The Pakistan Portal
Introduction
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Pakistan (Urdu: پاکِستان [ˈpaːkɪstaːn]), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (اِسلامی جمہوریہ پاکِستان), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-largest Muslim population just behind Indonesia. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country in the world by area and 2nd largest in South Asia, spanning 881,913 square kilometres (340,509 square miles). It has a 1,046-kilometre (650-mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China to the northeast. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a maritime border with Oman. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre.
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, the most extensive of the civilisations of the Afro-Eurasia, and the ancient Gandhara civilization. The region that comprises the modern state of Pakistan was the realm of multiple empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid; briefly that of Alexander the Great; the Seleucid, the Maurya, the Kushan, the Gupta; the Umayyad Caliphate in its southern regions, the Hindu Shahis, the Ghaznavids, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals, the Durranis, the Omani Empire, the Sikh Empire, British East India Company rule, and most recently, the British Indian Empire from 1858 to 1947. (Full article...)
Selected article -
 Khewra Salt Mine tunnel (Crystal Valley) |
The Khewra Salt Mine (or Mayo Salt Mine) is in Khewra, north of Pind Dadan Khan, an administrative subdivision of Jhelum District, Punjab Region, Pakistan. The mine is in the Salt Range, Potohar plateau, which rises from the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and is the second largest in the world.
The mine is famous for its production of pink Khewra salt, often marketed as Himalayan salt, and is a major tourist attraction, drawing up to 250,000 visitors a year. Its history dates back to its discovery by Alexander's troops in 320 BC, but it started trading in the Mughal era. The main tunnel at ground level was developed by H. Warth, a mining engineer, in 1872 during British rule. After independence, the BMR took possession until 1956 and then PIDC owned the mines till 1965. After India-Pakistan war in 1965, the WPIDC took over the administration of salt mines and in 1974, the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation took over the mine, which still remains the largest source of salt in the country, producing more than 350,000 tons per annum of about 99% pure halite. Estimates of the reserves of salt in the mine vary from 82 million tons to 600 million tons. (Full article...)Selected picture -
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A beautiful view of Islamabad from the Daman-e-Koh Park. It a popular viewing point in Islamabad. Its name is a conjunction of two words: Daman, which means center and Koh, which means hill. Daman-e-Koh therefore meaning center of the mountain. It can also be interpreted as hem of the mountain. Photo credit: Finavon | |
General images
The following are images from various Pakistan-related articles on Wikipedia.
Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan's national poet who conceived the idea of Pakistan (from Culture of Pakistan)
A sitar workshop in Islamabad, Pakistan. (from Culture of Pakistan)
Pakistan map of climate classification zones (from Geography of Pakistan)
Men dressed in Shalwar kameez in a general store on the road to Kalash, Pakistan (from Pakistanis)
Sindhi people (from Culture of Pakistan)
Schoolgirls in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, in shalwars with cuffed hems, and kameez with western-style collars. (from Culture of Pakistan)
Located on the bank of Arabian Sea in Karachi, Port Grand is one of the largest food streets of Asia. (from Culture of Pakistan)
A traditional cup of black tea (from Culture of Pakistan)
Distribution of Pakistani diasporaPakistan+ 1,000,000+ 100,000+ 10,000+ 1,000(from Pakistanis)
Dust storm over Pakistan and surrounding countries, 7 April 2005 (from Geography of Pakistan)
The Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam is part of Pakistan's Sufi heritage. (from Culture of Pakistan)
K2, at 8,619 metres (28,251 ft), is the world's second highest peak (from Geography of Pakistan)
The Lahore Fort, a landmark built during the Mughal era, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (from Culture of Pakistan)
Topography of Pakistan (from Geography of Pakistan)
Truck art is a distinctive feature of Pakistani culture. (from Culture of Pakistan)
Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore is the third-largest cricket stadium in Pakistan with a seating capacity of 27,000 spectators. (from Culture of Pakistan)
Satellite image of the Sulaiman Range (from Geography of Pakistan)
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.
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Provinces:
Territories: Pakistani-administered portions of the Kashmir: | |
Things you can do
Selected biography -
_(cropped).jpg) Khan in 2019 at UNGA |
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi HI(M) PP (Urdu: عمران احمد خان نیازی; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidence in the National Assembly. He is the founder and chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Born to a Niazi Pashtun family in Lahore, Khan graduated from Keble College, University of Oxford, England, in 1975. He began his international cricket career at age 18, in a 1971 Test series against England. Khan played until 1992, served as the team's captain intermittently between 1982 and 1992, and won the 1992 Cricket World Cup, in what is Pakistan's first and only victory in the competition. Considered one of cricket's greatest all-rounders, Khan scored 3,807 runs and took 362 wickets in Test cricket and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. Khan founded cancer hospitals in Lahore and Peshawar, and Namal College in Mianwali, prior to entering politics. Founding the PTI in 1996, Khan won a seat in the National Assembly in the 2002 general election, serving as an opposition member from Mianwali until 2007. PTI boycotted the 2008 general election and became the second-largest party by popular vote in the 2013 general election. In the 2018 general election, running on a populist platform, PTI became the largest party in the National Assembly, and formed a coalition government with independents with Khan as Prime Minister. (Full article...)Did you know?
- ... 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
Today is January 28, 2023
- 27 January 2023 – Environmental issues in Pakistan
- At least 18 people have been killed in the past two weeks by toxic chemicals from factories in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. (Al Jazeera)
- 23 January 2023 –
- A major power outage in Pakistan leaves nearly 220 million people without electricity after a failure at the national power grid. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered a reduction in energy consumption as the country faces a severe energy crisis. (CNN) (Reuters)
- 20 January 2023 – Insurgency in Balochistan
- A bomb blast derails a passenger train in Peshi village, Kachhi District, Balochistan, Pakistan, injuring 13 people. (Al Jazeera)
- 19 January 2023 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Three police officers are killed in a suicide bombing at a police outpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (Reuters)
- 4 January 2023 – Terrorism in Pakistan
- Two intelligence officers, including the director of the provincial counterterrorism department, are shot dead outside a restaurant in Khanewal, Punjab, Pakistan, by suspected Pakistani Taliban gunmen. (Al Jazeera)
- 3 January 2023 – 2021–2023 global energy crisis
- 2022–2023 Pakistan economic crisis
Quote of the Day -
| “ | There is no power on Earth that can undo Pakistan. | ” |
| — Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Founder of Pakistan) | ||
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Sources
- ^ Mahendra, Anjali. "The Metro Bus System comes to Lahore, Pakistan". TheCityFix. World Resources Institute. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
- ^ "Lahore Knowledge Park Company".
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