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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country by area and the ninth-largest in Asia. Bounded by the Arabian Sea on the south, the Gulf of Oman on the southwest, and the Sir Creek on the southeast, it shares land borders with India to the east; Afghanistan to the west; Iran to the southwest; and China to the northeast. It shares a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman, and is separated from Tajikistan in the northwest by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor.
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, and the ancient Gandhara civilisation. The regions that compose the modern state of Pakistan were the realm of multiple empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid, the Maurya, the Kushan, the Gupta; the Umayyad Caliphate in its southern regions, the Samma, the Hindu Shahis, the Shah Miris, the Ghaznavids, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals, and most recently, the British Raj from 1858 to 1947. (Full article...)
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Pakistan face legal and social difficulties compared to non-LGBT persons. Pakistani law prescribes criminal penalties for same-sex sexual acts.
The Pakistani Penal Code of 1860, originally developed under the British Raj, criminalises sodomy with possible penalties of prison sentences from two years to a life sentence and fines. Despite its illegality, homosexual acts are only occasionally prosecuted by authorities, but it's sometimes used to threaten and harass homosexuals under threat of prosecution. Other morality and public order provisions in the Penal Code are used to target LGBT Pakistanis as well. Another greater problem can be vigilate policing and killings by Islamist and terrorist groups. Police may also act illegally and arrest LGBTQ individuals despite the law stating otherwise. (Full article...)![]() | |
An illuminated view of famous Empress Market in Karachi. Empress Market is located in Saddar Town of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It was built in 1889 and was named in honour of Queen Victoria, Empress of British Empire in South Asia. Empress Market is the central shopping centre of Karachi. Photo credit: Cyclops1789 |
Clickable map of the four provinces and three federal territories of Pakistan.
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Provinces:
Territories: Pakistani-administered portions of the Kashmir: |
Hina Rabbani Khar (Urdu: حنا ربانی کھر; born 19 November 1974) is a Pakistani politician, who served as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs since 19 April 2022 till 10 August 2023. She was previously appointed in July 2011 as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, she was the first woman to have held the position. Khar had been a member of the National Assembly from August 2018 to August 2023.
Khar is a member of an influential feudal family in Muzaffargarh. She studied business at LUMS and University of Massachusetts Amherst before entering politics as a member of the national assembly in 2002, representing the PML-Q and becoming a junior minister responsible for economic policy under the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. In 2009, after switching parties and winning re-election with the Pakistan Peoples Party, she became the Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs and the same year became the first woman to present the national budget.[5] She was appointed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan in July 2011, and served until shortly before the 2013 election, when she retired from active politics. She has continued to push for stronger ties with India. (Full article...)
“ | People who have no hold over their process of thinking are likely to be ruined by liberty of thought. If thought is immature, liberty of thought becomes a method of converting men into animals. | ” |
— Allama Iqbal (National Poet of Pakistan) |
Religions in Pakistan
Indian Subcontinent
Other countries
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