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Destination : PAKISTAN
Pakistan extends along either side of the historic Indus River, following its course from the mountain valleys of the Himalayas down to the Arabian Sea. Bordering on India, China, Afghanistan and Iran, it is strategically located astride the ancient trade routes between Asia and Europe. Pakistan's 796,095 square kilometers of territory include a wide variety of landscapes, from arid deserts to lush, green valleys to stark mountain peaks.
While Pakistan as a country is relatively new, the Indus River region is known as a cradle of civilization. Archaeologists have found fossils of Homo sapiens in the area which date back 50,000 years. An urban society known as the Indus Civilization developed around 3,000 BC and flourished for a period of about fifteen hundred years. One of the reasons for the rise and the prosperity of the Indus Civilization was its situation right along a natural trade route between central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. While this position encouraged the rise of an urban trading society, it also encouraged wave after wave of invasion, making Pakistan's history a mind-boggling tapestry of successive conquests.
The separation in 1947 of British India into the Muslim state of Pakistan (with two sections West and East) and largely Hindu India was never satisfactorily resolved. A third war between these countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan seceding and becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. A dispute over the state of Kashmir is ongoing. In response to Indian nuclear weapons testing, Pakistan conducted its own tests in 1998.Pakistan comprises four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, NorthWest Frontier and Baluchistan. Its varied topography is characterised by the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in the north, the sparse Baluchistan plateau in the west, the barren deserts of Sindh in the centre and the alluvial plains of Punjab in the east. The 2500km Indus River flows from Tibet in the North, towards the Arabian Sea in the extreme south. It courses right through the country's fertile alluvial plains, which constitute a third of the country's land. Most of the nation's cash crops such as cotton, wheat, rice and sugarcane come from this rich and well-irrigated area. The capital of Pakistan is Islamabad.
Pakistan's population of 128 million is one of the fastest-growing in Asia. The two largest ethnic groups are the Punjabis, an Indo-Aryan people who dominate political and business life, and the Pashtuns, who work mainly as herders and farmers. The northern areas are home to many distinct ethnic groups, whose eclectic heritage is the result of intermarriage between local peoples and invaders from elsewhere in Europe and Asia. The official language is Urdu, and English is used extensively in business.
There are 20 or more spoken languages in Pakistan. The most commonly spoken-Punjabi, Sindhi, and Urdu-belong to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. According to 1973 Constitution, Urdu is the official language, although English remains in general use in government, military, business, and higher education.
Urdu spoken as native tongue by perhaps 10 percent of population. Other provincial languages are Punjabi (spoken by over 60 percent), Sindhi (spoken by about 11 percent), Pakhtu (spoken by about 11 percent), and Baluchi (spoken by about 4 percent).
Karachi is the capital of the Sind province. It is a bustling center of commerce and industry, a big port and the largest city of Pakistan with a population of over seven million. It has an International Airport which is a major link on all east and west air routes. Karachi has sunny beaches at Sandspit, Hawkes Bay, Paradise Point and Clifton. It has a lot to offer, including the National Museum, the Hill Park, a golf course, a squash complex and modern medical facilities.
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