Pakistan extends along either side of the
historic Indus River, following its
course from the mountain valleys of the Himalayas down to the Arabian Sea.
Bordering on India, China, Afghanistan and Iran, it is strategically
located astride the ancient trade routes between Asia and Europe.
Pakistan's 796,095 square kilometers of territory include a wide variety
of landscapes, from arid deserts to lush, green valleys to stark mountain
peaks.
While Pakistan as a country is relatively new, the Indus River region is
known as a cradle of civilization. Archaeologists have found fossils of
Homo sapiens in the area which date back 50,000 years. An urban society
known as the Indus Civilization developed around 3,000 BC and flourished
for a period of about fifteen hundred years. One of the reasons for the
rise and the prosperity of the Indus Civilization was its situation right
along a natural trade route between central Asia and the Indian
subcontinent. While this position encouraged the rise of an urban trading
society, it also encouraged wave after wave of invasion, making Pakistan's
history a mind-boggling tapestry of successive conquests.
The separation in 1947 of British
India into the Muslim state of Pakistan (with two sections West and East)
and largely Hindu India was never satisfactorily resolved. A third war
between these countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan seceding and
becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. A dispute over the state of
Kashmir is ongoing. In response to Indian nuclear weapons testing,
Pakistan conducted its own tests in 1998.
Pakistan comprises
four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, NorthWest Frontier and
Baluchistan. Its varied topography is characterised by the Himalayan and
Karakoram mountain ranges in the north, the sparse Baluchistan plateau in
the west, the barren deserts of Sindh in the centre and the alluvial
plains of Punjab in the east. The 2500km Indus River flows from Tibet in
the North, towards the Arabian Sea in the extreme south. It courses right
through the country's fertile alluvial plains, which constitute a third of
the country's land. Most of the nation's cash crops such as cotton, wheat,
rice and sugarcane come from this rich and well-irrigated area. The
capital of Pakistan is Islamabad.
 Pakistan's
population of 128 million is one of the fastest-growing in
Asia. The two largest ethnic groups are the Punjabis, an Indo-Aryan people
who dominate political and business life, and the Pashtuns, who work
mainly as herders and farmers. The northern areas are home to many
distinct ethnic groups, whose eclectic heritage is the result of
intermarriage between local peoples and invaders from elsewhere in Europe
and Asia. The official language is Urdu, and English is used extensively
in business.
There are 20 or more spoken languages
in Pakistan. The most commonly spoken-Punjabi, Sindhi, and Urdu-belong to
the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. According to
1973 Constitution, Urdu is the official language, although English remains
in general use in government, military, business, and higher education.
Urdu spoken as native tongue by perhaps 10 percent of population. Other
provincial languages are Punjabi (spoken by over 60 percent), Sindhi
(spoken by about 11 percent), Pakhtu (spoken by about 11 percent), and
Baluchi (spoken by about 4 percent).
Karachi is the capital of the Sind
province. It is a bustling center of commerce and industry, a big port and
the largest city of Pakistan with a population of over seven million. It
has an International Airport which is a major link on all east and west
air routes. Karachi has sunny beaches at Sandspit, Hawkes Bay, Paradise
Point and Clifton. It has a lot to offer, including the National Museum,
the Hill Park, a golf course, a squash complex and modern medical
facilities.
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