50 amazing facts about pakistan
And today I'm going to be talking to you all about the wonderful land of Pakistan a country with the history stretching back thousands of years or only a few decades it depends on how you look at it isn't history fun don't answer that but yes we're going to be learning all about one of the world's most up-and-coming nations unlike other countries that are rapidly on the decline not naming names just saying anyways what delightful group is Pakistan's national fruit we're in Pakistan should you go if you want to get your hands on some scary cheap broomsticks and how many awards will my flawless ogu pronunciation backed me two or three those questions are going to be answered so sit down shut up I'm prepared to get filled up with knowledge from the verdant realm of South Asia as we Carine perilously through 50 facts about Pakistan.
Number 1
Pakistan officially known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a country in South Asia it's big it's full of people and can go there if you want yeah sounds like a country to me.
Number 2
Pakistan is bordered on its west by Iran and Afghanistan with Afghanistan skinny little Wacken corridor capping off its northern edge the country also shares borders with China and India around the disputed northern eastern Kashmir region and a less controversial eastern border with western India to the south Pakistan has a 650 mile long coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman and as such shares a maritime border with imam and that's a caste and baby.
Number 3
The area that falls within the borders of what's now Pakistan is home to some of the earliest known signs of human occupation outside of Africa stone artifacts dating back almost two million years have been found in northern Pakistan and evidence suggests that ancient Stone Age cultures of hunter-gatherers lived on the part of our plateau and in the soand valley of northern Punjab and least as early as three hundred thousand years ago.
Number 4
At some point in around 3300 BCE the renowned industry began to emerge in what's now Pakistan flourishing roughly between 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE when the population is thought to have reached up to five million people also known as the Harappan civilization the Indus Valley Civilisation is known for its sophisticated bureaucracy and infrastructure as well as its elaborate water supply and drainage systems characterized baked brick houses and cultural of answers in handicraft and metallurgy nice.
Number 5
By 1300 BCE the Indus Valley Civilisation have declined only to be replaced with the Vedic civilization this period in Pakistan's history is named after the Vedas a large body of religious texts which constitute the oldest scriptures of Hinduism the Vedic period began to form with the migrations and invasions of Aryan people into that area and we should point out that in this context the word Aryan is a historical term for indo-iranian z' not the far less pleasant you know world war ii virgin regardless this period spanned roughly a thousand years from 1500 bc aged around 500 BCE from which point control of the region repeatedly change hands between various conquering civilizations for the next few hundred years.
Number 6
Number 7
Alexander the Great's a king of the ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedon waltzed right in he then won the battle heard espies conquered up the place good and proper and gain control of the Punjab region good job for him too bad he died almost immediately afterwards oh well.
Number 8
And so in roughly 322 BC II much of what is now Pakistan was brought under the control of the maurya empire by a fellow named Chandra Gupta who founded the entire chuffin thing norine dynasty lasted around 180 years during which time Buddhism was introduced in Pakistan after the conversion of his grandson Ashoka.
Number 9
For a while after that much of the region fell under the control of the Greek people who'd settled in the time of Alexander the Great establishing the Hellenistic indo-greek kingdom in 180 BCE that spread of a present-day sand Afghanistan a part of Pakistan which lasted until the Year 10 like when Jesus was figuring whether or not he wanted to be the savior of humanity was a tough age .
Number 10
In the year 60 the Kushan Empire rose to prominence and began to dominate the region descended from a Central Asian people known as the USA the people of the kushan empire were instrumental in the establishment of Buddhism in India and it spread to Central Asia and China not only that the interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures led to the advent of some snazzy Greco Buddhist art that's um a great cultural fusion right there.
Number 11
However by the end of the two hundreds the cushion Empire had weakened allowing the expanding saturated Persian Empire to move into the region meanwhile somewhere around 320 C ie the Gupta Empire of India conquered the southern portion of Pakistan and brought there until the Year 600 basically what was going on taking place winding down and then kicking off again that's history baby.
Number 12
Then at some point between 420 nice and 450 CA the so-called white hunts or Heth delights entered northern Pakistan so yeah now it was the white hunters turned to rule that general area before another group turned up Oh another group turning up but right now okay great let's move on because this one one's a biggie.
Number 13
In the year 712 much of what is now southern Pakistan was conquered by Muhammad bin Qasim of the umayyad caliphates and brought the region under Arab control as a result Islam was introduced exerting profound influence over lived cult and traditions of the area's inhabitants.
Number 14
Then in the late 10th century the Gasman in Empire to go over with the arrival of the Turkic ruler Mahmud of Ghazni who had very little tolerance for religions other than Islam as a result of a mood of Ghazni further entrenched the Islamic faith deeper into the region setting the religious character of what would later become Pakistan for centuries to come.
Number 15
Where the 13th century much of what is now southern Pakistan was brought under the control of the delicious sounding Delhi Sultanate an Islamic empire established by the successes of a rabble rouser called Mohammed Ghori the Delhi Sultanate would rule over much of Pakistan until well into the 16th century at which point Danson.
Number 16
Then all came to an end on the 21st of April 15 26 when an important chap named Zahira deen muhammad baba faced off ibrahim lodi in the first battle of panipat barber prevailed ending the delhi sultanate and establishing the mughal empire which would eventually grow into one of the largest empires in the history of South Asia this included the vast majority of the Indian subcontinent as well as pretty much all a present-day Pakistan as a result the Mughal Empire had an enormous impact on the culture cuisine an architecture of modern Pakistan.
Number 17
Then starting in the middle of the 18th century almost the entirety of what's now Pakistan was brought under the control of the Durrani Empire I won't be counting all these is a lot of empires going on this band all of the present-day extent of Afghanistan and several smaller areas of the surrounding countries got all this Empire changing is getting really tiresome I could already take like what a couple more their lone a Pakistan felt things crossed.
Number 18
In 1799 a large part of northern Pakistan was brought under the control of the Sikh Empire a short-lived States formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh the Sikh Empire only lasted fifty years because in 18-49 the region became the last major area of the Indian subcontinent to be colonized by wait for it the British surprised us again oh sorry.
Number 19
So yeah in 18-49 in the entire Indian subcontinent including Pakistan was taken over by the British well I suppose more accurately some British this is because it technically wasn't the British government doing the rolling but the British East India Company which was literally just a training company that had grown so large and influential in the area that it even had its own private army however that didn't last too long in Pakistan but his in 1857 there was a massive rebellion in northern India that was brutally quashed by the British after which the East India Company was dissolved and the entire subcontinent was brought under direct British rule.
Number 20
Over the subsequent decades the Muslim minority in British India began to assert themselves found in several organizations to promote the political advancement of Indian Muslims within a predominantly Hindu nation in 1906 the All India Muslim League was founded for this purpose it should be noted that at this point the stated aims the league did not include the establishment of the independent Muslim state that goal did not emerge until later as a result of perceived political bias in favor of the Hindu majority.
Number 21
The desire for a separate Muslim states known as the Pakistan movement did eventually emerge in the subsequent decades as tensions between Muslims and Hindus continued to fester in 1933 a Pakistani nationalist named cherry Rama Arlie published a now famous political pamphlet entitled now-or-never in which he abbreviated the names of five muslim-majority regions of Northwest India to coin the phrase Pakistan and I was later added after the K to improve pronunciation and thus the country's name was born
Number 22
Delightfully the word Pakistan actually has a double meaning in various languages spoken in the region including a Jew and Persian the word Pak means pure and Stan is a suffix meaning place of as such Pakistan essentially means pure land or more poetically land of the pure.
Number 23
At this point following the Second World War Britain had needed the military power nor the financial resources to hold on to India and longer and independence was imminent in early 1947 the British government announced their aim to courant India its independence by mid 1948 though the date was brought later forward based on the tense decades-long debate of the question of Muslim rights the British government eventually agreed to partition India along religious lines.
Number 24
And so on the 14th of August 1947 the Indian Independence Act came into effect finally giving Pakistan its long sought independence with India officially gaining its own independence the next day at the time the newly founded country was split into the area that largely corresponds to present-day Pakistan and East Bengal the two territories would later be known as West and East Pakistan respectively at the risk of stating the obvious here it's important to point out that these two Pakistan's were located just under 1000 miles away from each other on either side of India yeah not ideal how do you think that went stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion of East Pakistan.
Number 25
It's worth noting at this point that owing to the specific circumstances surrounding the country's creation Pakistan is so far the only nation in the world to have been established on the basis of religion good idea bad idea who's to say not what I want facts that's for sure we deal with enough controversy as it is number 26 though the leaders of the Pakistani independence movement sought the separation of Pakistan and India along religious lines in effect this decision had gray consequences when the borders between Pakistan and India were finally revealed millions of people immediately became religious minorities fomenting existing tensions even further Muslims in India were forced to seek safety and security in Pakistan and likewise Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan were forced to do the same by moving to India.
Number 27
The result was the movement of millions of people between these two borders with some estimates per new number of refugees at well over 14 million people constituting the single largest mass migration in human history tragically the process of partition was marred by the eruption widespread religious violence with Muslims on one side and Hindus and Sikhs on the other hundreds of thousands of people were killed in riots massacres and targeted killings with some putting the death toll as high as two million people.
Number 28
Mohammed Ali Jinnah one of the most prominent figures in the Pakistan movement served as the new nation's first leader sadly however janar died on the 11th of September 1948 a little over a year after Pakistan gained its independence after battling both the tuberculosis and lung cancer only weeks later the first Kashmir war broke out between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir resulting in thousands of deaths.
Number 29
In February of 1956 after several years of work pakistan adopted a brand new constitution which declared the country to be an islamic republic where this pakistan cease to be a Dominion kicking our dear old queen lives to the curb not literally metaphorically number 30 in 1965 pakistan and india had another short war over kashmir again both nations declared themselves to prevailed but in reality the outcome was launching inconclusive the conflicts did get the United States and Soviet Union involved though which always liven things up a.
Number 31
To the surprise of no one in 1971 East Pakistan fought its very own independence war known as the Bangladesh Liberation war against West Pakistan owing to the fact that India supported Bangladesh at the time Pakistan and India had another wall between themselves because at this point why not might as well.
Number 32
Dave Jackson on base fall in 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war Pakistani Enya finally sat down in 97 tooth who signed the Simla Agreement which ensured that Pakistan would recognize the independence Bangladesh in exchange for a turn of over 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war since then Pakistan and India have never again gone to.
Number 33
Psyche of course they dead Pakistan and India went to war again in 1999 in a conflict known as the Kargil war due to continued disagreements over Kashmir the Clarkie war lasted just under four months and resulted in thousands of deaths I'd make it snarky joke about the tube you know kissing and making up but honestly I think it's probably best if we leave it at that.
Number 34
Oh last of all which you've already mentioned that on the second May 2011 a guy named Osama bin Laden who happened to be the founder of the Islamic terrorist group al Qaeda was killed by US Special Forces during a raid in Abbottabad a city in northern Pakistan a cool.
Number 35
Today Pakistan is a democratic parliamentary Federal Republic with Islam as a state religion politically Pakistan is separated into six tiers of government starting with the nation as a whole which is split into a number of administrative units the four provinces of Balochistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Punjab and Sindh two autonomous territories known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir and gilgit-baltistan and finally one Federal Territory the Islamabad Capital Territory.
Number 36
Pakistan covers an area roughly three hundred forty thousand five hundred nine square miles making it the 33rd largest country on earth and the ninth largest in Asia annoying in no way number 37 however Pakistan ranks far higher up the leaderboard in terms of bball as it's currently the world's fifth most populous country with a population of roughly 220 people I'm just kidding 220 million people.
Number 38
Geographically Pakistan's divided into three major regions in this plane in the centre and East the bludgers town plateau in the south and west and the northern highlands in the well the north.
Number 39
The Balochistan plateau which covers much of Pakistan's western territory takes up nearly half of the country's total land area however only 5% of the Pakistani population actually lives there.
Number 40
With a population of over 14 million people the largest city of Pakistan is Karachi which is the nation's financial hub Karachi was actually Pakistan's first Capital City following independence a state has it held until the capital was moved to Bravo pindy in 1958.
Number 41
Karachi is so large in fact that it alone produces 42 percent Pakistan's entire GDP suck on that of the Pakistani cities like Peshawar yeah Karachi rules baby the meaning of life today however the capital of Pakistan is as Lama baht which has a population of 1 million 95,000 people making it the ninth largest city in the country Islamabad officially became Pakistan's capital on the 14th of August 1967 exactly 20 years old the country gained its independence.
Number 42
The national language of Pakistan is a do which is spoken by roughly 75 percent of the population and functions of the nation's lingua franca interestingly enough however very few Pakistani speak Urdu as their native language only seven percent of them do.
Number 43
For indeed linguistically speaking Pakistan is an incredibly diverse nation the people of Pakistan collectively speak more than 60 languages which is far far too many examples of Pakistan's numerous languages include saraiki kajari Kashmir II Punjabi Pashto Cindy and Bellucci.
Number 44
While I do is Pakistan's national language indicating its importance to the character and culture of the nation it's also one of the country's two official languages the other being good old no-nonsense English.
Number 45
On the subject of languages it's worth pointing out that Pakistan's literacy rate has gone from just under 18 percent in 1951 to 58 percent in 2018 which is still not great but lots lot better.
Number 46
Every year on the 23rd of March the people of Pakistan celebrate their national day known simply as Pakistan Day the Day commemorates the adoption of the Lahore resolution but the Muslim League which called for greater independence for India's Muslim minority prior to partition.
Number 47
Pakistan's national anthem is to calmy Tirana which literally translates to national anthem less boringly it's also known as the Pax arsamene meaning a sacred land composed in 1949 with lyrics written in 1952 the Pakistani national anthem is actually sung almost entirely in Persian.
Number 48
The flag of Pakistan features a white crescent moon and star on a dark green background with a vertical stripe of white running along the leftmost edge the Crescent star and color green are all traditional symbols of Islam representing the nation's national religion the white band represents Pakistan's would adjust minorities.
Number 49
Not that there are that many religious minorities in Pakistan as you've already guessed by now the majority religion Pakistan is Islam over 95 percent of Pakistani people are Muslims with the remaining portion being Hindus and Christians.
Number 50
As such Pakistan is home to the world's second largest Muslim population second only to those Islamic show-offs in Indonesia interestingly enough the nation with the world's third largest Muslim population is in fact the Hindu majority nation of India.
That was 50 facts about Pakistan did you learn anything new today if so what was it let me know in the comments down below.
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