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LOCATION :
Arid mountains in the north and west.
Sindh desert in southeast. Vast irrigation schemes in the fertile
Indus valley.
Muslim
politicians insisted on a separate state resulting in the partition
of British-ruled India at independence in 1947. Pakistan's
subsequent disastrous history includes four conflicts with India,
the loss of Bangladesh, the destabilizing effects of two decades of
war in Afghanistan and political upheavals. There have been a series
of inept civilian governments and autocratic military dictatorships
each as corrupt as its predecessors. Policy has increasingly been
dictated by an Islamist extremist minority which has close ties with
the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. The civilian government of
Nawaz Sharif was overthrown in a military coup in 1999.
Religion, is
an Islamic republic. The government of Nawaz Sharif pursued a policy
of Islamization of the legal system, taxation, public life and
discrimination against all Muslim and non-Muslim religious
minorities despite widespread popular misgivings. Shari'a law has
been increasingly applied even to Christians and Hindus despites its
contravention of the constitution. This gives numerous opportunities
for the majority Sunni Muslims to oppress and persecute Shi'a
Muslims, Admaddiya, Hindus and Christians. Despite promises, the
military ruler, General Musharraf, has backed away from regulating
the procedure for blasphemy charges in the face of violent threats
by lslamist. Yet there remaining a surprising degree of religious
freedom and the government regularly assures minorities of their
freedom and opportunities under the law.
Islamabad is the
capital and the population 156,483,155 (in year 2000), Indo-Aryan
78.8%, Indo-Iranian 18.5%, Dravidian 1.6%, Tibetan 0.5% and other
0.6%. Official language is Urdu.
People Groups :
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