of Pakistanis are Muslims. The majority are Sunni (85-90%) while Shias make up between 10% and 15%. The Hanbali school has gained popularity recently due to Ahl-i Hadith and also Wahabbi influence from the Middle East. Smaller minority Muslim populations in Pakistan include Quranists, nondenominational Muslims. There are also two Mahdi'ist based creeds practised in Pakistan, namely Mahdavia and Ahmadiyya, the latter of whom are considered by the constitution of Pakistan to be non-Muslims; they jointly constitute around 1% of the Muslim population. Pakistan has the world's largest Muslim majority city (Karachi). (Full article...)
Selected picture -
Lake Saiful Muluk is a lake located at the northern end of the Kaghan Valley. It is in the north east of Mansehra District in the North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. At an altitude of 3,224 m (10,578 feet) above sea level it is amongst one of the highest lakes in Pakistan. Photo credit: Almazi |
General images
This week in history
- 8 October 2005: The Kashmir earthquake (also known as the South Asia earthquake or the Great Pakistan earthquake) of 2005, was a major earthquake, of which the epicentre was the Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The earthquake occurred at 08:50:38 Pakistan Standard Time (03:50:38 UTC) on 8 October 2005. It registered 7.6 on the richter scale making it a major earthquake similar in intensity to the 1935 Quetta earthquake, the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Pakistani government's official death toll was 73,276, while officials say nearly 1,400 people died in Jammu and Kashmir and fourteen people in Afghanistan. Most of the affected people lived in mountainous regions with access impeded by landslides that blocked the roads, leaving an estimated 3.3 million homeless in Pakistan.
Provinces and Territories
Clickable map of the four provinces and three federal territories of Pakistan.
| |
Provinces: Territories: Pakistani-administered portions of the Kashmir: |
Things you can do
Selected biography -
Muhammad Ishaq Dar (Punjabi, Urdu: محمد اسحاق ڈار; born 13 May 1950) is a Pakistani politician who currently serves as 3rd Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan since 28 April 2024, he also had the portfolio of Foreign Minister of Pakistan since 11 March 2024. He previously served as the country's finance minister from 2022 to 2023, as leader of the House for the Senate since 2022, and as Leader of the Opposition for the Senate of Pakistan from 2012 to 2013. Dar, affiliated with the PML-N, was reelected as a senator on a technocrat seat from Islamabad in the 2024 Pakistani Senate elections. He identifies as a free-market conservative and has been associated with both economically liberal and fiscally conservative policies.
Ishaq Dar was born in 1950 in Lahore. He attended the Hailey College of Commerce, Government College University, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He began his career as a chartered accountant in the public and private sector. He entered politics in the 1980s. He was elected to the senate in 2003 and was Leader of the Opposition from 2012 to 2013. He has served as federal minister for commerce; industries and investment; and finance and revenue. (Full article...)
Did you know?
- ... that Rehri Goth, one of the poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Karachi, is one of the oldest settlements dating back to the 13th century? (31 March 2024)
- ... that Burushaski, a predominantly in northern Gilgit-Baltistan spoken rather than written language, has not more than 120,000 native speakers? (9 July 2023)
- ... that the MagnifiScience Centre in Karachi is the only science center in the country, and, unlike a museum, visitors are encouraged to touch and learn from the interaction with the exhibits? (11 June 2023)
- ... that Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau, the famous German–Pakistani Catholic nun who devoted more than 55 years of her life to fighting leprosy was the first Christian and first non-Muslim to have a state funeral in Pakistan? (2 September 2021)
- ... that Lahore Metrobus open in 2013, was modelled after the Istanbul Bus Rapid Transit System. Plans were developed in the last quarter of 2011 by both local and Turkish experts.[1] (31 August 2021)
- ... that Lahore Knowledge Park is an actualization of Triple Helix configuration; a framework to create synergies between government, academia and industry to operate into an interactive rather than linear model for the establishment of social formats and entities to promote commercial innovation and R&D. [2] (27 January 2017)
- ... that Karachi Kings is the most expensive franchise team of Pakistan Super League? (04 December 2015)
- ... that Sialkot is the world's largest producer of hand-sewed footballs, with local factories manufacturing 40~60 million footballs a year, amounting to roughly 60% of world production. (4 December 2017)
- ... that Hafiz Muhammad Fazal Azim Taha, the famous living Pakistani poet said about Iqbal's work that "He not only dreamed for Pakistan but also got the nation up for their rights". This famous saying is regarded as Iqbal's definition. (14 July 2014)
- ... that Tajammul Hussain Malik headed an unsuccessful coup attempt against Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq in 1980? (22 September 2009)
- ... that the Legal Framework Order, 1970, issued by Gen. Yahya Khan, set the rules for the first direct popular elections in the history of Pakistan? (14 September 2009)
- ... that in 1881 in the village of Bakhshali in northern Pakistan, the Bakhshali manuscript, the oldest surviving example of Indian mathematics, was discovered written on birch bark? (1 September 2008)
- ... that the original images of Lord Swaminarayan at the Shri Swaminarayan Temple in Karachi, Pakistan were removed and taken to India during the turbulent times of its partition? (1 September 2008)
- ... that Saudi Arabia promised to supply 50,000 barrels of free oil per day to help Pakistan if economic sanctions were imposed after its 1998 nuclear tests? (1 September 2008)
- ... that in a major improvement in bilateral relations in 2008, Pakistan proposed sharing nuclear technology with Bangladesh? (31 August 2008)
- ... that Abdur Rashid Kardar, a pioneer of the Pakistani film industry in Lahore, was a calligraphist who prepared posters for foreign-made films? (11 July 2008)
- ... that the Nigar Awards are the oldest awards of merit in the Pakistani film industry? (10 July 2008)
- ... that Syed Wajid Ali was the longest serving President of the Pakistan Olympic Association with a tenure of 26 years? (7 July 2008)
- ... that the 1948 film Teri Yaad was the first feature film to be released in Pakistan after the partition of India? (6 July 2008)
- ... that The Edhi Foundation, founded by Edhi, runs the world's largest volunteer ambulance service operating 1,800 of them with upto 6,000 a day in Karachi alone. (4 December 2017)
Pakistan news
- 20 November 2024 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Twelve Pakistani soldiers are killed and several others are injured when a suicide bomber targets a security post in Mali Khel, Buner District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction of the Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for the attack. (Miami Herald) (Hindustan Times)
- 19 November 2024 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Twelve soldiers are killed and others are wounded after a suicide car bombing targeting a security post in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Six Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group gunmen are killed in the ensuing shootout. (AP)
- 18 November 2024 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Security forces raid a Lashkar-e-Islam hideout in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, killing ten militants and injuring several others. (ABC News)
- A Pakistani Taliban ambush on a military convoy in Khyber district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, kills eight soldiers and wounds three others. Several gunmen are also killed. Separately, seven police officers are kidnapped in Bannu. (Voice of America)
- 16 November 2024 – Insurgency in Balochistan
- Seven paramilitary soldiers are killed and 18 are wounded by a Balochistan Liberation Army attack on a checkpoint in Kalat District, Balochistan, Pakistan. (Reuters)
- 14 November 2024 – Insurgency in Balochistan
- In Balochistan, Pakistan, two soldiers and three insurgents are killed during a raid in Harnai District. Separately, two civilians are killed and three injured after an explosion in Ziarat District. (TRT World)
Quote of the Day -
“ | Pakistan not only means freedom and independence but the Muslim Ideology which has to be preserved, which has come to us as a precious gift and treasure and which, we hope other will share with us. | ” |
— Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Founder of Pakistan) |
Subcategories
Pakistan topics
Recognized content
Related portals
Religions in Pakistan
Indian Subcontinent
Other countries
WikiProjects
You are cordially invited to join and contribute to WikiProject Pakistan, a WikiProject dedicated to the development and improvement of articles relating to Pakistan.
|
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Wikipedias in Pakistani languages
Sources
- ^ Mahendra, Anjali. "The Metro Bus System comes to Lahore, Pakistan". TheCityFix. World Resources Institute. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
- ^ "Lahore Knowledge Park Company".