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ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN
Official name: Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Islami Jamhuriya-e-Pakistan)
Location: South Asia
International organisations: The Commonwealth of Nations, The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of Islamic
Conference, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation
Borders: Afghanistan, China, India, Iran
Coastline: Arabian Sea
Land area: 803,940 Km2
Population: 147,600,000
Ethnicity: North Indian (Indo-Aryan) people: Punjabi, Sindhi,
Pashtun (Pathan), Baloch, Muhajir
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Languages: Urdu (closely related to Hindi though written in a
different script) is the official language, though only 8% speak it as
their first language. In practice English is the language of
government. The most widely spoken languages are Punjabi 48%,
Sindhi 12%, Siraiki 10% and Pashtu 8%.
Religion: Sunni Islam (the state religion) 77%, Shi'a Islam 20%,
Christian, Hindu and other 3%
Form of government: In theory, a parliamentary democratic republic
(but see below). Pakistan is divided into
four provinces and two territories which all have elected assemblies. The
Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir (Free Kashmir and the Northern Areas) are
under direct government administration.
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Capital: Islamabad
Constitution: The current
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan dates from 10 April 1973. It
was suspended during periods of military rule, 1977-85 and 1999-2002.
Head of state: The President, according to the Constitution, is
elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term. The current
President,
however, came to power in a military coup (see below).
Head of government: Prime Minister, appointed by the President and in
practice accountable to him.
Legislature: The Majlis-i-Shura (Parliament) is a bicameral
legislature. The lower house, the National Assembly, has
342 members elected for five-year terms. Of these, 272 members are
elected in single-member constituencies. |
Sixty seats are reserved for
women and ten seats are reserved for ethnic minorities. These members
are nominated by the political parties. The Senate has 100 members,
nominated by the provincial parliaments.
Electoral authority: The Pakistan Electoral
Commission ran the 2002 national election.
Freedom House rating:
Political Rights 6, Civil Liberties 5
(Pakistan held reasonably free election in 2002 and its political rights rating would now be
higher than indicated.)
Political history
Pakistan occupies the western quarter of the Indian subcontinent and
until 1947 its history was that of part of
India. In 1906 Indian Moslem leaders,
fearing that the Indian National Congress's agitation for independence
would lead to a Hindu-dominated India, formed the Moslem League, and
under the leadership of Mohammned Ali Jinnah they demanded a separate
Moslem state, to be called Pakistan ("Land of the Pure").

Mohammned Ali Jinnah
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Faced with the threat of civil war the departing British acceded
to partition, and Pakistan came into existence in 1947. It originally
included East Bengal, but this territory broke away and became
Bangladesh in 1971.
Pakistan has suffered from chronic bad government and instability
thoughout its history. A parliamentary system was created in 1947, but
proved weak and ineffective. There were military coups in 1958, 1977 and
1999, and in most cases the civilian governments which alternated with
military rule were corrupt or incompetent or both. The 1999 coup was widely
welcomed and parliamentary government seemed discredited.
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General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in October 1999,
has redesigned the political system. In April 2002 a carefully managed
plebiscite approved changes to the Constitution greatly expanding the
President's powers and confirming Pervez as President until 2007. The
Prime Minister and ministry will now be largely responsible to the
President, who will retain control over the military, security and
foreign policy.
The October 2002 legislative elections were reasonable fairly
conducted
in a technical sense, but opposition parties had little access to the
media. The two most successful parties were those long established in
Pakistani politics: the
Pakistan Peoples Party, an allegedly
socialist party led
by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and the Pakistan Moslem League (Quaid-e-Azam),
a faction of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party which supports Pervez
(Quaid-e-Azam means Great Leader and is a reference to Jinnah). Nawaz's
own faction, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), polled poorly. Both
Bhutto and Nawaz are in exile because of corruption charges.
The surprise of the election was the success of the Islamist
Muttahhida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan, an
alliance of Islamist parties some of which have links to the Taliban and
other Islamic extrenists. Apart from the Islamists, Pakistani
political parties have little in the way of ideology and are mostly
vehicles for their leaders and the interests they represent.
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