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Pakistan,
officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a
country located in South Asia that overlaps with the
Greater Middle East. It has a thousand-kilometre
coastline along the Arabian Sea in the south and borders
Afghanistan
and Iran
to the west, India
to the east and the People's Republic of China in the
far northeast.
Benazir
Bhutto - former prime minister
The
name "Pakistan" means "Land
of the Pure" in Urdu and Persian and was coined in
1933 by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who published it in the
pamphlet Now or Never as an acronym of the names
of the "Muslim homelands" of western India —
P for Punjab, A for Afghania (the
Afghan areas), K for Kashmir, S for Sindh
and tan for Balochistan. An i was later
added to the English
rendition of the name to ease pronunciation.
Pakistan
is the sixth most populous country in the world and the
second most populous Muslim country, after Indonesia.
It was established as a modern state in 1947, as one of
the two parts of the partitioned British India, but the
region has a long history of settlement and civilisation
including the Indus Valley Civilisation. The region was
invaded by Afghans, Greeks,
Persians, Arabs, and was incorporated into British Raj
in the nineteenth century. Since independence, Pakistan
has experienced both times of significant growth, both
military and economic, and times of instability, with
the loss of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
Pakistan has the seventh largest armed forces in the
world and is a declared nuclear weapons state.
اسلامی
جمہوریۂ
پاکستان
Islāmī Jamhūriya-i-Pākistān
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
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Flag
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State
Emblem
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Motto:
Iman, Ittehad, Nazm
(English: Faith, Unity, Discipline)
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Anthem:
Qaumi Tarana
(National Anthem)
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Capital
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Islamabad
33°40′N
73°10′E
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Largest city
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Karachi
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Official language(s)
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Urdu,
English
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Government
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Federal
Republic
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-
President
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Pervez
Musharraf
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Prime Minister
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Shaukat
Aziz
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Independence
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From
United
Kingdom
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Declared
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1947-08-14
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Republic
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1956-03-23
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Area
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Total
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803,940 km˛ (35rd)
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310,403 sq mi
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Water (%)
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3.1
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Population
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2006 est.
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163,985,373 (6th)
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Density
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211/km˛ (42nd)
529/sq mi
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GDP
(PPP)
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2005
estimate
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Total
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$393.4
billion (26th)
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Per capita
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$2,400 (128th)
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HDI
(2003)
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0.527 (135th) – medium
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Currency
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Rupee
(Rs.) (PKR)
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Time
zone
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PST
(UTC+5:00)
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Summer (DST)
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not
observed (UTC+6:00)
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| Internet
TLD |
.pk |
| Calling
code |
+92 |
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