Pakistan

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The Islamic Republic Pakistan**__ Pakistan is placed in Asia, between The Middle East, and the Indus Valley. It's bordered with India to the east, Afghanistan and Iran in the west and China in the far northeast. It also got a sealine to the Arabian Sea. Pakistan is aminly parted in 4 provinces; Punjab, Balutsjistan, Sind and North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Capital city is Islamabad, though Karachi is the greatest city. Other lagre cities, are Reshawar, Quetta and Lahore. The National language is Urdu, but the the official one is english. Pakistan is the world's 6th largest country in population (numbers from 2007), with their 164 694 740 citizens. 95% are muslims. Density: approx. 206/km2. Pakistan's national motto is «Unity, Dicipline and Faith». Pakistan became an Islamic republic March 23th, 1956. President: Pervez Musharraf. Prime Minister: Shouqat Aziz. National Holiday: August 14th. Since it was on the 14th of August in 1947 Pakistan was declared as an independent state. National Anthem: Qaumi Tarana. Tallest peak: K2 (8611 AMSL). It's the world's 2nd largest mountain, after Mount Everest. other tall peaks: Nanga Parbat (8126 AMSL), Gasherbrum 1 (K5 - 8080 AMSL), Broad Peak (K3 - 8047 AMSL) and Gasherbrum 2 (K4 - 8035 AMSL). Longest River: Indus River, which comes from India in the north, and runs out into the Arabian Sea. approx. 3.200 km. Watershed in Indus River: 1'165'000 cubic meters. Other great rivers in Pakistan: Jhelum, Chenab and Ravi. Area: 803 940 km2. 3.1% water. 34th largest country in the world. Timezone: UTC +5. Top industries: Telecom, steel, software, automotives, textiles, cement, fertilizer, ship building, and later, also aerospace. Calling code: +92.

Government and Politics
Pakistan is a Federal democratic republic, with Islam as the state region. The Muslim League formed Pakistan’s first government under the leader ship of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquate Ali Khan. But when other Pakistan parties came the Muslim League parties leadership of Pakistan decreased. The parties that came were: Pakistan People's party in West Pakistan, Awami League in East Pakistan wich Leaded to the creation of Bangladesh. The First constitution of Pakistan was made in 1956, but was suspended in 1958 by Ayub Khan. In the politics in Pakistan, the military has played an important role, because from 1958- 1971 the president was military and from 1977-1988 and from the year 1999 and onward. Pakistan is an active member of the UN (United Nations) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Pakistan is also a member of the major regional organizations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s (SAARC). Pakistan has had mixed relations with the US, in the 1950s Pakistan were USA’s biggest allied. During the soviet-afghan war in the 1980’s, Pakistan was an important US ally. But in the 1990’s when the US suspected Pakistan for having nuclear weapons.

Comparesing between the United Kingdom and Pakistan in Politics:
United Kingdom has a Constitutional monarchy which means that they have a king or a queen. In Pakistan they have a Federal democratic republic which means they have a president.

Pakistan's history
Pakistani history goes back over 2000 years. In 300 B.C, Alexander the Great took control over Punjab. Afterwards, Greek colonists settled near the Khyber Pass and in the Punjab region. When Alexander the Great died, his generals divided his kingdom into smaller pieces, and Pakistan became a part of the Selevkid Dynasty. The name comes from one his best friends, general Selevkos. The Greek kept control of Pakistan for many many years, but more and more of the population was converted into Muslims. In the late 1500s Pakistan became a part of the Mughal Kingdom, with Lahore as the capital city. Lahore is still one of the largest cities in Pakistan. The Mughal Kingdom consisted of large parts of west Asia, India, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. The Mughal Kingdom kept control until the start of the 1600s. During this time, the Mughals built a lot of magnificent buildings and monuments, like Taj Mahal, wich is a grave monument in the town Agra. Sjah Jahan built this monument in memory of his favourite wife (He had a harem of wives) Mumtaz Mahal. Taj Mahal

In 1498, Vasco Da Gama discovered a new sea route to India. This made trading a lot easier between Asia and Europe. Not long after, the Portuguese started to set up trading ports on India’s west coast, in Bombay, Goa, Daman and Diu. But the Portuguese couldn’t keep other countries from using the route. In the years to come, the Dutch, the French and the British started setting up trading ports in the major cities on the west coast. In the following years, Britain got more and more power in west Asia, and ousted //[[konkurrere ut] oust («» fx. he ousted his competitors);]// the other European colonies. In 1757, the British took full control over India, and Pakistan with it.

The Muslims started to form resistance groups that fought for their own independent country. In 1930, The Muslim League was formed, this was political party that fought for a Muslim state in the north-west of India. In 1940, the Muslim league got their own state, Pakistan. But they were still ruled by Britain. The name “Pakistan” was made up by Choudhary Rahmat Ali. He took letters from all the different regions; P for Punjab, A for the afghan areas, K for Kashmir, Sindh nad tan for Baluchistan. The I was added later on to ease the English pronunciation. The name Pakistan can be divided in two parts, “Pak” Witch means clean, and “Stan” witch means land/home. Together this makes “Country of the clean,” or “The clean’s country.” On 14 august 1947, two muslim parties separated from the rest of India and formed the country Pakistan (They were only an Indian state before) Pakistan was divided into two parts, east and west. The eastern part had the majority in the national assembly, but the leaders in the west refused to give up their power. This lead to a civil war between the western guerrilla, and the eastern army. This war endured for nine months, until India attacked the Pakistani army (east) the 6. December 1971, and the Pakistani Army surrendered 16 December same year. Then the eastern part of Pakistan became a new country, Bangladesh. Benazir Bhutto was the first female president in a muslim country ever, when se was elected in 1988. She was re-elected in 1993, but had to resign after a corruption scandal in 1996

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History
[|India Map] [|Taj Mahal Picture] [|india.suramya.com] [|Norwegian Wikipedia] [|Vagabond.info] [|English Wikipedia] [|English Wikipedia India's history]

[|Pakistan general facts]
[|Norwegian Wikipedia] [|World Map] [|Pakistani flag]