Pakistan

Pakistan officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan(Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاكستان‎, Islāmī Jumhūriyah-yi Pākistān, Urdu: [ɪslɑːmi d͡ʒʊmɦuːriə-e pɑːkɪst̪ɑːn]), 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. miles), 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 andWestern Asia, Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Indiato 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 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 the Great, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, theSikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan 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 1956, 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,^[11][12] 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 has a semi-industrialised 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 characterised by periods of military rule, political instability and conflicts with neighbouring India. The country continues to face challenging problems, including overpopulation, terrorism, poverty, illiteracy and corruption. It is a founding member of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (now the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) and is a member of the United Nations, theCommonwealth of Nations, the Next Eleven Economies, SAARC, ECO, D8 and the G20 developing nations.

Etymology

The name Pakistan literally means "Land of the Pure" in Urdu and Persian. It was coined in 1933 as Pakstan by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, aPakistan Movement activist, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never,^[13] using it as an acronym ("thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN") referring to the names of the five northern regions of the British Raj: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghania Province),Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan".^[14][15][16] The letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name.^[17]

History

Main articles: History of Pakistan and History of South Asia

Early and medieval age

Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan. 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.^[18] The Indus region, which covers most of Pakistan, was the site of several successive ancient cultures including the Neolithic Mehrgarh^[19] and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation (2800–1800 BCE) at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.^[20][21]

The Vedic Civilization (1500–500 BCE), characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, which would become well established in the region.^[22][23] Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre.^[24] The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, now Taxila in Punjab.^[19] Successive ancient empires and kingdoms ruled the region: the PersianAchaemenid Empire around 519 BCE, Alexander the Great's empire in 326 BCE^[25] and the Maurya Empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya and extended byAshoka the Great until 185 BCE.^[19] 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.^[19][26] Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of higher education in the world.^{[27][28][29][30]}

 

The Medieval period (642–1219 CE) is defined by the spread of Islam in the region. During this period, Sufi missionariesplayed a pivotal role in converting a majority of the regional Buddhist and Hindu population to Islam.^[31] The Rai Dynasty(489–632 CE) of Sindh, at its zenith, ruled this region and the surrounding territories.^[32] The Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire that under Dharampala and Devapala stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladeshthrough Northern India to Pakistan and later to Kamboj region in Afghanistan.

The Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711CE.^[33] The Pakistan government's official chronology identifies this as the point where the "foundation" of Pakistan was laid.^[33] This conquest set the stage for the rule of several successive Muslim empires in 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). The Mughals introduced Persian literature and high culture, establishing the roots of Indo-Persian culture in the region.^[34]

Colonial period

Main articles: Pakistan Movement, Partition of India, and British Raj

The gradual decline of the Mughal Empire in the early eighteenth century enabled Sikh rulers to control large areas until the British East India Company gained ascendancy over South Asia.^[35]The Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, was the region's major armed struggle against the British.[1] The largely non-violent freedom struggle led by the Indian National Congress engaged millions of protesters in mass campaigns of civil disobedience in the 1920s and 1930s.^[36][37]

 

The All-India Muslim League rose to popularity in the late 1930s amid fears of under-representation and neglect of Muslims in politics. In his presidential address of 29 December 1930, Muhammad Iqbal called for "the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State" consisting of Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan.^[38] Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, espoused the two-nation theory and led the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolution of 1940, popularly known as the Pakistan Resolution.^[35] In early 1947, Britain announced the decision to end its rule in India. In June 1947, the nationalist leaders of British India—including Jawaharlal Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad representing the Congress, Jinnah representing the Muslim League, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs—agreed to the proposed terms of transfer of power and independence.^[39]

The modern state of Pakistan was established on 14 August 1947 (27 Ramadan 1366 in the Islamic Calendar) in the eastern and northwestern regions of British India, where there was a Muslim majority. It comprised the provinces of Balochistan, East Bengal, the North-West Frontier Province, West Punjab and Sindh.^[35][39] The partition of the Punjab and Bengal provinces led to communal riots across India and Pakistan; millions of Muslims moved to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs moved to India.^[40] Dispute over Jammu and Kashmir led to the First Kashmir War.^[41][42]