06/12/2020
65 Interesting Facts About Pakistan!
With these 65 facts about Pakistan, let us learn about its history, culture, geography, noted people, food, inventions, mountains, mosques, family customs and hospitality, and much more.
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the 6th most populous country in the world. It has an area of 796,095 sq km.
It is a country in South Asia and has 4 provinces (Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh). Islamabad is the country’s capital and Karachi is its largest city. Both Urdu and English are its official languages.
Urdu is also its national language. The Pakistani rupee (PKR) is its official currency. The citizen of Pakistan is called a Pakistani (singular) or Pakistanis (plural). Its four bordering countries are India, Afghanistan, Iran, and China.
65 Interesting facts about Pakistan’s noted personalities, trade, infrastructure, irrigation, independence, fertile desert, talent, and more…
1. The name Pakistan means ‘land of the pure’ in Persian and Urdu.
2. Pakistan is the world’s first Islamic country to attain nuclear power.
3. Sialkot, located in Pakistan, is the world’s largest producer of handsewn footballs. Local factories in the region produce 40-60 million footballs a year, which is roughly 50-70% of the world’s total production. The football manufacturing industry now consists of more than 200 factories.
4. Pakistan has the highest paved international road – The Karakoram Highway (KKH).
5. Pakistan has the largest canal-based irrigation system in the world.
6. Pakistan has the world’s largest ambulance network. Pakistan’s Edhi Foundation, which is also listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, operates the network.
7. Pakistan’s estimated population was 207,774,520 in August 2017, making it the world’s sixth-most-populous country, behind Brazil and ahead of Nigeria.
8. The national flag of Pakistan. Green with a vertical white band (symbolizing the role of religious minorities) on the hoist side; a large white crescent and star are centered in the green field; the crescent, star, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam. Image credit – Wikipedia.org
9. Just two people have won the Nobel Prize from Pakistan. Malala Yousafzai for Peace in 2014 and Abdus Salam for Physics in 1979.
10. Pakistan boasts the world’s highest ATM (automated teller machine). The ATM is operated by the National Bank of Pakistan and it is installed at a height of 16,007 feet above sea level, at the Pak-China border, Khunjerab Pass.
11. Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan, is its financial hub as well as home to almost 17 million people. It also has a major seaport. Karachi was the first capital city of Pakistan post-independence and remained so until the capital was shifted to Rawalpindi in 1958.
12. India and Pakistan got their independence at midnight of 14–15 August 1947. The Indian Independence Act states – “As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan.”
13. The Pakistani rupee is the official currency of Pakistan.
14. Sugarcane juice is the national drink of Pakistan. In Pakistan, it is also known as “ROH.”
15. Pakistan levies a 5% advance tax on annual expenses made related to education, however, only when the total expense is above Rs 200,000 during a year.
16. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was founded on 23 October 1946 as Orient Airways. The airline was nationalized on January 10th, 1955. The airline has a world record for flying the fastest between London and Karachi. The airline achieved this feat in 1962 when they completed the flight in 6 hours, 43 minutes, 55 seconds, a record which remains unbroken to this day.
17. K-2 (Chagori) is the highest mountain peak in Pakistan and the second highest in the world.
18. Pakistan also has one of the oldest civilizations in history, Mehrgarh, dating back to 6000 B.C. Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia.
19. They also have a rare species of ‘Blind Dolphin’ found in the water of the Indus River. It is the second most endangered freshwater dolphin species in the world, the first being the ‘functionally extinct’ Yangtze River dolphin.
20. Pakistan also made history with the youngest civil judge in the world. Mohammed Ilyas passed the exam when he was 20 years and 9 months old and thus became the youngest civil judge in the world.
21. The ‘Khewra Salt Mine’ in Pakistan is the second-largest and oldest salt mine in the world.
22. Pakistan has the only fertile desert in the world – the Tharparkar desert – located in Sindh province.
23. Pakistan has the eleventh-largest armed force in the world. It has 617,000 people in its army. UN peacekeeping missions are supported largely by the Pakistani army.
24. According to a survey, Pakistan has one of the world’s top national anthem tunes. The duration of Pakistan’s National Anthem is 80 seconds.
25. Pakistanis are the fourth-most intelligent people in the world, according to poll results gathered from 125 countries by the Institute of European Business Administration.
26. The world’s seventh-largest collection of scientists and engineers is from Pakistan.
27. The world’s longest glacial system outside the polar regions – the Biafo Glacier – is in Pakistan.
28. The largest earth-filled dam in the world (and fifth largest by structural volume) is the ‘Tarbela Dam’ on the Indus river in Pakistan. The dam was built in 1968 and 1976. The dam is 143.26 meters high and 2,743.2 meters long.
29. Out of the total land area in Pakistan, 25% is under agricultural cultivation. Pakistan irrigates three times more land area than Russia.
30. The once world’s largest man-made forest is in Pakistan – the Changa Manga forest (12,423 acres in area). It is named after two brother dacoits, the Changa Manga forest was originally planted in 1866 by British foresters.
31. Pakistan is also blessed with Jahangir Khan, a former World No. 1 professional squash player. Between 1981 and 1986, he won 555 matches consecutively (the longest winning streak by any athlete in top-level professional sports as recorded by Guinness World Records).
32. Islamabad, Pakistan is ranked the second most beautiful capital in the world.
33. For the passenger trains in Pakistan, the railway uses, 5 ft 6 in wide gauge, the size of a broad track gauge which is also commonly used in India, west of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Chile. Elsewhere it is known as “Indian gauge”. It is the widest gauge for regular passenger use anywhere in the world.
34. Pakistan has some of the best-trained air force pilots in the world.
35. The Shah Faisal Mosque in Pakistan can accommodate 100,000 worshipers at a time. It was the largest mosque in the world from 1986 until 1993.
It is named after Saudi King Faisal, who provided a $120 million grant for the construction of the mosque in 1976.
36. MM Alam, late Air Commodore from Pakistan, is known to have shot five planes in less than a minute during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
37. Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, has a population of 2,006,572 (2017). Islamabad officially became the capital of Pakistan on 14 August 1967, exactly 20 years after the country’s independence.
38. Pakistan is so far the only nation in the world to get established on the basis of ‘Religion’.
39. Pakistan is the only Muslim country after Turkey to open Combat Jobs for women.
40. Shandur Pass located in Chitral District and Ghizer (Gherz) District, Balawaristan, North Pakistan is home to the world’s highest Polo ground at 3,700 meters. Since 1936, a traditional polo festival is being held on Shandur Top.
41. Pakistan is also home to the world’s second-largest Muslim population, behind Indonesia. Note that India is home to the world’s third-largest Muslim population.
42. An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck the Kashmir region in Pakistan on 8 October 2005. The earthquake caused the displacement of approximately 3 million people.
43. The majority of Pakistan’s population is Muslim, amounting to 96.4%, while the rest includes Hindus and Christians.
44. Pakistan generated a whopping $1 billion in freelancing in the year 2017. Freelancing is the way of providing technical expertise via the internet. Pakistan ranks on the 4th spot behind India, Bangladesh, and the United States.
45. The borders of Pakistan were drawn two days after on 17th August 1947, after the separation of India and Pakistan.
46. Gwadar port is the largest deep seaport in the world, located on the southwestern Arabian Sea along the coastline of Balochistan, Pakistan. The port has an area of 64,000 square meters and has a depth of more than 14 meters.
47. Pakistan is also one of the top producers and exporters of surgical instruments in the world. According to a source, almost 99% of these instruments are produced in Sialkot.
48. Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton producing country in the world (2017).
49. Pakistan is the world’s fourth-largest milk-producing country while India tops the list.
50. Pakistan is also home to a lake which is one of a kind – Ansoo Lake (Tear Lake). The shape of the lake resembles that of a tear. The lake also looks like a human eye with an eyebrow, which becomes prominent during the summer days when the ice melts. The lake has a central island that resembles the iris.
51. Pakistan is also home to the largest single dome mosque in the world – Masjid e Tooba. The mosque is located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, and is locally known as the Gol Masjid. The dome of the mosque is 212 ft in diameter and is 51.48 ft high. It is balanced on a low surrounding wall with no central pillars. It was built in 1969. Learn more.
52. Located at the northern end of the Kaghan Valley, Lake Saiful Muluk, is one of the highest lakes in Pakistan, at an elevation of 3,224 m (10,578 feet) above sea level.
53. In the last five years, Pakistan’s literacy rate has grown by 250%, the largest increase in any country to date.
54. Mohenjo-Daro is an archaeological site in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. It was one of the largest and most advanced cities in the world during its time (built around 2500 BCE).
There are 6 cultural properties from Pakistan inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro (1980)
Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol (1980)
Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore (1981)
Historical Monuments at Makli, Thatta (1981)
Rohtas Fort (1997)
Taxila (1980)
56. Makli Hill located in Thatta, Pakistan is home to over half a million tombs and graves. It is one of the largest necropolis (a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments) in the world. The tombs were built over a period of 400 years between the 14th and 18th centuries.
57. Gaddani, Pakistan is also home to the world’s third-largest ship breaking yard.
58. The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan is one of the world’s largest mosques. It was commissioned by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and its construction completed in 1673. However, the mosque was largely used for military purposes during the Sikh era and the British rule for many years until the independence of Pakistan when it was restored to its original condition.
59. Darra Adam Khel is a city situated in Khyber Regency, south of the city of Peshawar. Almost three-quarters of the population of the city, generally regarded as the largest illegal gun market in the world, is involved in the gun business. Replicas of nearly every gun available on the market are produced in the region. The business came into existence in 1897 and is run by the local Afridi tribe.
60. Sohail Abbas, a Pakistani field hockey defender, is the highest goal scorer in the history of field hockey, with his current goal tally at 348.
61. Pakistan is also famous for truck art (decorating trucks with complex floral patterns and poetic calligraphy). Trucks are painted with a splash of colors and the artists’ creativity is very appealing.
62. In 2013, Lonely Planet–the largest travel guide book publisher in the world–titled Pakistan, ‘The Next Big Thing’.
63. Shalwar kameez is the traditional Pakistani dress, which is worn by 80% or 90% of Pakistanis.
64. Pakistani intelligence is considered the best intelligence corps in the world, even better than the CIA.
65. Pakistan is also known for its missile technology, which is one of the best in the world.
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06/12/2020