Pakistani Geography
Pakistan became Independent in 1947 from the Indian empire of British Raj. Pakistan is a country in southern Asia. It is next to India, Iran, Afghanistan, and China. It is officially called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is the world’s fifth-most populous country with a population of more than 227 million people. It is the 36th-largest country in the world in terms of area.
Pakistan is one of the two countries of the world (the other one being Israel) which was carved on the world map based on ideology instead of ethnicity or race. The name ‘Pakistan’ is not a representative of a single ethnicity or race. It is, indeed, a representative of different regions of Pakistan. “P” is for Punjab, “A” is for Afghania (KPK province), “K” is for Kashmir, “S” is for Sindh, and “-tan” is the suffix used to represent Baluchistan. The literal meaning of the term ‘Pakistan’ is “a place for the pure”.
Pakistan is a Muslim country which means the religion is Islam. Most (97%) of the people are Muslim. Most of the Muslims in Pakistan are Sunni Muslims (>75%) and some are Shia Muslims (20%). However a few minority groups exist. Pakistan also has some Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Zoroastrians (an ancient Persian religion) and animist minority groups in the northern parts of the country.
After the separation from British India, Hinduism had much less importance in the newly created state of Pakistan, but has played an important role in its culture and politics as well as the history of its regions. In fact, Pakistan has the 5th largest population of Hindus, after Sri Lanka.
The word Hindu comes from the Sindhu (Indus River) of Pakistan. The Sindhu is one of the holy rivers of Hinduism. Thus, in many ways, the land which is today’s heavily Muslim Pakistan has played an important part in the origin of Hinduism. There are about 3 million Hindus living in Pakistan.
Pakistan Geography Profile 2018
Location
Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea, between India on the east and Iran and Afghanistan on the west and China in the north
Map references Asia
Area total: 796,096 sq km
land: 770,875 sq km
water: 25,220 sq km
Area – comparative slightly more than five times the size of Georgia; slightly less than twice the size of California
Land boundaries total: 7,257 km
border countries (4): Afghanistan 2,670 km, China 438 km, India 3,190 km, Iran 959 km
Coastline 1,046 km
Climate mostly hot, dry desert; temperate in northwest; arctic in north
lowest point: Arabian Sea 0 m
highest point: K2 (Mt. Godwin-Austen) 8,611 m
Natural resources arable land, extensive natural gas reserves, limited petroleum, poor quality coal, iron ore, copper, salt, limestone, gold
Land use: agricultural land: 35.2%
arable land 27.6%; permanent crops 1.1%; permanent pasture 6.5%
forest: 2.1%
other: 62.7% (2011 est.)
Irrigated land 202,000 sq km (2012)
Natural hazards frequent earthquakes, occasionally severe especially in north and west; flooding along the Indus after heavy rains (July and August)
Environment – current issues water pollution, industrial wastes, and agricultural runoff; limited natural freshwater resources; most of the population does not have access to potable water; deforestation; soil erosion; desertification