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-kilometre (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 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, 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, 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, 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, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Next Eleven Economies, SAARC,
ECO, D8 and the G20 developing nations.
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