185-508: West Pakistan was the western province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1970 , covering the territory of present-day Pakistan. Its land borders were with Afghanistan , India and Iran , with a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman in the Arabian Sea . Following its independence from British rule , the new Dominion of Pakistan was physically separated into two exclaves, with
370-450: A Pew Research Center (PEW) poll, favor Sharia law as the official law, and 94 percent of them identify more with religion than nationality compared to Muslims in other nations. Pakistan, a federal parliamentary republic , consists of four provinces : Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan, along with three territories : Islamabad Capital Territory , Gilgit-Baltistan , and Azad Kashmir . The Government of Pakistan governs
555-548: A military coup in 1977 against the leftist PPP, which saw General Zia-ul-Haq become the president in 1978. From 1977 to 1988, President Zia's corporatisation and economic Islamisation initiatives led to Pakistan becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in South Asia. While building up the country's nuclear program , increasing Islamisation , and the rise of a homegrown conservative philosophy, Pakistan helped subsidise and distribute US resources to factions of
740-409: A nine-month-long civil war . In the following four decades, Pakistan has been ruled by governments whose descriptions, although complex, commonly alternated between civilian and military, democratic and authoritarian, relatively secular and Islamist. Pakistan is considered a middle power nation, with the world's sixth-largest standing armed forces . It is a declared nuclear-weapons state , and
925-774: A supermajority in elections in 1997, Nawaz Sharif authorised nuclear testings , as a retaliation to the second nuclear tests conducted by India in May 1998. Military tension between the two countries in the Kargil district led to the Kargil War of 1999, and turmoil in civil-military relations allowed General Pervez Musharraf to take over through a bloodless coup d'état . Musharraf governed Pakistan as chief executive from 1999 to 2002 and as president from 2001 to 2008 —a period of enlightenment , social liberalism , extensive economic reforms , and direct involvement in
1110-481: A 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 7.42/10, ranking 41st globally out of 172 countries. Pakistan operates as a democratic parliamentary federal republic , with Islam designated as the state religion . Initially adopting a constitution in 1956 , Pakistan saw it suspended by Ayub Khan in 1958, replaced by a second constitution in 1962. A comprehensive constitution emerged in 1973, suspended by Zia-ul-Haq in 1977 but reinstated in 1985, shaping
1295-698: A Boundary Commission be set up consisting of two Muslim and two non-Muslim members recommended by the Punjab Legislative Assembly. He also proposed that a British judge of the High Court be appointed as the chairman of the commission. Jinnah and the Muslim League continued to oppose the idea of partitioning the provinces, and the Sikhs were disturbed about the possibility of getting only 12 districts (without Gurdaspur). In this context,
1480-808: A Muslim majority. It would also give Pakistan the Shakargarh, Batala and Gurdaspur tehsils of the Gurdaspur district. If the boundary went by Doabs, Pakistan could get not only the 16 districts which had already under the notional partition been put into West Punjab, including the Gurdaspur District, but also get the Kangra District in the mountains, which was about 93% Hindu and was located to the north and east of Gurdaspur. Or one could go by commissioners' divisions. Any of these units being adopted would have been more favourable to Pakistan than
1665-775: A Sikh state with Ambala , Jalandher , Lahore Divisions with some districts from the Multan Division , which, however, did not meet the Cabinet delegates' agreement. In discussions with Jinnah, the Cabinet Mission offered either a 'smaller Pakistan' with all the Muslim-majority districts except Gurdaspur or a 'larger Pakistan' under the sovereignty of the Indian Union. The Cabinet Mission came close to success with its proposal for an Indian Union under
1850-408: A blend of socialism , conservatism , and the third way , with the three main political parties being the conservative PML (N), socialist PPP, and centrist PTI. Constitutional amendments in 2010 curtailed presidential powers, enhancing the role of the prime minister. Pakistan, the only country established in the name of Islam, had overwhelming support among Muslims, especially in provinces like
2035-659: A continental type of climate without extensive rainfall. Due to its low rainfall, the main crops of West Pakistan were wheat, millets, and cotton and any crop that did not require much water. West Pakistan Province Comprises in 12 divisions, 45 districts and 6 agencies. The administration of West Pakistan Province is given below: During West Pakistan's conflict with India, East Pakistan's military government remained silent and did not send any troops to exert pressure on Eastern India . West Pakistan accused East Pakistan of not taking any action, and their inaction caused West Pakistani resentment against East Pakistan's government. In fact,
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#17327654921992220-574: A cool, dry winter from December through February; a hot, dry spring from March through May; the summer rainy season, or southwest monsoon period, from June through September; and the retreating monsoon period of October and November. Rainfall varies greatly from year to year, with patterns of alternate flooding and drought common. The diverse landscape and climate in Pakistan support a wide range of trees and plants. From coniferous alpine and subalpine trees like spruce , pine , and deodar cedar in
2405-632: A devastating cyclone in East Pakistan resulting in 500,000 deaths. In 1970, Pakistan conducted its first democratic elections since independence, intending to transition from military rule to democracy. However, after the East Pakistani Awami League emerged victorious over the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Yahya Khan and the military refused to transfer power. This led to Operation Searchlight ,
2590-546: A disproportionately small number of seats in the Constituent Assembly . This administrative inequality between the two wings, coupled with the major geographical distance between them, was believed to be delaying the adoption of a constitution for Pakistan . To aid in diminishing the differences between the two regions, the Pakistani government decided to reorganize the country into two distinct provinces under
2775-516: A federal scheme, but it fell apart in the end because of Nehru's opposition to a heavily decentralised India. In March 1947, Lord Mountbatten arrived in India as the next viceroy, with an explicit mandate to achieve the transfer of power before June 1948. Over ten days, Mountbatten obtained the agreement of Congress to the Pakistan demand except for the 13 eastern districts of Punjab (including Amritsar and Gurdaspur). However, Jinnah held out. Through
2960-698: A final attempt to prevent partition, they proposed the Cabinet Mission Plan . As the Cabinet Mission failed, the British announced their intention to end rule by June 1948. Following rigorous discussions involving Viceroy of India , Lord Mountbatten of Burma , Muhammad Ali Jinnah of the All-India Muslim League , and Jawaharlal Nehru of Congress, the formal declaration to partition British India into two independent dominions—namely Pakistan and India—was issued by Mountbatten on
3145-743: A majority of the regional population to Islam. Upon the defeat of the Turk and Hindu Shahi dynasties which governed the Kabul Valley , Gandhara (present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), and western Punjab in the 7th to 11th centuries CE, several successive Muslim empires ruled over the region, including the Ghaznavid Empire (975–1187 CE), the Ghorid Kingdom, and the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 CE). The Lodi dynasty ,
3330-407: A marginally faster growing population than East Pakistan. The literacy rate in Pakistan was 19.2%, in which East Pakistan had a literacy rate of 21.5% while West Pakistan had a literacy rate of 16.9%. The major ethnic groups of West Pakistan was made up of Punjabis (who made up the overall majority of the province), Pashtuns, Sindhis, Muhajirs, and Balochis. During British India's partition, it
3515-729: A military crackdown, and eventually sparked the war of liberation by Bengali Mukti Bahini forces in East Pakistan, described in West Pakistan as a civil war rather than a liberation struggle. Independent researchers estimate that between 300,000 and 500,000 civilians died during this period while the Bangladesh government puts the number of dead at three million, a figure that is now nearly universally regarded as excessively inflated. Some academics such as Rudolph Rummel and Rounaq Jahan say both sides committed genocide; others such as Richard Sisson and Leo E. Rose believe there
3700-455: A pamphlet Now or Never , using it as an acronym . Rahmat Ali explained: "It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our homelands, Indian and Asian, P anjab , A fghania , K ashmir , S indh , and Baluchis tan ." He added, "Pakistan is both a Persian and Urdu word... It means the land of the Paks, the spiritually pure and clean." Etymologists note that پاک pāk ,
3885-565: A parliamentary democracy (and had a parliamentary republic form of government since 1947), with Islam as its state religion. In contrast, East Pakistan had been a socialist state since the 1954 elections , with state secularism proclaimed. West Pakistan sided with the United States and her NATO allies , whilst East Pakistan remained sympathetic to the Soviet Union and her Eastern Bloc . Pakistan's 1956 constitution validated
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#17327654921994070-542: A part of UNESCO 's Histories flagship project, recently disclosed documents of the history of the partition reveal British complicity with the top Indian leadership to wrest Kashmir from Pakistan. Alastair Lamb, based on the study of recently declassified documents, has convincingly proven that Mountbatten, in league with Nehru, was instrumental in pressurizing Radcliffe to award the Muslim-majority district of Gurdaspur in East Punjab to India which could provide India with
4255-463: A preamble to the constitutions of 1956, 1962, and 1973. Democracy faced setbacks due to the martial law imposed by President Iskander Mirza , who was succeeded by General Ayub Khan . After adopting a presidential system in 1962, Pakistan witnessed significant growth until the second war with India in 1965, resulting in an economic downturn and widespread public discontent in 1967. In 1969, President Yahya Khan consolidated control, but faced
4440-604: A quick and dignified British withdrawal". "Many of the seeds of postcolonial disorder in South Asia were sown much earlier, in a century and half of direct and indirect British control of large part of the region, but, as book after book has demonstrated, nothing in the complex tragedy of partition was inevitable." Radcliffe justified the casual division with the truism that no matter what he did, people would suffer. The thinking behind this justification may never be known since Radcliffe "destroyed all his papers before he left India". He departed on Independence Day itself, before even
4625-473: A ratio of 64% for India and 36% for Pakistan. Most of the military assets – such as weapons depots and military bases – were located inside India; facilities in Pakistan were mostly obsolete, and they had a dangerously low ammunition reserve of only one week. Four divisions were raised in West Pakistan, whilst one division was raised in East Pakistan. From the time of its establishment, the State of Pakistan had
4810-407: A republic. The creation of Pakistan was never fully accepted by many British leaders including Lord Mountbatten . Mountbatten expressed his lack of support and faith in the Muslim League's idea of Pakistan. Jinnah refused Mountbatten's offer to serve as Governor-General of Pakistan. When Mountbatten was asked by Collins and Lapierre if he would have sabotaged Pakistan had he known that Jinnah
4995-484: A respected Deobandi alim (scholar) who held the position of Shaykh al-Islam in Pakistan in 1949, and Maulana Mawdudi of Jamaat-i-Islami played key roles in advocating for an Islamic constitution. Mawdudi insisted that the Constituent Assembly declare the "supreme sovereignty of God" and the supremacy of the shariah in Pakistan. The efforts of Jamaat-i-Islami and the ulama led to the passage of
5180-463: A result of a coalition between PML (N) and PPPP. Pakistan's diverse geography and climate host a wide array of wildlife . Covering 881,913 km (340,509 sq mi), Pakistan's size is comparable to France and the UK combined. It ranks as the 33rd-largest nation by total area , but this varies based on Kashmir's disputed status. Pakistan boasts a 1,046 km (650 mi) coastline along
5365-485: A road link to Jammu and Kashmir." As per the 'notional' award that had already been put into effect for purposes of administration ad interim, all of Gurdaspur district, owing to its Muslim majority, was assigned to Pakistan. From 14 to 17 August, Mushtaq Ahmed Cheema acted as the Deputy Commissioner of the Gurdaspur District, but when, after a delay of two days, it was announced that the major portion of
5550-561: A seemingly homogeneous block, but in reality it comprised marked linguistic and ethnic distinctions. The four provinces did not quite fit official definitions of a single nation. The Sindhi and Urdu-speaking class in Sindh Province revolted against the One Unit policy. The violence spread to Balochistan Province , Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab Province . The One Unit policy was a failure in West Pakistan, and its survival
5735-566: A series of six meetings with Mountbatten, he continued to maintain that his demand was for six full provinces. He "bitterly complained" that the Viceroy was ruining his Pakistan by cutting Punjab and Bengal in half as this would mean a 'moth-eaten Pakistan'. The Gurdaspur district remained a key contentious issue for the non-Muslims. Their members of the Punjab legislature made representations to Mountbatten's chief of staff Lord Ismay as well as
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5920-820: A united Islamic bloc, called Islamistan, wasn't supported by other Muslim governments, though figures like the Grand Mufti of Palestine, Al-Haj Amin al-Husseini , and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood were drawn to the country. Pakistan's desire for an international organization of Muslim countries was fulfilled in the 1970s when the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) was formed. East Pakistan's Bengali Muslims, opposed to an Islamist state, clashed with West Pakistanis who leaned towards Islamic identity. The Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami backed an Islamic state and opposed Bengali nationalism . After
6105-754: Is 'pure' in Persian and Pashto and the Persian suffix ـستان -stan means 'land' or 'place of'. Rahmat Ali's concept of Pakistan only related to the northwestern area of the Indian subcontinent . He also proposed the name "Banglastan" for the Muslim areas of Bengal and "Osmanistan" for Hyderabad State , as well as a political federation between the three. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan. The earliest known inhabitants in
6290-992: Is a member of the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation , the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , the Commonwealth of Nations , the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation , and the Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition , and is designated as a major non-NATO ally by the United States. The name Pakistan was coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali , a Pakistan Movement activist, who in January 1933 first published it (originally as "Pakstan") in
6475-678: Is divided into three major geographic areas: the northern highlands, the Indus River plain, and the Balochistan Plateau. The northern highlands feature the Karakoram , Hindu Kush , and Pamir mountain ranges, hosting some of the world's highest peaks, including five of the fourteen eight-thousanders (mountain peaks over 8,000 metres or 26,250 feet), notably K2 (8,611 m or 28,251 ft) and Nanga Parbat (8,126 m or 26,660 ft). The Balochistan Plateau lies in
6660-404: Is likely to be found". The Sikh leader Master Tara Singh could see that any division of Punjab would leave the Sikhs divided between Pakistan and Hindustan. He espoused the doctrine of self-reliance, opposed the partition of India and called for independence on the grounds that no single religious community should control Punjab. Other Sikhs argued that just as Muslims feared Hindu domination
6845-474: Is one of the most attractive places in Islamabad, yet the most largely beautiful building in the state capital. This provisional parliament had no lasting effects of West Pakistan's affairs but it was a ceremonial legislature where the lawmakers would gather around to discuss non-political matters. In 1965, the legislative parliament was moved to Islamabad after Ayub Khan built a massive capitol. The assembly
7030-523: Is ranked amongst the emerging and growth-leading economies, with a large and rapidly growing middle class. Pakistan's political history since independence has been characterized by periods of significant economic and military growth as well as those of political and economic instability. It is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with similarly diverse geography and wildlife . The country continues to face challenges, including poverty , illiteracy , corruption , and terrorism . Pakistan
7215-868: Is the only animal found in significant numbers in Cholistan , with a few nilgai along the Pakistan–India border and in some parts of Cholistan. Rare animals include the snow leopard and the blind Indus river dolphin , of which there are believed to be about 1,816 remaining, protected at the Indus Dolphin Reserve in Sindh. In total, 174 species of mammals, 177 species of reptiles, 22 species of amphibians, 198 species of freshwater fish, 668 species of birds, over 5,000 species of insects, and over 5,700 species of plants have been recorded in Pakistan. Pakistan faces deforestation, hunting, and pollution, with
7400-663: Is today Pakistan. During this period, the Vedas , the oldest scriptures of Hinduism , were composed. The western regions of Pakistan became part of Achaemenid Empire around 517 BCE. In 326 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the region by defeating various local rulers, most notably, the King Porus , at Jhelum . It was followed by the Maurya Empire , founded by Chandragupta Maurya and extended by Ashoka
7585-617: The Bengali freedom fighters and after West Pakistan's subsequent defeat, the exclave of East Pakistan seceded from its union with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as the new People's Republic of Bangladesh . At the time of the state establishment in 1947, the founding fathers of Pakistan participated in the Boundary Commission conference. Headed by Cyril Radcliffe , the commission was tasked with negotiating
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7770-667: The Bikaner State , sent a memorandum to the viceroy titled "Next Step in India", wherein he recommended that the principle of 'Muslim homeland' be conceded but territorial adjustments made to the two provinces to meet the claims of the Hindus and Sikhs. Based on these discussions, the viceroy sent a note on the "Pakistan theory" to the Secretary of State for India . The viceroy informed the Secretary of State that Jinnah envisaged
7955-694: The British Indian Empire , and remained so until independence in 1947. Under British rule, modern Pakistan was primarily divided into the Sind Division , Punjab Province , and the Baluchistan Agency . The region also included various princely states , with the largest being Bahawalpur . The major armed struggle against the British in the region was the rebellion known as the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857. Divergence in
8140-585: The Constituent Assembly passed the Objectives Resolution and the Annex to the Constitution of Pakistan , paving the road to a Westernized federal parliamentary republic . The work on parliamentary reforms was constituted by the constituent assembly the year after, in 1950. The western section of Pakistan dominated the politics of the new country. Although East Pakistan had over half of
8325-781: The East India Company , and later, after the post- Sepoy Mutiny (1857–1858), direct rule by Queen Victoria of the British Empire , acquired most of the region. Key conflicts included those against the Baloch Talpur dynasty , resolved by the Battle of Miani (1843) in Sindh, the Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845–1849), and the Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839–1919). By 1893, all modern Pakistan was part of
8510-1039: The Hindu Shahis , the Ghaznavids , the Delhi Sultanate , the Samma , the Shah Miris , the Mughals , the Durranis , the Sikhs and most recently, the British Raj from 1858 to 1947. Spurred by the Pakistan Movement , which sought a homeland for the Muslims of British India , and election victories in 1946 by the All-India Muslim League , Pakistan gained independence in 1947 after the Partition of
8695-409: The Indian Air Force Eastern Air Command attacked East Pakistan's Air Force. However, East Pakistan was defended only by the under-strength 14th Infantry Division and sixteen fighter jets; no tanks and no navy were established in East Pakistan. The One Unit policy was regarded as a rational administrative reform that would reduce expenditure and eliminate provincial prejudices. West Pakistan formed
8880-455: The Indian National Congress and two from the Muslim League . Given the deadlock between the interests of the two sides and their rancorous relationship, the final decision was essentially Radcliffe's. After arriving in India on 8 July 1947, Radcliffe was given just five weeks to decide on a border. He soon met with his fellow college alumnus Mountbatten and travelled to Lahore and Calcutta to meet with commission members, chiefly Nehru from
9065-568: The Indian pangolin , the jungle cat , and the sand cat . Indus is home to mugger crocodiles , while surrounding areas host wild boars , deer, and porcupines . Central Pakistan's sandy scrublands shelter Asiatic jackals, striped hyenas , wildcats, and leopards . The mountainous north hosts a variety of animals like the Marco Polo sheep , urial , markhor goat, ibex goat, Asian black bear , and Himalayan brown bear . The lack of vegetative cover, severe climate, and grazing impact on deserts have endangered wild animals. The chinkara
9250-483: The Indian subcontinent . Economic rehabilitation efforts needing the attention of Pakistan's founding fathers further escalated the problems. The division also divided the natural resources , industries , economic infrastructure , manpower , and military might , with India as the larger share owner. India retained 345 million in population (91%) to Pakistan's 35 million (9%). Land area was divided as 78% to India and 22% to Pakistan. Military forces were divided up with
9435-419: 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 . Bounded by the Arabian Sea on the south, the Gulf of Oman on
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#17327654921999620-490: The Karachi Federal Capital Territory , and the autonomous tribal areas adjoining the North-West Frontier Province. The eastern wing of the new country—known as East Pakistan —comprised the single province of East Bengal (which included the former Assamese district of Sylhet and the Chittagong Hill Tracts ). West Pakistan was the politically dominant division of the Pakistani union, despite East Pakistan making up more than half of its population. The eastern wing also had
9805-546: The Kargil conflict of 1999 . There were disputes regarding the Radcliffe Line's award of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Gurdaspur district . Disputes also evolved around the districts of Malda , Khulna , and Murshidabad in Bengal and the sub-division of Karimganj of Assam. In addition to Gurdaspur's Muslim majority tehsils, Radcliffe also gave the Muslim majority tehsils of Ajnala ( Amritsar District ), Zira, Firozpur (in Firozpur District), Nakodar and Jullandur (in Jullandur District) to India instead of Pakistan. On
9990-507: The Nehru Report , Muhammad Ali Jinnah , the founder of Pakistan, issued his fourteen points , which included proposals to safeguard the interests of the Muslim minority in a united India. These proposals were rejected. In his December 29, 1930 address, Allama Iqbal advocated the amalgamation of Muslim-majority states in North-West India, including Punjab , North-West Frontier Province , Sind , and Baluchistan . The perception that Congress-led British provincial governments neglected
10175-416: The Objectives Resolution in March 1949. This resolution, described by Liaquat Ali Khan as the second most significant step in Pakistan's history, affirmed that "sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to God Almighty alone and the authority which He has delegated to the State of Pakistan through its people for being exercised within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust". It was later included as
10360-431: The One Unit policy announced by then Pakistani Prime Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali on 22 November 1954. In 1970, the President of Pakistan General Yahya Khan enacted a series of territorial, constitutional and military reforms. These established the provincial assemblies , state parliament , as well as the current provisional borders of Pakistan's four official provinces . On 1 July 1970, West Pakistan
10545-415: The United Provinces , where Muslims were a minority. This idea, articulated by the Muslim League, the Islamic clergy , and Jinnah, envisioned an Islamic state . Jinnah, closely associated with the ulama , was described upon his death by Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani as the greatest Muslim after Aurangzeb , aspiring to unite Muslims worldwide under Islam. The Objectives Resolution of March 1949 marked
10730-440: The full provinces of Bengal and Punjab going to Pakistan with only minor adjustments, whereas Congress was expecting almost half of these provinces to remain in India. This essentially framed the problem of partition. The Secretary of State responded by directing Lord Wavell to send 'actual proposals for defining genuine Muslim areas'. The task fell on V. P. Menon , the Reforms Commissioner, and his colleague Sir B. N. Rau in
10915-456: The most votes in the elections of 2008, appointing party member Yusuf Raza Gilani as Prime Minister. Threatened with impeachment , President Musharraf resigned on 18 August 2008, and was succeeded by Asif Ali Zardari . Clashes with the judicature prompted Gilani's disqualification from the Parliament and as the Prime Minister in June 2012. The general election held in 2013 saw the PML (N) achieve victory, following which Nawaz Sharif
11100-400: The mujahideen against the USSR 's intervention in communist Afghanistan . Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province became a base for the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters, with the province's influential Deobandi ulama playing a significant role in encouraging and organising the 'jihad'. President Zia died in a plane crash in 1988, and Benazir Bhutto , daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,
11285-430: The provisional assemblies of Balochistan , Punjab , Sindh , and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Office of Prime minister , and much of the civil institutions were revived and re-established by the decree signed by Yahya Khan. The four provinces and four administrative units retained their current status and local governments were constitutionally established in 1970 to manage and administer the provisional autonomy given to
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#173276549219911470-459: The relationship between Hinduism and Islam resulted in significant tension in British India , leading to religious violence. The language controversy further exacerbated tensions between Hindus and Muslims. A Muslim intellectual movement , led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan to counter the Hindu renaissance , advocated for the two-nation theory and led to the establishment of the All-India Muslim League in 1906. In March 1929, in response to
11655-428: The western parts of the Kashmir Region , organized into separate political entities, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. In 2009, the constitutional assignment ( the Gilgit–Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order ) granted Gilgit-Baltistan semi-provincial status , providing it with self-government. Radcliffe Line The Radcliffe Line was the boundary demarcated by the two boundary commissions for
11840-485: The 1970 general elections, the Parliament crafted the 1973 Constitution . It declared Pakistan an Islamic Republic, with Islam as the state religion, and mandated laws to comply with Islamic teachings laid down in the Quran and Sunnah and that no law repugnant to such injunctions could be enacted. Additionally, it established institutions like the Shariat Court and the Council of Islamic Ideology to interpret and apply Islam. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto faced opposition under
12025-443: The 6th century BCE. The ancient university was documented by the invading forces of Alexander the Great and was also recorded by Chinese pilgrims in the 4th or 5th century CE. At its zenith, the Rai dynasty (489–632 CE) ruled Sindh and the surrounding territories. The Arab conqueror Muhammad ibn Qasim conquered Sindh and some regions of Punjab in 711 CE. The Pakistan government's official chronology claims this as
12210-437: 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 Gandhāra , the Achaemenid , the Maurya , the Kushan , the Parthian , the Paratarajas , the Gupta ; the Umayyad Caliphate in its southern regions,
12395-426: The Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, and shares land borders totaling 6,774 km (4,209 mi), including 2,430 km (1,510 mi) with Afghanistan, 523 km (325 mi) with China, 2,912 km (1,809 mi) with India, and 909 km (565 mi) with Iran. It has a maritime border with Oman, and shares a border with Tajikistan via the Wakhan Corridor . Situated at the crossroads of South Asia,
12580-445: The Bengali Awami League under Mujibur Rahman won an overall majority of seats in Parliament and all but 2 of the 162 seats allocated to East Pakistan. The Awami League advocated greater autonomy for East Pakistan but the military government did not permit Mujib-ur-Rahman to form a government. East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971. The term West Pakistan became redundant. The total population of
12765-751: The British Empire and the issue of Kashmir. In 1965, " Operation Gibraltar " had long-ranging negative effects, outside and inside the country. Foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Defence minister Vice-Admiral Afzal Rahman Khan approached President Ayub Khan for approval of a covert operation to infiltrate Indian-administered Kashmir using airborne troops from the Pakistan Army ( Special Service Group ) and Pakistan Air Force ( Special Service Wing ). During nights in August 1965, airborne troops parachuted into Indian Kashmir whilst ground assault began by Pakistan Army's troops. The airborne troops managed to occupy much of Indian-administered Kashmir and were only 10 kilometres (6 mi) from Srinagar , but this
12950-410: The British Indian Empire , which awarded separate statehood to its Muslim-majority regions and was accompanied by an unparalleled mass migration and loss of life. Initially a Dominion of the British Commonwealth , Pakistan officially drafted its constitution in 1956, and emerged as a declared Islamic republic . In 1971, the exclave of East Pakistan seceded as the new country of Bangladesh after
13135-444: The Congress and Jinnah, president of the Muslim League. He objected to the short time frame, but all parties were insistent that the line be finished by the 15 August British withdrawal from India. Mountbatten had accepted the post as Viceroy on the condition of an early deadline. The decision was completed just a couple of days before the withdrawal, but due to political considerations, not published until 17 August 1947, two days after
13320-546: The Federal Capital Territory (around Karachi ) and the tribal areas . The eastern wing of the new country – East Pakistan – formed the single province of East Bengal , including the former Assam district of Sylhet and the Hill Tracts . West Pakistan experienced great problems related to the divisions, including ethnic and racial friction, lack of knowledge, and uncertainty of where to demarcate
13505-472: The Governor telling them that Gurdaspur was a "non-Muslim district". They contended that even if it had a marginal Muslim majority of 51%, which they believed to be erroneous, the Muslims paid only 35% of the land revenue in the district. In April, the Governor of Punjab Evan Jenkins wrote a note to Mountbatten proposing that Punjab be divided along Muslim and non-Muslim majority districts and proposed that
13690-477: The Great , until 185 BCE. The Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria (180–165 BCE) included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander (165–150 BCE), prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of higher education in the world, which was established during the late Vedic period in
13875-590: The Hoshiarpur district, it would have taken quite long time to construct the roads, bridges and communications that would have been necessary for military movements. Stanley Wolpert writes that Radcliffe in his initial maps awarded Gurdaspur district to Pakistan but one of Nehru's and Mountbatten's greatest concerns over the new Punjab border was to make sure that Gurdaspur would not go to Pakistan, since that would have deprived India of direct road access to Kashmir. As per "The Different Aspects of Islamic Culture",
14060-589: The Lahore Division from Pakistan would put a majority of Sikhs in India. (Amritsar had a non-Muslim majority and Gurdaspur a marginal Muslim majority.) To compensate for the exclusion of the Gurdaspur district, they included the entire Dinajpur district in the eastern zone of Pakistan, which similarly had a marginal Muslim majority. After receiving comments from John Thorne, member of the Executive Council in charge of Home affairs, Wavell forwarded
14245-856: The Middle East, and Central Asia, Pakistan's location is geopolitically significant. Geologically, Pakistan straddles the Indus–Tsangpo Suture Zone and the Indian tectonic plate in Sindh and Punjab, while Balochistan and most of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sit on the Eurasian Plate , primarily on the Iranian plateau . Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, along the Indian plate's edge, are susceptible to powerful earthquakes . Pakistan's landscapes vary from coastal plains to glaciated mountains, offering deserts, forests, hills, and plateaus. Pakistan
14430-612: The Muslim League from 1937 to 1939 motivated Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders to embrace the two-nation theory. This led to the adoption of the Lahore Resolution of 1940, presented by Sher-e-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Haque , also known as the Pakistan Resolution. By 1942, Britain faced considerable strain during World War II , with India directly threatened by Japanese forces. Britain had pledged voluntary independence for India in exchange for support during
14615-545: The Muslim League in July 1947 before the Radcliffe Boundary Commission, stated that the boundary commission was a farce. A secret deal between Mountbatten and Congress leaders had already been struck. Mehr Chand Mahajan , one of the two non-Muslim members of the boundary commission, in his autobiography, has acknowledged that when he was selected for the boundary commission, he was not inclined to accept
14800-569: The Muslim League, became Pakistan's first Governor-General and the first President-Speaker of the Parliament , but he succumbed to tuberculosis on 11 September 1948. Meanwhile, Pakistan's founding fathers agreed to appoint Liaquat Ali Khan , the secretary-general of the party , the nation's first Prime Minister . From 1947 to 1956, Pakistan was a monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations, and had two monarchs before it became
14985-453: The One Unit program strengthened the central government. In West Pakistan, the four provinces also struggled hard for the abolition of One Unit which caused injustices to them as it was imposed on them. The provisional powerful committees pressured the central government through the means of civil disobedience, violence on street, raising slogans against the martial law, and attacks on government machines such as police forces. For several weeks,
15170-610: The Parliament of the United Kingdom stipulated that British rule in India would come to an end just one month later, on 15 August 1947. The Act also stipulated the partition of the Presidencies and provinces of British India into two new sovereign dominions : India and Pakistan. Pakistan was intended as a Muslim homeland, while India remained secular . Muslim-majority British provinces in the northwest were to become
15355-895: The Partition Plan of 3 June was announced with a notional partition showing 17 districts of Punjab in Pakistan and 12 districts in India, along with the establishment of a Boundary Commission to decide the final boundary. In Sialkoti's view, this was done mainly to placate the Sikhs. A crude border had already been drawn up by Lord Wavell , the Viceroy of India prior to his replacement as Viceroy, in February 1947, by Lord Louis Mountbatten. In order to determine exactly which territories to assign to each country, in June 1947, Britain appointed Sir Cyril Radcliffe to chair two boundary commissions—one for Bengal and one for Punjab. The commission
15540-584: The President and exiled him to Great Britain after the military government was installed. The Supreme Court of Pakistan was a judicial authority, a power broker in country's politics that played a major role in minimising the role of parliament . The Supreme Court was moved to Islamabad in 1965 and Chief Justice Alvin Robert Cornelius re-located the entire judicial arbiter, personnel and high-profile cases in Islamabad. The Supreme Court building
15725-556: The Reforms Office. They prepared a note called "Demarcation of Pakistan Areas", where they included the three western divisions of Punjab ( Rawalpindi, Multan and Lahore ) in Pakistan, leaving two eastern divisions of Punjab in India ( Jullundur and Delhi ). However, they noted that this allocation would leave 2.2 million Sikhs in the Pakistan area and about 1.5 million in India. Excluding the Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts of
15910-649: The Sikh community. Lord Islay was rueful for the British not to give more consideration to the community who, in his words, had "provided many thousands of splendid recruits for the Indian Army" in its service for the crown in World War I. However, the Sikhs were militant in their opposition to any solution which would put their community in a Muslim ruled state. Moreover, many insisted on their own sovereign state, something no one else would agree to. Last of all, were
16095-470: The Sikh leaders accepted both the long term and interim proposals despite their earlier rejection. The Sikhs attached themselves to the Indian state with the promise of religious and cultural autonomy. In March 1946, the British government sent a Cabinet Mission to India to find a solution to resolve the conflicting demands of Congress and the Muslim League. Congress agreed to allow Pakistan to be formed with 'genuine Muslim areas'. The Sikh leaders asked for
16280-534: The Sikhs also feared Muslim domination. Sikhs warned the British government that the morale of Sikh troops in the British Army would be affected if Pakistan was forced on them. Giani Kartar Singh drafted a scheme of a separate Sikh state if India was to be divided. During the Partition developments, Jinnah offered Sikhs to live in Pakistan with safeguards for their rights. Sikhs refused because they opposed
16465-513: The US-led war on terrorism . By its own financial calculations, Pakistan's involvement in the war on terrorism has cost up to $ 118 billion, over eighty one thousand casualties , and more than 1.8 million displaced civilians. The National Assembly historically completed its first full five-year term on 15 November 2007. After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in 2007, the PPP secured
16650-580: The United Nations—also satisfied the British Government's urgent desire to save face by avoiding the appearance that it required outside help to govern—or stop governing—its own empire." The equal representation given to politicians from Indian National Congress and the Muslim League appeared to provide balance, but instead created deadlock. The relationships were so tendentious that the judges "could hardly bear to speak to each other", and
16835-519: The United States deteriorated, with the US assessing that democracy in both states was failing. A US-backed military coup d'état was launched in 1958 by the Pakistan Army command. The Urdu-speaking class and the Bengali nation were forcefully removed from the affairs of West Pakistan. With the imposition of martial law led by then- Army Commander-in-Chief General Ayub Khan , the state capital
17020-523: The agendas so at odds that there seemed to be little point anyway. Even worse, "the wife and two children of the Sikh judge in Lahore had been murdered by Muslims in Rawalpindi a few weeks earlier." In fact, minimizing the numbers of Hindus and Muslims on the wrong side of the line was not the only concern to balance. The Punjab Border Commission was to draw a border through the middle of an area home to
17205-579: The arrangement, area division, and future political set up of Pakistan and India. Pakistan was formed from two distinct areas, separated by 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) of India. The western state was composed of three Governor's provinces ( North-West Frontier , West-Punjab and Sindh Province ), one Chief Commissioner's province ( Baluchistan Province ), the Baluchistan States Union , several other princely states (notably Bahawalpur , Chitral , Dir , Hunza , Khairpur and Swat ),
17390-505: The award was changed to put a salient portion of the non-Muslim majority Firozpur district (consisting of the two Muslim-majority tehsils of Firozpur and Zira ) east of the Sutlej canal within India's domain instead of Pakistan's. There were two apparent reasons for the switch: the area housed an army arms depot, and contained the headwaters of a canal which irrigated the princely state of Bikaner, which would accede to India. After
17575-563: The banner of Nizam-e-Mustafa ("Rule of the Prophet "), advocating an Islamic state. Bhutto conceded to some Islamist demands before being ousted in a coup. General Zia-ul-Haq, after seizing power, committed to establishing an Islamic state and enforcing sharia law. He instituted Shariat judicial courts, and court benches, to adjudicate using Islamic doctrine. Zia aligned with Deobandi institutions, exacerbating sectarian tensions with anti-Shia policies. Most Pakistanis, according to
17760-540: The border between the two countries, but Afghanistan has never recognised that frontier. In 1955, diplomatic relations were severed with the ransacking of Pakistan's embassy. In 1961, the Pakistan Armed Forces and local Pashtun tribes suppressed an Afghan invasion in the Bajaur region of Pakistan. West Pakistan had hostile relations with India, primarily due to aftermath of the 1947 independence from
17945-507: The boundary awards were distributed. By his own admission, Radcliffe was heavily influenced by his lack of fitness for the Indian climate and his eagerness to depart India. The implementation was no less hasty than the process of drawing the border. On 16 August 1947 at 5:00 pm, the Indian and Pakistani representatives were given two hours to study copies, before the Radcliffe award was published on 17 August. To avoid disputes and delays,
18130-668: The boundary is made of existing provincial boundaries and had nothing to do with the Radcliffe commissions. The demarcation line was published on 17 August 1947, two days after the independence of Pakistan and India. Today, the Punjab part of the line is part of the India–Pakistan border while the Bengal part of the line serves as the Bangladesh–India border . On 18 July 1947, the Indian Independence Act 1947 of
18315-635: The boundary line was drawn much to the prejudice of Pakistan. However, while Muslims formed about 53% of the total population of Punjab in 1941, Pakistan received around 58% of the total area of the Punjab, including more of the most fertile parts. According to Zafrullah Khan, the assertion that the award of the Batala and Gurdaspur tehsils to India did not 'affect' Kashmir is far-fetched. If Batala and Gurdaspur had gone to Pakistan, Pathankot tehsil would have been isolated and blocked. Even though it would have been possible for India to get access to Pathankot through
18500-506: The capital of Malakand was Saidu, and Rawalpindi was administered from Islamabad. The province also incorporated the former Omani enclave of Gwadar following its purchase in 1958, and the former Federal Capital Territory (Karachi) in 1958; the latter in 1960 forming a new division in its own right. In 1970, the Martial Law Office was dissolved by General Yahya Khan who disestablished the state of West Pakistan. On 1 July 1970,
18685-517: The communities without any representation. The Bengal Border Commission representatives were chiefly concerned with the question of who would get Calcutta. The Buddhist tribes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bengal had no official representation and were left totally without information to prepare for their situation until two days after the partition. Perceiving the situation as intractable and urgent, Radcliffe went on to make all
18870-440: The concept of Pakistan and also because they did not want to become a small minority within a Muslim majority. Vir Singh Bhatti distributed pamphlets for the creation of a separate Sikh state "Khalistan". Master Tara Singh wanted the right for an independent Khalistan to federate with either Hindustan or Pakistan. However, the Sikh state being proposed was for an area where neither religion was in absolute majority. Negotiations for
19055-543: The conflict in September 1965 (for fear of escalation), and the month–long war ended with no permanent territorial changes. West Pakistan and India signed the Tashkent Declaration in January 1966, but the ceasefire was criticised both in India and Pakistan, and public resentment against each other grew. In West Pakistan, Ayub Khan deposed Bhutto as his Foreign minister, and Vice-Admiral Khan blamed Bhutto for
19240-455: The country with Parliamentary form of Government and the office of President was inaugurated the same year. The career civil service officer Major-General (retired) Iskander Mirza became the country's first President, but the system did not evolve for more than the three years, when Mirza imposed the martial law in 1958. Mirza appointed army commander-in-chief General Ayub Khan as Chief Martial Law Administrator ; he later turned his back on
19425-476: The country worked towards promulgating its constitution and putting the country on the road to democracy. In 1972 Pakistan embarked on an ambitious plan to develop its nuclear deterrence capability with the goal of preventing any foreign invasion ; the country's first nuclear power plant was inaugurated in that same year. India's first nuclear test in 1974 gave Pakistan additional justification to accelerate its nuclear program . Democracy ended with
19610-410: The country's left-wing organisations, which, under Bhutto 's leadership, participated with full force and became vital players in the country's politics. The long border between West Pakistan and Afghanistan was uneasy. This is due in part to the independent Pashtun tribes that inhabit the area. In addition, the physical boundary is uncertain: the 1893 Durand Line was used by West Pakistan to mark
19795-523: The country's governance. The military's influence in mainstream politics has been significant throughout Pakistan's history. The eras of 1958–1971, 1977–1988 , and 1999–2008 witnessed military coups , leading to martial law and military leaders governing de facto as presidents. Presently, Pakistan operates a multi-party parliamentary system , with distinct checks and balances among government branches. The first successful democratic transition occurred in May 2013. Pakistani politics revolves around
19980-623: The decline of the Indus valley civilization, Indo-Aryan tribes moved into the Punjab from Central Asia in several waves of migration in the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE), bringing with them their distinctive religious traditions and practices which fused with local culture. The Indo-Aryans religious beliefs and practices from the Bactria–Margiana culture and the native Harappan Indus beliefs of
20165-420: The difficult decisions himself. This was impossible from inception, but Radcliffe seems to have had no doubt in himself and raised no official complaint or proposal to change the circumstances. Before his appointment, Radcliffe had never visited India and knew no one there. To the British and the feuding politicians alike, this neutrality was looked upon as an asset; he was considered to be unbiased toward any of
20350-448: The district had been awarded to India instead of Pakistan, Cheema left for Pakistan. The major part of Gurdaspur district, i.e. three of the four sub-districts had been handed over to India giving India practical land access to Kashmir. It came as a great blow to Pakistan. Jinnah and other leaders of Pakistan, and particularly its officials, criticized the award as 'extremely unjust and unfair'. Muhammad Zafarullah Khan , who represented
20535-505: The district was followed by a population transfer between the two nations, with Muslims leaving for Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs arriving from there. The entire district of Gurdaspur had a bare majority of 50.2% Muslims. (In the `notional' award attached to the Indian Independence Act, all of Gurdaspur district was marked as Pakistan with a 51.14% Muslim majority. In the 1901 census, the population of Gurdaspur district
20720-463: The division was done in secret. The final Awards were ready on 9 and 12 August, but not published until two days after the partition. According to Read and Fisher, there is some circumstantial evidence that Nehru and Patel were secretly informed of the Punjab Award's contents on 9 or 10 August, either through Mountbatten or Radcliffe's Indian assistant secretary. Regardless of how it transpired,
20905-741: The early 16th century, the region remained under the Mughal Empire . In the 18th century, the slow disintegration of the Mughal Empire was hastened by the emergence of the rival powers of the Maratha Confederacy and later the Sikh Empire , as well as invasions by Nader Shah from Iran in 1739 and the Durrani Empire of Afghanistan in 1759. The growing political power of the British in Bengal had not yet reached
21090-429: The evening of 3 June 1947. In Mountbatten's oval office, the prime ministers of around a dozen major princely states gathered to receive their copies of the plan before its worldwide broadcast. At 7:00 P.M., All India Radio transmitted the public announcement, starting with the viceroy's address, followed by individual speeches from Nehru, and Jinnah. The founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah concluded his address with
21275-553: The exception of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas , all administrative divisions in the region that would compose West Pakistan after independence collected religious data, with a combined total population of 27,266,001, for an overall response rate of 92 percent. Similar to the contemporary era, where censuses do not collect religious data in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan ,
21460-452: The exclusion of the Gurdaspur district, they included the entire Dinajpur district in the eastern zone of Pakistan, which similarly had a marginal Muslim majority. Pakistanis have alleged that the award of the three tehsils to India was a manipulation of the Award by Lord Mountbatten in an effort to provide a land route for India to Jammu and Kashmir . However, Shereen Ilahi points out that
21645-473: The former Indus Valley civilization eventually gave rise to Vedic culture and tribes. Most notable among them was Gandhara civilization , which flourished at the crossroads of India, Central Asia, and the Middle East, connecting trade routes and absorbing cultural influences from diverse civilizations. The initial early Vedic culture was a tribal, pastoral society centered in the Indus Valley, of what
21830-482: The foundation of Pakistan. The provinces of Baluchistan (91.8% Muslim before partition) and Sindh (72.7%) and North-West Frontier Province became entirely Pakistani territory. However, two provinces did not have an overwhelming Muslim majority— Punjab in the northwest (55.7% Muslim) and Bengal in the northeast (54.4% Muslim). After elaborate discussions, these two provinces ended up being partitioned between India and Pakistan. The Punjab's population distribution
22015-400: The four provinces and territories of western Pakistan were integrated into one unit to mirror the single province in the east. The state of West Pakistan was established by the merger of the provinces, states, and tribal areas of West Pakistan. The province was composed of twelve divisions and the provincial capital was established at Karachi . Later the state capital moved to Lahore , and it
22200-637: The four provinces worked together and guided the "One Unit Dissolution Committee", towards resolving all outstanding issues in time set by the Yahya government. Finally, the committee's plan went into effect on 1 July 1970, when West Pakistan's "One Unit" was dissolved, and all power was transferred to the provinces of Balochistan, the North West Frontier Province , Punjab and Sindh. In the 1970 general elections (held in December 1970),
22385-794: The grant of independence to India and Pakistan. Each boundary commission consisted of five people – a chairman ( Radcliffe ), two members nominated by the Indian National Congress and two members nominated by the Muslim League . The Bengal Boundary Commission consisted of justices C. C. Biswas, B. K. Mukherji , Abu Saleh Mohamed Akram and S.A.Rahman . The members of the Punjab Commission were justices Mehr Chand Mahajan , Teja Singh, Din Mohamed and Muhammad Munir . All lawyers by profession, Radcliffe and
22570-472: The importance of democracy was widely sensed in the entire country. The socialists, under Bhutto's guidance and leadership, played a vital role in managing labour strikes and civil disobedience to challenge Khan's authority. The military government responded fiercely after arresting the senior socialists' leadership, notably Bhutto, Mubashir Hassan , and Malick Mirage . This sparked gruesome violence in West Pakistan, thereby increasing pressure on Khan that he
22755-614: The independent Sikh state had commenced at the end of World War II and the British initially agreed but the Sikhs withdrew this demand after pressure from Indian nationalists. The proposals of the Cabinet Mission Plan had seriously jolted the Sikhs because while both the Congress and League could be satisfied the Sikhs saw nothing in it for themselves. as they would be subjected to a Muslim majority. Master Tara Singh protested this to Pethic-Lawrence on 5 May. By early September
22940-469: The initial step towards this goal, affirming God as the sole sovereign. Muslim League leader Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman asserted that Pakistan could only truly become an Islamic state after bringing all believers of Islam into a single political unit. Keith Callard observed that Pakistanis believed in the essential unity of purpose and outlook in the Muslim world, expecting similar views on religion and nationality from Muslims worldwide. Pakistan's desire for
23125-568: The invitation as he believed that the commission was just a farce and that decisions were actually to be taken by Mountbatten himself. It was only under British pressure that the charges against Mountbatten of last minute alterations in the Radcliffe Award were not officially brought forward by Pakistani Government in the UN Security Council while presenting its case on Kashmir. Zafrullah Khan states that, in fact, adopting
23310-626: The land route to Kashmir was entirely within the Hindu-majority Pathankot tehsil. The award of the Batala and Gurdaspur tehsils to India did not affect the Kashmir land route. Pakistan maintains that the Radcliffe Award was altered by Mountbatten ; Gurdaspur was handed over to India and thus was manipulated the accession of Kashmir to India. In support of this view, some scholars claim the award to India "had little to do with Sikh demands but had much more to do with providing India
23495-526: The last of the Delhi Sultanate, was replaced by the Mughal Empire (1526–1857 CE). The Mughals introduced Persian literature and high culture, establishing the roots of Indo-Persian culture in the region. In the region of modern-day Pakistan, key cities during the Mughal period were Multan , Lahore , Peshawar and Thatta , which were chosen as the site of impressive Mughal buildings . In
23680-420: The nature of their own demand". After the breakdown of the 1945 Simla Conference of viceroy Lord Wavell , the idea of Pakistan began to be contemplated seriously. Sir Evan Jenkins , the private secretary of the viceroy (later the governor of Punjab), wrote a memorandum titled "Pakistan and the Punjab", where he discussed the issues surrounding the partition of Punjab. K. M. Panikkar , then prime minister of
23865-798: The northern mountains to deciduous trees like shisham in the Sulaiman Mountains , and palms such as coconut and date in the southern regions. The western hills boast juniper , tamarisk , coarse grasses, and scrub plants. Mangrove forests dominate the coastal wetlands in the south. Coniferous forests span altitudes from 1,000 to 4,000 metres (3,300 to 13,100 feet) in most northern and northwestern highlands. In Balochistan's xeric regions, date palms and Ephedra are prevalent. In Punjab and Sindh's Indus plains, tropical and subtropical dry and moist broadleaf forests as well as tropical and xeric shrublands thrive. Approximately 4.8% or 36,845.6 square kilometres (3,684,560 ha) of Pakistan
24050-522: The only possible access to Kashmir. Andrew Roberts believes that Mountbatten cheated over India-Pak frontier and states that if gerrymandering took place in the case of Firozepur, it is not too hard to believe that Mountbatten also pressurized Radcliffe to ensure that Gurdaspur wound up in India to give India road access to Kashmir. Perry Anderson states that Mountbatten, who was officially supposed to neither exercise any influence on Radcliffe nor to have any knowledge of his findings, intervened behind
24235-527: The operation's failure. As an aftermath, Bhutto tapped into an anti-Ayub Khan movement and kicked off a storm of civil disobedience. Protests and spontaneous demonstrations broke out around the country, and Ayub Khan lost the control. In 1967, another martial law was imposed by another Army Commander-in-Chief, General Yahya Khan, who designated himself as the Chief Martial Law Administrator. Pakistan Pakistan , officially
24420-570: The other commissioners had all of the polish and none of the specialized knowledge needed for the task. They had no advisers to inform them of the well-established procedures and information needed to draw a boundary. Nor was there time to gather the survey and regional information. The absence of some experts and advisers, such as the United Nations, was deliberate, to avoid delay. Britain's new Labour government "deep in wartime debt, simply couldn't afford to hold on to its increasingly unstable empire." "The absence of outside participants—for example, from
24605-547: The other hand, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Khulna , with non-Muslim population of 97% and 51% respectively, were awarded to Pakistan. Indian historians now accept that Mountbatten probably did influence the Firozpur award in India's favour. The headworks of River Beas, which later joins River Sutlej flowing into Pakistan, were located in Firozpur. Congress leader Nehru and Viceroy Mountbatten had lobbied Radcliffe that headworks should not go to Pakistan. The Gurdaspur district
24790-528: The parliamentary form of government, with Islam as state religion and Urdu, English and Bengali as state languages. The 1956 constitution also established the Parliament of Pakistan as well as the Supreme Court of Pakistan . Ethnic and religious violence in Lahore , which began in 1953, spread all over the country. Muhammad Ali Bogra , prime minister of Pakistan, declared martial law in Lahore to curb
24975-408: The parties, except of course Britain. Only his private secretary, Christopher Beaumont, was familiar with the administration and life in Punjab. Wanting to preserve the appearance of impartiality, Radcliffe also kept his distance from Viceroy Mountbatten . No amount of knowledge could produce a line that would completely avoid conflict; already, "sectarian riots in Punjab and Bengal dimmed hopes for
25160-504: The partition, the fledgling governments of India and Pakistan were left with all responsibility to implement the border. After visiting Lahore in August, Viceroy Mountbatten hastily arranged a Punjab Boundary Force to keep the peace around Lahore, but 50,000 men was not enough to prevent thousands of killings, 77% of which were in the rural areas. Given the size of the territory, the force amounted to less than one soldier per square mile. This
25345-504: The permanent borders . East Pakistan, Balochistan, and the North-West Frontier Province experienced little difficulty, but Southern Pakistani Punjab faced considerable problems that had to be fixed. Former East Punjab was integrated with the Indian administration and millions of Punjabi Muslims were expelled to be replaced by a Sikh and Hindu population and vice versa. The communal violence spread to all over
25530-416: The popular influential Left-wing sphere against elite Right-wing circles . Since independence, Pakistan had been a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy (even as of today, the parliamentary system is the official form of government of Pakistan) with a Prime minister as the head of the government and a Monarch as the head of state in a ceremonial office. The 1956 Constitution provided
25715-524: The population, it had a disproportionately small number of seats in the Constituent Assembly. This inequality of the two wings and the geographical distance between them was believed to be holding up the adoption of a new constitution . To diminish the differences between the two regions, the government decided to reorganise the country into two distinct provinces. Under the One Unit policy announced by Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra on 22 November 1954,
25900-677: The possibility of establishing a Muslim nation. The 1946 elections saw the Muslim League secure 90 percent of the Muslim seats, supported by the landowners of Sindh and Punjab. This forced the Indian National Congress, initially skeptical of the League's representation of Indian Muslims, to acknowledge its significance. Jinnah's emergence as the voice of the Indian Muslims, compelled the British to consider their stance, despite their reluctance to partition India . In
26085-399: The present boundary line. The tehsil was the most favourable unit. But all of the aforementioned Muslim majority tehsils, with the exception of Shakargarh, were handed over to India while Pakistan didn't receive any Non-Muslim majority district or tehsil in Punjab. Zafruallh Khan states that Radcliffe used district, tehsil, thana, and even village boundaries to divide Punjab in such a way that
26270-464: The proposal to the Secretary of State. He justified the exclusion of the Amritsar district because of its sacredness to the Sikhs and that of Gurdaspur district because it had to go with Amritsar for 'geographical reasons'. The Secretary of State commended the proposal and forwarded it to the India and Burma Committee, saying, "I do not think that any better division than the one the Viceroy proposes
26455-493: The provinces in 1970. West Pakistan was extremely diverse in terms of geography, climate, and variety of wildlife. North-Western West Pakistan was mountainous, Punjab and Sindh were semi-arid, and the Baluchistan region in particular was predominantly desert. West Pakistan had a varied relief, consisting as it does of plains, plateaux and mountains watered by the Indus River and its tributaries. Climatically, West Pakistan had
26640-424: The provinces of Balochistan , East Bengal , the North-West Frontier Province , West Punjab , and Sindh. In the riots that accompanied the partition in Punjab Province, between 200,000 and 2,000,000 people were killed in what some have described as a retributive genocide between the religions. Around 50,000 Muslim women were abducted and raped by Hindu and Sikh men, while 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women experienced
26825-440: The provinces of Punjab and Bengal during the Partition of India . It is named after Cyril Radcliffe , who, as the joint chairman of the two boundary commissions, had the ultimate responsibility to equitably divide 175,000 square miles (450,000 km ) of territory with 88 million people. The term "Radcliffe Line" is also sometimes used for the entire boundary between India and Pakistan. However, outside of Punjab and Bengal,
27010-429: The provinces of Bengal and Punjab had been present since the beginning of the 20th century. Bengal had in fact been partitioned by the then viceroy Lord Curzon in 1905, along with its adjoining regions. The resulting 'Eastern Bengal and Assam' province, with its capital at Dhaka , had a Muslim majority and the 'West Bengal' province, with its capital at Calcutta , had a Hindu majority. However, this partition of Bengal
27195-428: The region that composes West Pakistan was approximately 29.6 million as per the 1941 census. According to the 1961 census, the total population of Pakistan was 93 million, with 42.8 million residing in West Pakistan and 50 million residing in East Pakistan . East Pakistan hence made up around 55% of Undivided Pakistan's population whilst remaining 45% was in West Pakistan. West Pakistan also had
27380-480: The region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic , of whom artefacts have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab . The Indus region , which covers most of the present-day Pakistan, was the site of several successive ancient cultures including the Neolithic (7000–4300 BCE ) site of Mehrgarh , and the 5,000-year history of urban life in South Asia to the various sites of the Indus Valley Civilisation , including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa . Following
27565-410: The same fate at the hands of Muslims. Around 6.5 million Muslims moved from India to West Pakistan and 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from West Pakistan to India. It was the largest mass migration in human history. A subsequent dispute over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir eventually sparked the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 . After independence in 1947, Jinnah, the President of
27750-425: The slogan Pakistan Zindabad (Long Live Pakistan). As the United Kingdom agreed to the partitioning of India , the modern state of Pakistan was established on 14 August 1947 (27th of Ramadan in 1366 of the Islamic Calendar , considered to be the most blessed date from an Islamic perspective) . This new nation amalgamated the Muslim-majority eastern and northwestern regions of British India , comprising
27935-411: 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
28120-423: The tehsil as a unit would have given Pakistan the Firozepur and Zira tehsils of the Firozpur District, the Jullundur and Nakodar tehsils of Jullundur district and the Dasuya tehsil of the Hoshiarpur district. The line so drawn would also give Pakistan the princely state of Kapurthala (which had a Muslim majority) and would enclose within Pakistan the whole of the Amritsar district of which only one tehsil, Ajnala, had
28305-423: The territories of modern Pakistan. None of modern Pakistan was under British rule until 1839 when Karachi , a small fishing village governed by Talpurs of Sindh with a mud fort guarding the harbour, was taken , and used as an enclave with a port and military base for the First Afghan War that ensued. The remainder of Sindh was acquired in 1843, and subsequently, through a series of wars and treaties,
28490-428: The time of the pre-independence movement. However, despite initiatives to improve the population during the Ayub Khan's government, the poor masses did not enjoy the benefits and reforms that were enjoyed by the middle and gentry classes of Pakistan. After the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 , the cultural revolution, resentment, hostility towards the government began to arise when the population felt that "Kashmir cause"
28675-411: The time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid. The Early Medieval period (642–1219 CE) witnessed the spread of Islam in the region. Before the arrival of Islam beginning in the 8th century, the region of Pakistan was home to a diverse plethora of faiths, including Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism and Zoroastrianism . During this period, Sufi missionaries played a pivotal role in converting
28860-434: The total number of responses for religion is slightly smaller than the total population, as detailed in the table breakdown below. According to the 1961 census, in West Pakistan, Muslims made up 97.2% of the population, Christians 1.4%, and the remaining 1.4% belonging to other religions. West Pakistan went through many political changes, and had a multiple political party system. West Pakistan's political system consisted of
29045-399: The tract, he discussed the boundaries of Muslim and non-Muslim regions of Punjab and Bengal. His calculations showed a Muslim majority in 16 western districts of Punjab and non-Muslim majority in 13 eastern districts. In Bengal, he showed non-Muslim majority in 15 districts. He thought the Muslims could have no objection to redrawing provincial boundaries. If they did, "they [did] not understand
29230-467: The violence. This inter-communal violence soon spread to India, and a regional conflict put West Pakistan and India in a war-threatening situation. The prime ministers of Pakistan and India held an emergency meeting in Lahore. From 1947 to 1959, the government was only partially stable. Seven prime ministers , four governors-general , and one president were forcefully removed either by constitutional coup or by military coup . The One Unit program
29415-412: The vision of a federal parliamentary democratic republic form of government. With the founding fathers remaining in West Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan was appointed the country's first prime minister , with Mohammad Ali Jinnah as Governor-General . West Pakistan claimed the exclusive mandate over all of Pakistan, with the majority of the Pakistan Movement 's leading figures in West Pakistan. In 1949,
29600-428: The war. However, this pledge included a clause stating that no part of British India would be compelled to join the resulting dominion, which could be interpreted as support for an independent Muslim nation. Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement , demanding an immediate end to British rule. In contrast, the Muslim League chose to support the UK's war efforts , thereby nurturing
29785-504: The west and the Thar Desert in the east. The 1,609 km (1,000 mi) Indus River and its tributaries traverse the nation from Kashmir to the Arabian Sea, sustaining alluvial plains along the Punjab and Sindh regions. The climate varies from tropical to temperate, with arid conditions in the coastal south. There is a monsoon season with frequent flooding due to heavy rainfall, and a dry season with significantly less rainfall or none at all. Pakistan experiences four distinct seasons:
29970-412: The western and eastern wings geographically separated from each other by India . The western wing of Pakistan comprised three governor's provinces (the North-West Frontier , West Punjab and Sind ), one chief commissioner's province ( Baluchistan ) along with the Baluchistan States Union , several independent princely states (notably Bahawalpur , Chitral , Dir , Hunza , Khairpur and Swat ),
30155-412: Was 49% Muslim, 40% Hindu, and 10% Sikh. ) The Pathankot tehsil was predominantly Hindu while the other three tehsils were Muslim majority. In the event, only Shakargarh was awarded to Pakistan. Radcliffe explained that the reason for deviating from the notional award in the case of Gurdaspur was that the headwaters of the canals that irrigated the Amritsar district lay in the Gurdaspur district and it
30340-412: Was abolished under the Legal Framework Order of 1970 , which dissolved the One Unit policy and restored the four provinces. This order had no effect on East Pakistan, which retained the geopolitical position established in 1955. The following year saw a major civil war erupt between West Pakistan and Bengali nationalists in East Pakistan . After a full-scale military intervention by India in support of
30525-511: Was betrayed by President Ayub Khan. Problems further mounted after Foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sacked and vowed to take a revenge. After gathering and uniting the scattered democratic socialist and Marxist masses, Bhutto founded the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1967. The socialists tapped a wave of antipathy against the United States-allied president. The socialists integrated in poor and urban provinces of West Pakistan, educating people to cast their vote for their better future, and
30710-440: Was divided geographically by the Ravi River , with the Shakargarh tehsil on its west bank, and Pathankot , Gurdaspur and Batala tehsils on its east bank. The Shakargarh tehsil, the biggest in size, was awarded to Pakistan. (It was subsequently merged into the Narowal district of West Punjab . ) The three eastern tehsils were awarded to India. (Pathankot was eventually made a separate district in East Punjab .) The division of
30895-435: Was dying of tuberculosis, he replied 'most probably'. "You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the State." — Muhammad Ali Jinnah 's first speech to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani ,
31080-400: Was elected as Prime Minister for the third time. In 2018, PTI won the general election and Imran Khan became the 22nd Prime Minister. In April 2022, Shehbaz Sharif was elected as prime minister, after Imran Khan lost a no-confidence vote. During 2024 general election , PTI-backed independents became the largest bloc, but Shehbaz Sharif was elected prime minister for a second term, as
31265-446: Was elected as the country's first female Prime Minister. The PPP was followed by conservative Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML (N)), and over the next decade the leaders of the two parties fought for power, alternating in office. This period is marked by prolonged stagflation , political instability, corruption , misgovernment, geopolitical rivalry with India, and the clash of left wing - right wing ideologies. As PML (N) secured
31450-485: Was estimated that 15 million were displaced, and nearly more than 2 million consisting of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were killed in the deadly riots. During the period between 1947 and 1950, 8.6 million Muslims had moved to specially Pakistan's West Punjab region and about 6.7 million Hindus and Sikhs had gone the other way to India's East Punjab region and thus changing the demography of Pakistan drastically and resulting in overwhelming Muslim majority to this region. With
31635-408: Was finally established in Islamabad in 1965. The province of East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan with the provincial state capital at Dhaka (Dacca). Clashes between West Pakistan and East Pakistan soon erupted, further destabilising the entire country. The two states had different political ideologies and different lingual cultural aspect. West Pakistan had been founded on the main basis of
31820-412: Was forested in 2021. Pakistan's fauna mirrors its diverse climate. The country boasts around 668 bird species, including crows , sparrows , mynas , hawks , falcons , and eagles . Palas, Kohistan , is home to the western tragopan , with many migratory birds visiting from Europe, Central Asia, and India. The southern plains harbor mongooses , small Indian civet , hares, the Asiatic jackal ,
32005-407: Was important to keep them under one administration. Radcliffe might have sided with Lord Wavell's reasoning from February 1946 that Gurdaspur had to go with the Amritsar district, and the latter could not be in Pakistan due to its Sikh religious shrines. In addition, the railway line from Amritsar to Pathankot passed through the Batala and Gurdaspur tehsils. He further claimed that to compensate for
32190-483: Was instructed to "demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of the Punjab on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims. In doing so, it will also take into account other factors." Other factors were undefined, giving Radcliffe leeway, but included decisions regarding "natural boundaries, communications, watercourses and irrigation systems", as well as socio-political consideration. Each commission also had four representatives—two from
32375-437: Was met with harsh opposition, civil unrest, and political disturbance. Support for the Muslim League and Pakistan Socialist Party in the upcoming elections threatened Pakistan's technocracy . The Muslim League and Socialist Party gained momentum after the League's defeat in the 1954 elections, and the Socialist Party were challenging for the constituencies of the President Iskandar Mirza 's Republican Party . Relations with
32560-431: Was moved from Karachi to Army Generals Combatant Headquarters (The GHQ) at Rawalpindi in 1959, whilst the federal legislature was moved to Dacca. In 1963, Rawalpindi had become ineffective as a federal capital; a new city was planned and constructed, finally completing in 1965. In 1965, the state capital was finally re-located in Islamabad. On contrary perception, the provinces did not benefit from economic progress, but
32745-402: Was no genocide. In response to India's support for the insurgency in East Pakistan, preemptive strikes on India by Pakistan's air force , navy , and marines sparked a conventional war in 1971 that resulted in an Indian victory and East Pakistan gaining independence as Bangladesh . With Pakistan surrendering in the war, Yahya Khan was replaced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as president;
32930-485: Was not enough to protect the cities much less the caravans of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who were fleeing their homes in what would become Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan were loath to violate the agreement by supporting the rebellions of villages drawn on the wrong side of the border, as this could prompt a loss of face on the international stage and require the British or the UN to intervene. Border conflicts led to three wars, in 1947 , 1965 , and 1971 , and
33115-478: Was renamed as the Parliament of Pakistan and staffed only with technocrats. The office of Governor of West Pakistan was a largely ceremonial position but later Governors wielded some executive powers as well. The first Governor was Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani , who was also the last Governor of West Punjab. Ayub Khan abolished the Governor's office and instead established the Martial Law Administrator of West Pakistan (MLA West). The office Chief Minister of West Pakistan
33300-436: Was reversed in 1911 in an effort to mollify Bengali nationalism . Proposals for partitioning Punjab had been made starting in 1908. Its proponents included the Hindu leader Bhai Parmanand , Congress leader Lala Lajpat Rai , industrialist G. D. Birla , and various Sikh leaders. After the 1940 Lahore resolution of the Muslim League demanding Pakistan, B. R. Ambedkar wrote a 400-page tract titled Thoughts on Pakistan. In
33485-557: Was seen as improbable. However, with the military coup of 1958, trouble loomed for the province when the office of Chief Minister was abolished and the President took over executive powers for West Pakistan. Due to West Pakistan's close relations with the United States and the capitalist states , the influence of socialism had far more deeper roots in the West Pakistan population. The population favoured socialism but never allied with communism . The Pakistan Socialist Party had previously lost support due to its anti-Pakistan clauses during
33670-469: Was such that there was no line that could neatly divide the Hindus , Muslims , and Sikhs . Likewise, no line could appease both the Muslim League , headed by Jinnah , and the Congress led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel . Moreover, any division based on religious communities was sure to entail "cutting through road and rail communications, irrigation schemes, electric power systems and even individual landholdings." The idea of partitioning
33855-601: Was the chief executive of the state and the leader of the largest party in the provincial assembly. The first Chief Minister was Abdul Jabbar Khan who had served twice as Chief Minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province prior to independence. The office of Chief Minister was abolished in 1958 when Ayub Khan took over the administration of West Pakistan. The twelve divisions of West Pakistan province were Bahawalpur , Dera Ismail Khan , Hyderabad , Kalat , Khairpur , Lahore, Malakand , Multan , Peshawar , Quetta , Rawalpindi, and Sargodha ; all named after their capitals except
34040-540: Was the closest Pakistani troops ever got to capturing the city. In September 1965, India launched a counter-attack and the airborne troops were pushed back to what is today Azad Kashmir . Indian forces also crossed the ceasefire line into Azad Kashmir and captured the Haji Pir pass. Subsequently, Pakistan launched Operation Grand Slam , which gained significant momentum. Grand Slam was aborted after India launched an all out attack on West Pakistan, for which Pakistani troops had to be diverted. The Soviet Union intervened in
34225-470: Was unable to endure. Khan called for a Round Table Conference in Rawalpindi, but socialists led by Bhutto refused to accept Ayub's continuation in office and rejected the 6 Point Movement for regional autonomy put forth in 1966 by East Pakistani politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman . In 1969, Khan handed over power to Army Chief of Staff General Yahya Khan , who promised to hold elections within two years. Meantime, Bhutto extensively worked to gather and unite
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