Portal:Pakistan

The Pakistan Portal

Topics: Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology

About Pakistan

Shortcut

WP:PKWNB

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان‬, islāmī jamhūriya i pākistān), or Pakistan (Urdu: پاکستان‬, pākistān), is a country located in South Asia. Its strategic location at a crossroads of political and religious ideologies has kept it at the forefront of world events. Its culture and history have been enriched by the countless invaders, traders, and settlers who have been a part of the region’s past. The country borders India, Afghanistan, Iran (Persia), China and the Arabian Sea. With around 178 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country, the second most populous Muslim-majority nation. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and the OIC.

The area of Pakistan has a long history of settlement and civilisation that includes some of the most ancient cultures. The region was invaded by Mongols, Greeks, Persians, Arabs, and Turks before being invaded by the British Raj in the Eighteenth century. Pakistan became independent on 14 August 1947 as one of two successor states to British India. (The other successor state was the Union of India, which became the Republic of India in 1950.) Following independence, Pakistan has seen repeated military coups, the loss of East Pakistan in 1971, widespread Islamic fundamentalism and significant military and economic growth, with the second-fastest growing economy amongst the ten most populous countries in the world in 2005 and the twenty-seventh largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity. Pakistan has the seventh largest armed forces in the world and is one of eight declared nuclear weapons states.

More about Pakistan ...

View new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

Mohammad Abdus Salam Urdu: محمد عبد السلام‬; IPA: [əbd̪ʊs səlɑːm]; 29 January 1926 – 21 November 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist who, when he shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to electroweak unification became the first and only Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize and also the first Muslim to win a Nobel Prize in science. Salam's major and notable achievements include the Pati–Salam model, magnetic photon, vector meson, Grand Unified Theory, work on supersymmetry and, most importantly, electroweak theory, for which he was awarded the most prestigious award in Physics – the Nobel Prize. Salam made a major contribution in quantum field theory and advancement of Mathematics at Imperial College London. With his student, Riazuddin, Salam made important contributions to the modern theory on neutrinos, neutron stars and black holes, as well as the work on modernising the quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. (More...)

Archive

edit

Selected picture

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

Archive

edit

Did you know

... 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. ^[1] (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)

More DYK...

edit

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.