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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 242 million, and has the world's second-largest Muslim population. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country by area, spanning 881,913 square kilometres (340,509 square miles). It has a 1,046-kilometre (650-mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China to the northeast. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a maritime border with Oman.
Pakistan is the site of several ancient cultures, including the 8,500-year-old Neolithic site of Mehrgarh in Balochistan, and the Indus Valley civilisation of the Bronze Age, the most extensive of the civilisations of the Afro-Eurasia. The region that comprises the modern state of Pakistan was the realm of multiple empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid; briefly that of Alexander the Great; the Seleucid, the Maurya, the Kushan, the Gupta; the Umayyad Caliphate in its southern regions, the Hindu Shahis, the Ghaznavids, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals, the Durranis, the Sikh Empire, British East India Company rule, and most recently, the British Indian Empire from 1858 to 1947. (Full article...)
The Badshahi Mosque (Punjabi: بادشاہی مسجد, lit. 'The Royal Mosque') is a Mughal-era congregational mosque in Lahore, capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan. The mosque is located west of Lahore Fort along the outskirts of the Walled City of Lahore, and is widely considered to be one of Lahore's most iconic landmarks.
The Badshahi Mosque was constructed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb between 1671 and 1673 and was the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986. The mosque is an important example of Mughal architecture, with an exterior that is decorated with carved red sandstone with marble inlay. It remains the largest mosque of the Mughal-era, and is the third-largest mosque in Pakistan. After the fall of the Mughal Empire, the mosque was used as a garrison by the British Empire, and is now one of Pakistan's most iconic sights. (Full article...)
Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The airport is located about 15 kilometres from the centre of the city and is named after the poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal who was a major proponent for the foundation of Pakistan. The airport currently has three terminals; the Allama Iqbal terminal, the Hajj terminal, and a cargo terminal. Photo credit: Waqas Usman |
Clickable map of the four provinces and three federal territories of Pakistan.
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Provinces:
Territories: Pakistani-administered portions of the Kashmir: |
Malala Yousafzai (Pashto: ملاله یوسفزۍ, Pashto pronunciation: [məˈlaːlə jusəf ˈzəj]; Urdu: ملالہ یوسفزئی; born 12 July 1997), often referred to mononymously as Malala, is a Pakistani activist for female education and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second Pakistani and the first Pashtun to ever receive a Nobel Prize. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the Pakistani Taliban have at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."
The daughter of education activist Ziauddin Yousafzai, she was born to a Yusufzai Pashtun family in Swat, and named after the Afghan national heroine, Malalai of Maiwand. Considering Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan), Barack Obama, and Benazir Bhutto as her role models, she was particularly inspired by her father's thoughts and humanitarian work. In early 2009, when she was 11, she wrote a blog under her pseudonym Gul Makai for the BBC Urdu to detail her life during the Taliban's occupation of Swat. The following summer, journalist Adam B. Ellick made a New York Times documentary about her life as the Pakistan Armed Forces launched Operation Rah-e-Rast against the militants in Swat. She rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by activist Desmond Tutu. (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) |
Religion:
Islam • Christianity • Hinduism
Geography: Asia • Afghanistan • Bangladesh • China • India • Sri Lanka
Sports: Hockey • Cricket
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