1 | © D L I F L Cfieldsupport.dliflc.edu/products/cip/pakistan/Pakistan.pdf · Traditional Dress ... 13 Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin, Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook (Santa Barbara,

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Chapter 1: Geography ................................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 7

Area ........................................................................................................................................................... 7

Geographic Regions .................................................................................................................................. 8

Northern Mountains .............................................................................................................................. 8

Submontane Plateaus ............................................................................................................................ 8

Indus River Plain ................................................................................................................................... 9

Western Mountains ............................................................................................................................... 9

Balochistan Plateau ............................................................................................................................... 9

Deserts................................................................................................................................................. 10

Makran Coast ...................................................................................................................................... 10

Indus River Delta and Sindh Coast ..................................................................................................... 11

Climate .................................................................................................................................................... 11

Bodies of Water ...................................................................................................................................... 12

Arabian Sea ......................................................................................................................................... 12

Indus River .......................................................................................................................................... 12

Jhelum River ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Chenab River ...................................................................................................................................... 13

Ravi River ........................................................................................................................................... 14

Sutlej River ......................................................................................................................................... 14

Kabul River ......................................................................................................................................... 14

Major Cities ............................................................................................................................................ 15

Karachi ................................................................................................................................................ 15

Lahore ................................................................................................................................................. 16

Islamabad and Rawalpindi .................................................................................................................. 17

Faisalabad ........................................................................................................................................... 17

Peshawar ............................................................................................................................................. 18

Multan ................................................................................................................................................. 19

Environmental Concerns ......................................................................................................................... 19

Natural Hazards ...................................................................................................................................... 20

Earthquakes ......................................................................................................................................... 20

Floods .................................................................................................................................................. 20

Drought ............................................................................................................................................... 21

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Chapter 1: Assessment ................................................................................................................................ 22

Chapter 2: History ....................................................................................................................................... 23

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 23

Early History ........................................................................................................................................... 24

The Indus Valley Civilizations ........................................................................................................... 24

Crossroads of Empires ........................................................................................................................ 24

Islamic Empires ...................................................................................................................................... 25

The Early Islamic Empires .................................................................................................................. 25

The Mughal Period ............................................................................................................................. 26

Colonial Era ............................................................................................................................................ 27

The British Enter the Indus River Plain .............................................................................................. 27

Colonial Rule ...................................................................................................................................... 28

The Beginnings of the Hindu–Muslim Split ....................................................................................... 29

Independence and Partition ................................................................................................................. 29

The Nation of Pakistan ............................................................................................................................ 30

Post-Independence .............................................................................................................................. 30

A Country Divided .............................................................................................................................. 31

The Bangladesh Independence War .................................................................................................... 32

Bhutto and ul-Haq ............................................................................................................................... 32

Recent History ........................................................................................................................................ 33

Return to Democracy .......................................................................................................................... 33

Back to Military Control ..................................................................................................................... 34

The Aftermath of 9/11......................................................................................................................... 35

Recent Events ...................................................................................................................................... 36


Chapter 3: Economy ................................................................................................................................... 38

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 38

Agriculture .............................................................................................................................................. 39

Industry ................................................................................................................................................... 40

Services ................................................................................................................................................... 41

Transportation ......................................................................................................................................... 41

Natural Resources ................................................................................................................................... 43

Energy ................................................................................................................................................. 43

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Mineral Resources .............................................................................................................................. 44

Trade ....................................................................................................................................................... 44

Exports ................................................................................................................................................ 45

Imports ................................................................................................................................................ 45

Tourism ................................................................................................................................................... 46

Banking and Finance ............................................................................................................................... 46

Investment ............................................................................................................................................... 47

Standard of Living .................................................................................................................................. 47

Employment Trends ................................................................................................................................ 48

Public versus Private Sector .................................................................................................................... 49

Business Outlook .................................................................................................................................... 50


Chapter 4: Society ....................................................................................................................................... 52

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 52

Ethnic Groups ......................................................................................................................................... 52

Punjabis ............................................................................................................................................... 53

Sindhis................................................................................................................................................. 53

Muhajirs .............................................................................................................................................. 54

Pashtuns .............................................................................................................................................. 54

Baluchis............................................................................................................................................... 55

Saraikis ................................................................................................................................................ 55

Kashmiri .............................................................................................................................................. 56

Languages ............................................................................................................................................... 56

Urdu .................................................................................................................................................... 56

Punjabi ................................................................................................................................................ 57

Pashto .................................................................................................................................................. 57

Sindhi .................................................................................................................................................. 58

Saraiki ................................................................................................................................................. 58

Religion ................................................................................................................................................... 59

Islam .................................................................................................................................................... 59

Sunni and Shi‘a Islam ......................................................................................................................... 59

Islam in Pakistan ................................................................................................................................. 59

Cuisine .................................................................................................................................................... 60

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Traditional Dress ..................................................................................................................................... 60

Women ................................................................................................................................................ 61

Men ..................................................................................................................................................... 61

Gender Issues .......................................................................................................................................... 61

Patriarchal Culture .............................................................................................................................. 61

Violence toward Women .................................................................................................................... 62

Bills of Protection for Women ............................................................................................................ 62

Arts .......................................................................................................................................................... 63

Ghazals ................................................................................................................................................ 63

Storytelling .......................................................................................................................................... 63

Folklore ............................................................................................................................................... 63

Sports and Recreation ............................................................................................................................. 64

Cricket ................................................................................................................................................. 64

Field Hockey ....................................................................................................................................... 64

Gulli Danda ......................................................................................................................................... 64

Rugby .................................................................................................................................................. 65


Chapter 5: Security ..................................................................................................................................... 67

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 67

United States–Pakistan Relations............................................................................................................ 67

Relations with Neighboring Countries .................................................................................................... 68

India .................................................................................................................................................... 68

Iran ...................................................................................................................................................... 69

Afghanistan ......................................................................................................................................... 69

China ................................................................................................................................................... 70

Tajikistan............................................................................................................................................. 72

Law and Order ........................................................................................................................................ 72

Army ................................................................................................................................................... 72

Air Force ............................................................................................................................................. 73

Navy .................................................................................................................................................... 73

Police................................................................................................................................................... 73

Frontier Corps (FC) ............................................................................................................................. 74

Intelligence Agencies .............................................................................................................................. 75

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Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) ................................................................................. 75

Military Intelligence (MI) ................................................................................................................... 75

Intelligence Bureau (IB)...................................................................................................................... 75

Issues Affecting Internal Stability........................................................................................................... 76

Militant Groups ................................................................................................................................... 76

Islamist Groups ................................................................................................................................... 76

Sectarian Groups ................................................................................................................................. 77

Ethnic Nationalist Groups ................................................................................................................... 77

Water Security ........................................................................................................................................ 78

Looking Forward .................................................................................................................................... 79


Final Assessment ........................................................................................................................................ 82

Further Reading .......................................................................................................................................... 84

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Chapter 1: Geography

Introduction

Pakistan is located in the northwestern part of the Indian

subcontinent. It occupies an important geostrategic

position. It borders Iran and Afghanistan on the west,

China on the north, and India on the east.

Pakistan controls two important passes, the Khyber and

the Bolan, which have been traditional routes of invasion

between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. The

nation has access in the south to the Arabian Sea. Its land

size is 796,095 sq km (310,477 sq mi) with terrain and

climate ranging from glaciers to deserts, forests to plateaus, and mountains to plains.1 The terrain

and climate support diverse and unique flora and fauna, some of which are endangered.2

Pakistan‘s natural geography and geology make it vulnerable to frequent floods and earthquakes.

Ecological degradations from human activities include desertification, deforestation, soil erosion,

water and air pollution.

Area

Disputed for centuries, the borders of present-day

Pakistan have changed many times. Before 1947,

Pakistan and India made up one country, with the Durand

Line (still contested today) dividing Afghanistan from

what would become Pakistan after independence from

Britain.

On the eve of independence, the colonial authorities

partitioned India, creating Pakistan with east and west

wings flanking India. East Pakistan gained independence

in 1971 and became Bangladesh. West Pakistan then became Pakistan, which now includes four

provinces and the Pakistani-controlled area of the disputed Jammu–Kashmir region along its

northeastern border. Pakistan‘s provinces largely follow the country‘s geographic and ethnic

patterns. Comprising the mountainous western and northern parts of the country, the Balochistan

and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces are the historical homelands of ethnic Baluchis and

Pashtuns, respectively. The provinces of Punjab and Sindh, on the other hand, occupy primarily

river plains.3

1 Central Intelligence Agency, ―Pakistan,‖ in The World Factbook, 6 April 2011,

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html 2 Ali Aldosari, ―Flora and Fauna of Afghanistan and Pakistan,‖ in Middle East, Western Asia, and Northern Africa

(New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2007), 308–311. 3 Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011).

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html

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Geographic Regions

Northern Mountains

The northern part of Pakistan, including virtually all the

areas of Jammu and Kashmir controlled by Pakistan,

consists of mountainous terrain interspersed with river

valleys. The highest mountains lie along the northern

border, including the Karakoram Range to the northwest

and the Hindu Kush to the northeast. Prominent peaks

include Tirich Mir at 7,708 m (25,282 ft), the highest

peak in the Hindu Kush; K2 at 8,611 m (28,244 ft), the

highest Karakoram peak and the world‘s second-highest mountain; and Nanga Parbat at 8,126 m

(26,653 ft), the only peak over 8,000 m (26,240 ft) in the Western Himalayas.4, 5

In the southern part of this region, the mountains decrease in height. Most of the river valleys are

in this area, including the tourist destinations of Swat Valley and the Kaghan Valley. The rivers

and streams that run through these valleys all ultimately feed into the Indus River farther

downstream.6

In October 2005, a violent earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck the Kaghan Valley. Over 75,000

people were killed in one of the world‘s deadliest earthquakes. Some Kaghan Valley towns and

cities, such as Balakot, were so completely destroyed that officials have decided that the towns

will not be rebuilt at their old sites.7, 8

Submontane Plateaus

Between the northern and western mountains, surrounded by low hills, are a series of plateaus.

The largest of these is the Potwar Plateau, which is separated from the Indus River Plain by the

narrow Salt Range that runs east–west, north of the Jhelum River. The Potwar Plateau receives

more rainfall in the northwest regions than the arid south, but the soil is generally not suited for

cultivation.9 In the northeastern part of the Potwar Plateau are the cities of Rawalpindi and

Islamabad, Pakistan‘s capital. The plateau region continues west and north from the Potwar

Plateau to areas on the western side of the Indus River. These plateaus include the Vale of

Peshawar, known as the gateway to the famed Khyber Pass, and regions to its south in the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.10

4 Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin, Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), 6–10.

5 Maurice Isserman and Stewart Angas Weaver, Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the

Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 500 n37. 6 A. Z. Hilali, US–Pakistan Relationship: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005), 207.

7 BBC News, ―In Depth: South Asia Quake,‖ 11 May 2007,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/south_asia/2005/south_asia_quake/default.stm 8 Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin, Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), 13–20.

9 Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Pakistan: The Submontane Plateau,‖ 2010,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/438805/Pakistan 10

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Pakistan: The Submontane Plateau,‖ 2010,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/438805/Pakistan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/south_asia/2005/south_asia_quake/default.stm



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Indus River Plain

Most of the population of Punjab and Sindh provinces

lives in the Indus River Plain, which is the agricultural

heart of Pakistan. The northern portion of the Plain, often

referred to as the Punjab Plain, is marked by the

confluence of four large tributaries of the Indus River:

the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej rivers. The regions

between the rivers are known as doabs. Three of the

doabs (Rechna, Chaj, and Bari) are some of the most

productive agricultural lands in Pakistan, because of the

extensive irrigation systems that have been developed there. Several of Pakistan‘s largest cities,

such as Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, and Multan, are also in the three doabs. The

westernmost doab, the Sindh Sagar, lies between the Indus and Jhelum rivers and is mostly

desert.11

The southern Indus River Plain, or Sindh Plain, begins just south of where the Indus River is

joined by the Panjnad River. The Plain in this region narrows between mountains to the west and

deserts to the east. The Indus River in the southern portion is much wider, carries more silt, and

is more prone to flooding. The river‘s delta region covers a wide portion of the southern coast

because of several channel changes over time.12, 13

Western Mountains

South and west of the northern mountains lay numerous lower ranges that border Afghanistan to

the west and the Indus River Plain to the east. The Khyber Pass, used for centuries by traders and

invaders as a passage into the Indus River Plain and northern India beyond, is situated in a

northeastern spur of this range.14

Balochistan Plateau

Much of Balochistan Province lies within the Balochistan

Plateau. This region is extremely arid, particularly in the

northwestern areas. The Plateau contains numerous

parallel mountain ridges that run southwest–northeast in

the south and north–south in the east. The Bolan Pass in

the Central Brahui Range provides the main access to

Quetta, the area‘s only large city and the capital of

Balochistan. North of Quetta lays the Khojak Pass, the

only official entry point into Afghanistan along its long border with Balochistan.

11

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Pakistan: The Indus River Plain,‖ 2011,


International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, ―The Lower Indus River: Balancing

Development and Maintenance of Wetland Ecosystems and Dependent Livelihoods,‖ 2003,

http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/indus.pdf 13

Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin, Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), 11–13. 14

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Khyber Pass,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/317182/Khyber-Pass


http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/indus.pdf

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/317182/Khyber-Pass

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The Kharan Basin in the western part of the Balochistan Plateau is primarily desert and

extremely inhospitable. The few rivers that exist are short-lived and do not drain outside the

Basin. It is in this region that Pakistan has carried out its underground nuclear tests.15, 16

Deserts

Much of southern Pakistan is arid, receiving between 10–

25 cm (4–10 in) of rain each year. Only the presence of

the Indus River and the numerous canals branching from

it has allowed substantial agriculture to take place within

the lower Punjab and Sindh Plains.17, 18

Some dry areas have infertile soils, however, and cannot

be irrigated. One such area is the Thar Desert, which

occupies the western side of Sindh Province and the

southeastern portion of Punjab Province.19

It also extends into adjacent portions of India. The

portion within Punjab Province is known locally as the Cholistan Desert.

Farther north, in the Sind Sagar Doab between the Indus and Jhelum rivers, lays the Thal Desert.

Hard work has reclaimed some of the Thal Desert through irrigation, but the remainder supports

only grazing lands.20

To the west, much of the northwestern portion of the Balochistan Plateau is

also considered desert land and is one of the most sparsely populated areas in Pakistan.21

Makran Coast

Pakistan‘s portion of the Makran Coast extends from the Iranian border in the west to near

Karachi in the east. This region lies beyond the monsoon areas and receives little rainfall. A

handful of fishing villages with natural ports dot the coastline; otherwise, the region is mostly

uninhabited. One of these port villages, Ormara, hosts the Jinnah Naval Base, which opened in

June 2000.22

This base serves not only as a naval port but as the testing grounds for Pakistan‘s

missile delivery systems for conventional and nuclear weapons, including the Shaheen series

missiles.23, 24

Farther west, the government opened a new deepwater port in the village of

15

Federation of American Scientists, ―Wazir Khan Khosa: Kharan Desert,‖ 6 July 2000,

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/facility/kharan.htm 16

Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin, Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), 10–11. 17

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Thar Desert,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590028/Thar-Desert 18

World Water Assessment Programme, The United Nations World Water Development Report 3: Water in a

Changing World (Paris: UNESCO, 2009), 31. 19

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Thar Desert,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590028/Thar-Desert 20

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Pakistan: The Desert Areas,‖ 2011,


Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin, Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), 13. 22

R. S. N. Singh, The Military Factor in Pakistan (New Delhi: Lancer, 2008), 387. 23

Michael Kort, Weapons of Mass Destruction (New York: Facts on File, 2010), 104–105. 24

Vijay Sakhuja, ―Pakistan‘s Naval Strategy: Past and Future,‖ Strategic Analysis 26, no. 4 (2002): 493–507.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/facility/kharan.htm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590028/Thar-Desert

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590028/Thar-Desert


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Gwadar in 2008.25

A paved two-lane road now runs from Karachi to Gwadar, significantly

reducing the isolation of the coastal region.26

Indus River Delta and Sindh Coast

From the southeastern outskirts of Karachi to the coastal border with India is a low-lying coastal

region comprising mud flats, mangrove swamps, and creeks that meander through the Indus

River Delta and adjoining areas.27

Unlike the Makran Coast, which rises relatively abruptly from

the Arabian Sea, the continental shelf along Sindh Province is broad with a gentle slope.

Climate

All of Pakistan lies within the North Temperate Zone, but

meteorological and topographical variations provide a

diversity of climate types. Much of the country is arid or

semiarid. A relatively small region in the north, just south

of the Himalaya foothills, exceeds 50 cm (20 in) in

average annual precipitation—usually considered the

minimum for dry farming.28

From this area southward,

rainfall drops off significantly, and only regions in the

western mountains and the far southwestern corner of the

country receive an average annual precipitation of 25 cm (10 inches) or more.29

Winter is short, running from December through February. Spring typically lasts from March

through May. This is followed by the southwest monsoon season from June through September,

bringing much-needed rain to the country. Finally, October through November is the equivalent

of fall, and the monsoon retreats.30, 31

Except for the high mountain areas, much of Pakistan is quite warm from late spring through

early fall. The monsoon season brings increased cloud cover even if no rain falls, so

temperatures are moderated somewhat. But the higher humidity during this period still leads to

uncomfortable weather conditions.32

To the north, in the Indus River Plain, average temperatures are lower than in southern Pakistan,

although daily high temperatures may still average over 40˚C (104˚F) during the hottest summer

25

Saleem Shahid, ―Gwadar Port Becomes Fully Functional,‖ Dawn, 22 December 2008,

http://archives.dawn.com/2008/12/22/top2.htm 26

Murtaza Baig, ―Balochistan Mega Projects: Musharraf Unveils Development Plans,‖ Pakistan Times, 17

December 2004, http://pakistantimes.net/2004/12/17/top.htm 27

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ―Fishery and Aquaculture Country Profile—Pakistan,‖

01 February 2009, http://www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/FI-CP_PK/en 28

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Pakistan: Climate,‖ 2007

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/438805/Pakistan/ 29

Pakistan Information, ―Mean Annual Rainfall,‖ n.d., http://www.pakistaninformation.com/pakrainfallmap.html 30

BBC Weather, ―Country Guide: Pakistan,‖ n.d.,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/hi/country_guides/newsid_9384000/9384207.stm 31

Peter Blood, ed. ―Geoegraphy: Climate,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study (Washington, DC: Government Printing

Office, Library of Congress, 1994), http://countrystudies.us/pakistan/25.htm 32

BBC Weather, ―Country Guide: Pakistan,‖ n.d.,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/hi/country_guides/newsid_9384000/9384207.stm

http://archives.dawn.com/2008/12/22/top2.htm

http://pakistantimes.net/2004/12/17/top.htm

http://www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/FI-CP_PK/en

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/438805/Pakistan/

http://www.pakistaninformation.com/pakrainfallmap.html


http://countrystudies.us/pakistan/25.htm


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months. Only in the high regions of northern Pakistan are temperatures moderate from April

through October.

Bodies of Water

Arabian Sea

This northwestern arm of the Indian Ocean covers

3,862,000 sq km (1,506,180 sq mi). It represents the

primary sea route between Europe and the Indian

subcontinent. Asia and Africa border its northern,

eastern, and western sides. It is connected to the Persian

Gulf via the Gulf of Oman.33

Pakistan enjoys a long

coastline of 1,046 km (649 mi) along the sea.34

The

strategic location of the Arabian Sea has greatly contributed to Pakistan‘s economic and military

development, international trade, and the wars with India.35

Indus River

Except for some areas along the Makran Coast and in the Balochistan Plateau, all rivers and

streams in Pakistan eventually flow into the Indus. One of the world‘s longest rivers at 2,900 km

(1,800 mi), it originates in the high altitudes of the Tibetan Plateau in China. It flows northwest

through the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled portions of Jammu and Kashmir, before turning

southward and entering the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

As the Indus descends from the high northern mountains, it reaches the reservoir at Tarbela Dam,

the largest earth-filled dam in the world. The generators at Tarbela produce the majority of

Pakistan‘s hydroelectricity. After a few more turns, the Indus finishes its route at the Arabian

Sea.36

The upper Indus River is too tumultuous for navigation. The lower Indus is navigable by small

boats, but because the country‘s railroad system is more efficient, the river is seldom used. The

Indus River‘s primary value is for Indus Valley crop irrigation and hydroelectric power

generation.37, 38

33

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Arabian Sea,‖ 2011

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31653/Arabian-Sea 34

Central Intelligence Agency, ―Pakistan,‖ in The World Factbook, 6 April 2011,

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/countrytemplate_pk.html 35

Bharat Verma, G. M. Hiranandani, and B. K. Pandey, Indian Armed Forces (New Delhi: Lancer Publishers &

Distributors, 2008), 84. 36

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Indus River,‖ 2011

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/286872/Indus-River 37

Zubair Tahir and Zaigham Habib, ―Land and Water Productivity: Trends Across Punjab Canal Commands,‖

(working paper, International Water Management Institute, Pakistan Country Series Number 3, Colombo, 2001):

31–32. 38

Sally Morgan, Natural Resources (Mankato, MN: Smart Apple Media, 2009), 35.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31653/Arabian-Sea

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/countrytemplate_pk.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/286872/Indus-River

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Jhelum River

The Jhelum River is the westernmost of the Punjab rivers

that feed into the Indus. Its headwaters are in the Indian

portion of Jammu and Kashmir, and it is the principal

river flowing through the Vale of Kashmir. It flows

through Muzaffarabad, the largest city of Pakistani Azad

Kashmir, before turning south to descend toward the

Punjab Plain. For much of this stretch it forms the border

between Azad Kashmir and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Province. North of Jhelum, the largest city along the

river, the river flows into the Mangla Dam reservoir, the second largest dam in Pakistan.39, 40

Several link canals below Mangla Dam feed Jhelum water into the Chenab River. These canals

are part of a massive water redistribution system that transfers water from the Indus, Jhelum, and

Chenab Rivers into the eastern Punjab rivers.

One ongoing dispute between India and Pakistan is the Wullar Barrage, a controversial water

project that India began constructing in 1984 on the Indian portion of the Jhelum. India

suspended work in 1987 when Pakistan claimed that the project violated terms of the Indus

Waters Treaty. Since then, ongoing talks have established a dialog, but have not drawn any

solutions.41, 42

Chenab River

The Chenab River originates in the Himalayas of India. It flows through the Indian portion of

Jammu and Kashmir, entering Pakistan near the city of Sialkot. From there it flows southwest

through the Punjab Plains as it links with the Jhelum and Ravi Rivers. In the southern Punjab

Plain the river is joined by the Sutlej, at which point the combined river becomes known as the

Panjnad.

The Chenab has been at the center of an ongoing water-development dispute between India and

Pakistan. But in this case, a neutral expert (called in by the World Bank to mediate) seemingly

settled the status of the project (Baglihar Dam in the Indian portion of Jammu and Kashmir) in

February 2007.43

39

U.S. Water News Online, ―Water Levels in Pakistani Dams Drop to Low Levels,‖ March 2002,

http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcglobal/2watlev3.html 40

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Jhelum River,‖ 2011

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303711/Jhelum-River 41

Gitika Commuri, Indian Identity Narratives and the Politics of Security (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Publications, 2010), 212–213. 42

Olli Varis, Cecilia Tortajada, and Asit K. Biswas, eds., Management of Transboundary Rivers and Lakes (Berlin:

Springer, 2008), 202. 43

Nathalie Tocci, ed., Who is a Normative Foreign Policy Actor? The European Union and Its Global Partners

(Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, 2008), 223–225.

http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcglobal/2watlev3.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303711/Jhelum-River

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Ravi River

The Ravi River originates in the Himalayas of India. It

follows the Indian–Pakistani border for 80 km (50 mi)

before running through the northwestern part of Lahore,

Pakistan‘s second most-populous city. It flows into the

Chenab River north of Multan in central Punjab Province.

The Ravi is the smallest of the Punjab rivers and is the

most polluted. Many industrial and municipal polluters

discharge human waste and heavy metals into this and all

other Pakistani rivers.44

Sutlej River

The Sutlej River, longest and easternmost of the five Punjab rivers, enters Pakistan from Punjab

State in India. The river begins its flow from a lake in southwest Tibet. Near the Pakistani border

with India, the Sutlej flows into the vast reservoir behind Bhakra Dam, one of the highest

concrete gravity dams in the world.45

As it nears the Pakistani border, the Sutlej receives the waters of the Beas River. The Sutlej

subsequently flows along the Pakistani–Indian border for 105 km (65 mi). Several link canals

from more eastern Punjab rivers help restore the Sutlej‘s flow before its final stretch through the

central Punjab Plain. At its confluence with the Chenab River, the combined rivers become the

Panjnad River before flowing into the Indus.46

Kabul River

The most significant Indus River tributary that flows in from the river‘s west bank is the Kabul

River, which rises west of the Afghani capital of Kabul and flows into Pakistan through a narrow

river valley north of the Khyber Pass. Near Peshawar, the Warsak Dam on the Kabul was the

first large dam project built by Pakistan after partition. The dam serves as the main source of

water for the city of Peshawar and generates electricity for the region. In 2008, the Taliban

threatened to destroy the dam in retaliation for attacks against the terrorist organization by local

residents.47

44

Nagesh Kumar and Sachin Chaturvedi, Environmental Requirements and Market Access: Reflections from South

Asia (New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2007), 172. 45

Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Kudaisya, The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia (New York: Routledge, 2000),

135–137, 46

Jack Kalpakian, Identity, Conflict and Cooperation in International River Systems (Burlington, VT: Ashgate,

2004), 152. 47

Jane Perlez and Pir Zubair Shah, ―Confronting the Taliban, Pakistan Finds Itself at War,‖ New York Times, 2

October 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?pagewanted=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?pagewanted=1

15 | © D L I F L C

Major Cities

With an estimated population of 184.8 million people in 2010, Pakistan is one of the most

heavily populated countries in Asia.48

According to the most recent Pakistani census, slightly

less than one third of the Pakistani people live in urban areas. This low percentage is nonetheless

higher than that of either India or Afghanistan, Pakistan‘s neighbors.

City Name Province Population 2009 est.49

Karachi Sindh 13,125,000

Lahore Punjab 7,132,000

Faisalabad Punjab 2,849,000

Rawalpindi Punjab 2,026,000

Multan Punjab 1,659,000

Gujranwala Punjab 1,652,000

Hyderabad Sindh 1,590,000

Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1,422,000

Islamabad Federal Capital Area 832,000

Quetta Balochistan 841,000

Karachi

The provincial capital of the Sindh Province, Karachi is

Pakistan‘s most populous city and primary seaport.

Following partition, it served as Pakistan‘s capital for

over a decade until the government moved to Rawalpindi

and then to Islamabad. For much of Pakistan‘s history,

Karachi has been Pakistan‘s only commercial port, and

that role has cemented the city‘s preeminence within the

country.50

During the post-independence years when Karachi was Pakistan‘s capital, booming construction

and infrastructure growth brought waves of Pashtuns, Punjabis, and Kashmiris into the city as

workers. Afghani refugees and illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka later

boosted the city‘s population and its ethnic diversity.51

Violence between the city‘s two largest ethnic groups—Pashtuns and Muhajirs—has plagued

Karachi for several decades. The city has also seen sectarian violence in the last decade between

Sunni and Shi‘a Muslim groups.52

48

World Urbanization Prospects, ―The 2009 Revision Population Database,‖ 2011,

http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/unup/index.asp?panel=3 49

Population Division, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ―World Population Prospects: The 2006

Revision, and World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision,‖ 2008, http://esa.un.org/unup/p2k0data.asp 50

A. Z. Hilali, ―The Challenges to Pakistan‘s Domestic Security,‖ Journal of Third World Studies (Spring 2002),

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3821/is_200204/ai_n9059490/ 51

Shahid Javed Burki, ―Karachi: A Unique Mega City,‖ Dawn, 4 October 2004,

http://www.pakistanlink.com/Letters/2004/oct04/15/02.html 52

BBC News, ―Violence at Karachi Shia Funerals,‖ 1 June 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3765047.stm

http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/unup/index.asp?panel=3

http://esa.un.org/unup/p2k0data.asp

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3821/is_200204/ai_n9059490/

http://www.pakistanlink.com/Letters/2004/oct04/15/02.html

16 | © D L I F L C

Karachi‘s population boom has tremendously strained the city‘s ability to address the needs of its

burgeoning population. The city‘s location in a mostly desert-like region with swamplands to the

southeast has made water particularly difficult to supply. Most of its water is piped in from the

Indus River, but the demand is greater. During drought periods, when some of Karachi‘s

secondary sources temporarily dry up, water-supply conditions can become critical in some

sections of the city.53

Lahore

Lahore, Pakistan‘s second-largest city, is near the Indian

border in northern Punjab. Unlike Karachi, Lahore has

been a major city of the Indian subcontinent for

centuries. For fourteen years (1584–1598 C.E.) during

the reign of Akbar the Great, Lahore served as capital of

the Mughal Empire. The modern city retains many

renowned architectural remnants of the Mughal era.

Foremost among these are the Badshahi Mosque, the

world‘s largest ―historical‖ mosque, and the Lahore Fort. The city also displays numerous

examples of extensive projects built during the British colonial period.54

Modern Lahore is capital of Punjab Province, the most populous of Pakistan‘s provinces. The

traditional region of Punjab was divided between India and Pakistan during the partition of 1947.

Lahore, the center of Punjabi culture and only 24 km (15 mi) from the new Indian–Pakistani

border, was hit particularly hard by the violent disruptions of the pre-independence period. The

city‘s Hindus and Sikhs, who made up approximately one-third of Lahore‘s population prior to

independence, migrated to the Indian side as Muslims from Amritsar and other northern Indian

cities came to Pakistani Punjab. The ensuing violence left nearly 6,000 homes damaged in

Lahore.55

Despite the terrible tensions and disruptions of the independence period, Lahore has avoided

many of the ethnic conflicts that still embroil Karachi. Partly this was because many of the

Lahore Muhajirs spoke the same language (Punjabi) as the existing Lahore population and in

many cases had established kinship networks in the city. That was not the case in Karachi.56

Today, Lahore stands as the cultural capital of Pakistan and one of its economic and financial

centers. Lahore is home to the country‘s most prestigious business and arts colleges, as well as

the historic University of the Punjab. The economy is typically diversified for a city of its size,

53

Noman Ahmed and Muhammad Suhail, ―Alternate Water-Supply Arrangements in Peri-Urban Localities: Awami

(People‘s) Tanks in Orangi Township, Karachi,‖ Environment and Urbanization 15, no. 23 (2003),

http://eau.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/15/2/33.pdf 54

Catherine Ella Blanshard Asher, The New Cambridge History of India: Part 1, vol. 4: Architecture of Mughal

India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 257–258. 55

Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin, Borders & Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition (New Brunswick, NJ:

Rutgers University Press, 1998). 56

Ian Talbot, ―A Tale of Two Cities: The Aftermath of Partition for Lahore and Amritsar 1947–1957,‖ Modern

Asian Studies 41, no. 1 (2007): 151–185

http://eau.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/15/2/33.pdf

17 | © D L I F L C

ranging from steel and chemical plants to a growing information technology segment.57

Cotton

textile plants have traditionally been the largest manufacturing employer.58

Islamabad and Rawalpindi

Pakistan‘s capital, Islamabad, is one of the world‘s

youngest capital cities. It was built in the 1960s to be the

new capital, replacing Karachi. The site chosen was at the

base of the Margalla Hills just north of its larger sister

city Rawalpindi.59

Islamabad is part of a capital territory

that has a population of over 1,000,000, with an estimated

851,000 living within the city proper.

Rawalpindi, Islamabad‘s much older and larger sister, is the Pakistan Army‘s headquarters—in

character with the city‘s history as the largest garrison in British India.60

Pindi, as the city is

referred to by locals, is a crowded, bustling city with factories and industrial plants, including

textile mills, a refinery, an iron foundry, and Pakistan‘s only brewery.61

The many bazaars in

Rawalpindi‘s Old City are famous and attract locals and tourists.62

Faisalabad

Founded in 1890 as Lyallpur, the modern city was renamed in 1977 after the late Saudi King

Faisal. The city came into existence when the British built perennial irrigation canals and

transformed the economy of the Punjab Plain. As agricultural production came to the doabs, the

previously arid scrublands between the Punjab rivers, the British colonial government

established and dispensed land grants to the new agricultural areas. They then administratively

organized them into colonies. These new canal colonies, as they were called, triggered a wave of

migration from northern Punjab to the lower Punjab Plain. Lyallpur was created to be the

headquarters of the Lower Chenab Colony, the largest of the canal colonies. It emerged as an

agricultural market center that soon dwarfed the older market towns along the Chenab River.

Following Pakistani independence in 1947, Lyallpur began to develop a strong industrial base.

The textile industry led the way, and the city quickly became Pakistan‘s textile center.63

Other

industries include hosiery, sugar mills, pharmaceuticals, and textile and agricultural machinery.

57

Athar Osama, ―Fighting Image Problem: An IT Industry Rises in Pakistan,‖ TechNewsWorld, 17 May 2005,

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/42934.html 58

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Lahore,‖ 2011, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/327951/Lahore 59

Orestes Yakas, Islamabad: The Birth of a Capital (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). 60

Sudhir Chadda, ―Pakistan Military—Another Inevitable Coup? It May Not be Good for India and America!‖ India

Daily, 5 October 2004, http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/10-05b-04.asp 61

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Rawalpindi,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/492326/Rawalpindi 62

Tony Halliday, ―Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and the Murree Hills,‖ in Pakistan, 3rd ed. (London: Insight Guides,

2007). 63

Faheem ul Islam, ―Insight into the Dynamics of Clustering in Traditional Industries in Developing Economies:

The Case of Faisalabad Cotton Textile Cluster in Pakistan‖ (conference paper, 9th Annual Global Conference of

TCI, Lyon, France, October 9–13, 2006).

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/42934.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/327951/Lahore

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/10-05b-04.asp

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/492326/Rawalpindi

18 | © D L I F L C

The accumulation of industries and the lack of waste treatment facilities have together created a

major pollution problem for the city.64

Despite Faisalabad‘s emergence as an industrial center, it also continues to serve its initial role as

a market and support center for the surrounding agricultural areas. Agricultural research is one

aspect of this role. In 1961, the University of Agriculture was established in the city, upgrading

the former Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute. The University has since become

Pakistan‘s largest and top-ranked agricultural school.65, 66

Peshawar

Peshawar is the largest Pakistani city outside of the

Punjab or Sindh Province, and is the capital of Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Province. It has historically acted as the

gateway to the Khyber Pass and Central Asia beyond. Its

location made it one of the key trading centers along the

Silk Road.67

The current name of the city is ascribed to

the Moghul Emperor Akbar the Great and means ―the

place at the frontier.‖68

Peshawar lies in a valley and is surrounded by agricultural fields in which sugar cane, wheat,

vegetables, maize, sugar beets, and fodder are grown. The local economy is dominated by

services and the construction industry. Industrial and manufacturing operations tend to be

relatively small.69

Since the late 1970s, the city has been enmeshed in the ongoing civil wars and insurgencies in

nearby Afghanistan, and refugees and combatants have streamed into the city. The city has long

had a concentration of Pashtun culture, and the recent influxes of mostly Pashtun Afghanis have

further increased the percentage of Pashtuns living in the city.70

As the city‘s population has rapidly grown, the infrastructure has struggled to keep pace. The

city suffers from a significant housing shortage, and the large number of Afghan refugees has

heavily stressed health facilities. The road system also has not kept up with the increased amount

of traffic.71

Air, water, and noise pollution have become major concerns.72

64

Ishfaq Ahmad, ―City Report of Faisalabad‖ (working paper, Asian Urban Information Center of Kobe, 2006),

http://www.auick.org/database/training/2006-1/CR/WS2006-1CR-Faisalabad.pdf 65

Higher Education Commission Pakistan, ―Rankings List,‖ 2011,

http://www.jocation.com/forum/Pakistani_Universities_ranking_by_HEC_42;

http://www.hec.gov.pk/new/QualityAssurance/Ranking_lists.htm 66

Association of Commonwealth Universities, Commonwealth Universities Yearbook, vol. 2 (London: Association

of Commonwealth Universities, 1999), 1083. 67

Tony Halliday, ―Peshawar,‖ in Pakistan, 3rd ed. (London: Insight Guides, 2007). 68

Lee Boyland, The Rings of Allah (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2004), 29. 69

Mohammad Asif Khan, ―Livelihood Strategies and Employment Structure in Northwest Pakistan‖ (thesis,

University of Göttingen, 2008), 17. 70

Pashto.org, ―Pashtun,‖ 2007, http://www.pashto.org/content/view/19/63/ 71

City Alliances, ―City Development Strategy: Peshawar,‖ 2005,

http://www.citiesalliance.org/cdsdb.nsf/Attachments/Pakistan+profile/$File/PCD+Profile.pdf

http://www.auick.org/database/training/2006-1/CR/WS2006-1CR-Faisalabad.pdf

http://www.jocation.com/forum/Pakistani_Universities_ranking_by_HEC_42

http://www.hec.gov.pk/new/QualityAssurance/Ranking_lists.htm

http://www.pashto.org/content/view/19/63/

http://www.citiesalliance.org/cdsdb.nsf/Attachments/Pakistan+profile/$File/PCD+Profile.pdf

19 | © D L I F L C

Multan

As the principal city of the southern Punjab Plain, Multan

serves as a commercial and industrial center for the

region. The city lies near the Chenab River and was the

location for the first of the canal colonies developed

beginning in 1886. The city is one of the hottest locations

in all Pakistan.73

Modern Multan is tied to the surrounding rural regions,

with 80% of the city‘s population earning their income

directly or indirectly through agriculture.74

Cotton and livestock are key elements of this

agricultural economy, as are mangoes, which are an important export. The city is well known for

its blue pottery, camel-skin work, and other cottage industry products.75

Environmental Concerns

In a country where 92% of the land is arid or semiarid, one of the biggest environmental

concerns is water quality.76

One of the world‘s most massive irrigation systems has been built to

increase Pakistan‘s agricultural capacity, but inadequate drainage systems have led to water

logging and increases in soil salinity.77,

78

Industrial water pollution is a major concern as well. The Pakistan Environmental Protection

Agency reports that only 1% of the country‘s wastewater is treated before being discharged into

rivers. In 2006, major epidemics of waterborne illnesses struck many of Pakistan‘s major cities.79

Authorities estimated that 60% of all infant mortalities in Pakistan in 2005 resulted from water

pollution.80

Addressing the water-quality problem has become a national priority.81

72

Daily Times (Pakistan), ―Pollution Reaches Alarming Level Throughout Peshawar,‖ 16 October 2006,

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C10%5C16%5Cstory_16-10-2006_pg7_15 73

Anatol Lieven, ―Multan,‖ in Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011). 74

Department of Agriculture, City District Government Multan, ―Agriculture,‖ 2009–2010,

http://www.multan.gov.pk/page.php?data=49 75

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Multan,‖ 2011, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/396964/Multan 76

Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, ―Chapter 1 Water—The Essential Resource,‖ State of Environment

Report 2005 (Draft), (report, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, 2005),

http://www.environment.gov.pk/pub-pdf/StateER2005/Part3-Chp%201.pdf 77

Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, ―Chapter 1 Water—The Essential Resource,‖ State of Environment

Report 2005 (Draft), (report, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, 2005),

http://www.environment.gov.pk/pub-pdf/StateER2005/Part3-Chp%201.pdf 78

South Asia Regional Office, The World Bank, ―Sindh—On-Farm Water Management Project: Updated Project

Information Document,‖ (report, World Bank, Project P078997, January 2004), http://www-

wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2003/09/30/000094946_03091204002060/Rend

ered/PDF/multi0page.pdf 79

Geoff Bridges, ―Country Chapter–Pakistan‖ in Asian Water Development Outlook 2007 (Manila: Asian

Development Bank, 2007), http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/AWDO/2007/cr08.pdf 80

IRIN News, ―Pakistan: At Least Six Killed after Drinking Polluted Water,‖ International News, 12 April 2005,

http://www.irc.nl/page/17834 81

Aamer Ahmed Khan, ―Pakistan ‗Faces Pollution Crisis,‘‖ BBC News, 5 June 2006,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5048308.stm

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C10%5C16%5Cstory_16-10-2006_pg7_15

http://www.multan.gov.pk/page.php?data=49

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/396964/Multan

http://www.environment.gov.pk/pub-pdf/StateER2005/Part3-Chp%201.pdf

http://www.environment.gov.pk/pub-pdf/StateER2005/Part3-Chp%201.pdf

http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2003/09/30/000094946_03091204002060/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf



http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/AWDO/2007/cr08.pdf

http://www.irc.nl/page/17834


20 | © D L I F L C

As Pakistan‘s population continues to grow, particularly in urban areas, air pollution has become

a major problem. Dust and smoke particles in the air of Pakistani cities have been measured at

levels twice the world average and five times the average for developed nations. Automobiles are

major contributors to these air-quality problems. The number of vehicles on Pakistani roads has

increased 500% over the last few decades, and many of these cars and trucks use low-quality,

high-emission fuels. The government has reacted by encouraging the use of vehicles fueled by

compressed natural gas, which is less polluting.82

Natural Hazards

Earthquakes

Because of Pakistan‘s position along the plate boundary between Asia and the Indian

subcontinent earthquakes are a persistent hazard, even in areas far from the towering Himalayas.

For example, in Quetta, the largest city in Balochistan, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake destroyed the

city in 1935.83

An even stronger magnitude 8.1 earthquake shook the Makran Coast 10 years

later. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused significant damage and loss of life near the

epicenter and in Karachi, 443 km (275 mi) away.84

Floods

Floods occur seasonally along the major rivers of Pakistan,

particularly during the summer monsoon.85

As a result,

protective embankments and spurs have been built to

protect river cities and nearby infrastructure. Almost all

these flood-prevention projects are in the Indus River Plain

in Punjab and Sindh provinces. Flood management policies

have also encouraged appropriate development within

historic flood plains. Still, the swollen Indus River flooded

in 2010, submerging about one-fifth of the country and causing 1,985 deaths, 2,946 injuries, and

damaging 1,744,471 houses.86, 87

82

Aamer Ahmed Khan, ―Pakistan ‗Faces Pollution Crisis,‘‖ BBC News, 5 June 2006,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5048308.stm 83

Roger Bilham, ―28 November 1945 Makran Mw 8.1 Earthquake,‖ Earthquakes and Tectonic Plate Motions,

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, 2003,

http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/Makran1945/MakranTsunami.html 84

C. G. Pendse, ―The Mekran Earthquake of the 28th November 1945,‖ Scientific Notes 10, no. 125 (7 October

1946): http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/Makran1945/Pendse1946.pdf 85

H. Rehman and A. Kamal, ―Indus Basin River System—Flooding and Flood Mitigation,‖ (conference paper, 8th

Annual River Symposium and Environmental Flows Conference, 2005). 86

Mike Vilensky, ―One-Fifth of Pakistan Under Water as the Country Turns Sixty-Three,‖ New York, 14 August

2010, http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/08/pakistan.html 87

National Disaster Management Authority, Prime Minister‘s Secretariat, Government of Pakistan, ―Flooding

Report: 14 December 2010,‖ 14 December 2010,

http://www.pakistanfloods.pk/images/stories/flood/situation_report/December/14-12-2010.pdf


http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/Makran1945/MakranTsunami.html

http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/Makran1945/Pendse1946.pdf

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/08/pakistan.html

http://www.pakistanfloods.pk/images/stories/flood/situation_report/December/14-12-2010.pdf

21 | © D L I F L C

Drought

Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to drought conditions.

Arid regions such as Balochistan and the desert regions of

the Indus River Plain have always faced limited water

resources. Even in areas fed by the rivers flowing from

the mountains, the large amount of this water devoted to

agriculture can produce serious water supply issues for a

growing population that is increasingly urbanized.

Shrinking water storage capacity in aging dams that

continue to silt up has also reduced Pakistan‘s ability to

augment domestic water supplies during dry years.88

88

Shahid Ahmad et al., ―Drought Mitigation in Pakistan: Current Status and Options for Future Strategies‖ (working

paper, International Water Management Institute, Drought Series, Colombo, 2004).

22 | © D L I F L C

Chapter 1: Assessment

1. Pakistan‘s entire southern border is along the Arabian Sea.

True

Pakistan‘s southern border lies entirely along the Arabian Sea, which is the outlet for both

trade and naval forces.

2. The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is known as the Durand Line.

True

It was drawn by British diplomat Sir Mortimer Durand during colonial times. It divides

contentious tribal areas, but Afghanistan has never recognized the demarcation.

3. Pakistan is highly susceptible to earthquakes.

True

Because of Pakistan‘s position along the plate boundary, between Asia and India,

earthquakes are a persistent hazard, even in areas far from the towering Himalayas.

4. Sindhis are the largest ethnic group in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh Province.

False

Sindhis are a minority in Karachi, one of Pakistan‘s most ethnically diverse cities. The city‘s

two largest ethnic groups are Pashtuns and Muhajirs.

5. The Ganges River is the most significant river in Pakistan.

False

The Indus River is the most important river in the country, as most other rivers flow into it.

23 | © D L I F L C

Chapter 2: History

Overview

Pakistan‘s history dates 4,500 years to the beginning of

the Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest urban

civilizations. When Indo–Aryan tribes migrated to the

Indus Valley‘s present-day Sindh and Punjab provinces,

they brought early forms of the Sanskrit language and a

religious system that evolved into Hinduism. One empire

after another tried to conquer the area, including the

Hellenistic Empire (Alexander the Great) and the

Mauryan Empire. Distinct cultures emerged, such as the

Greco-Buddhist Gandhara, which lasted several

centuries.89

Traders and invaders from the south arrived in Sindh in the eighth century, bringing

Islam. Many Islamic caliphates successively ruled Pakistan until the collapse of the great Mughal

Empire in the 18th century.90

The entire territory of present-day Pakistan, India, and parts of

Afghanistan was then occupied by the British Empire, a period marked by wars and treaties until

1947.91

Concurrent with their departure, the British instituted the partition of India, which resulted in

violence and mass migration of Pakistani Hindus into Hindu India and Muslim Indians into

Muslim Pakistan.92, 93

In 1947, Pakistan flanked India in two parts, East Pakistan and West

Pakistan. After the 1971 war between the two wings and India, however, East Pakistan seceded

and became the nation of Bangladesh.94

Pakistan‘s history has seen continued tumult since then, as the people struggle to establish

democracy. Its brief independence has been marred by numerous coups, rampant corruption,

political unrest, assassinations, and economic troubles. In addition, the antidemocratic Taliban

continue to operate along the porous border with Afghanistan. In 2009, the Pakistani government

launched a major offensive against them in the regions of the Swat Valley and Waziristan.

Tensions between Pakistan and India remain high as militants continue to attack India from

Pakistan.

89

James Wynbrandt, A Brief History of Pakistan (New York: Facts on File, 2008), 1–40. 90

James Wynbrandt, A Brief History of Pakistan (New York: Facts on File, 2008), 41–93. 91

Lawrence James, Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India (New York: Macmillan, 1997). 92



Yasmin Khan, The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (New Haven: Yale University Press,

2007). 94

Richard Sisson and Leo E. Rose, War and Secession: Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1991).

24 | © D L I F L C

Early History

The Indus Valley Civilizations

The history of today‘s Pakistan connects to ancient world

cultures. The earliest ruins lie in the Kacchi Desert of

eastern Balochistan, known as Mehrgarh, and date to the

eighth century B.C.E.95

Scholars have traced several

thousand years of settlement history there. Before 2500

B.C.E., a number of city-states emerged on the Indus

River Plain. This Indus Valley Civilization (also known

as the Harappan Civilization) had a writing system, a diversified economic system, and

communal structures such as public baths. The most famous ruins of this era are at Mohenjodaro,

near the Indus River in Sindh Province. Stone seals discovered at Mohenjodaro display a

pictographic script, which has yet to be deciphered.96, 97, 98

The end of the Indus Valley Civilizations has been ascribed to the invasion of Aryan tribes from

Central Asia, although archaeological evidence of demolished cities is scant. The ancient Hindu

text, the Rigveda, refers to defeats of non-Aryans at a site linked to Harappa, providing some

support for this theory.99

But numerous theories say that Indus Valley cities declined for reasons

other than invasion.100

Crossroads of Empires

Traders and invaders have long used the mountain passes in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan

to access the Indus River Plain. Many groups came and then quickly vanished. Yet others formed

empires that inevitably fell to a later wave of invaders through the mountain passes. In 330

B.C.E., the armies of Alexander the Great swept through the northern Indus River Plain into the

region known as Gandhara. His armies quickly retreated westward.101

The Mauryan Empire, a

power from the east, absorbed the Indus Valley. The Mauryan era brought increased Buddhist

influence, and the city of Taxila (near modern Islamabad) became a center of Buddhist learning.

A succession of invaders from Central Asia precipitated the decline and eventual retreat of the

Mauryans back to the Ganges region.102

Bactrians, Scythians, Parthians, and Kushans successively came, conquered, and fell. The

Kushans ruled from Peshawar from the mid-first century C.E. to the mid-third century C.E.

During Kushan rule, Buddhist culture reached its zenith in the Indus region. Most of the Kushan

95

Ahmad Hasan Dani, ―History through the Centuries,‖ National Fund for Cultural Heritage (Pakistan), 2004,

http://www.heritage.gov.pk/html_Pages/history1.html 96

Craig Baxter, ―Ch. 1—Historical Setting: Early Civilizations,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study, ed. Peter R. Blood,

Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, April 1994, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-

bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+pk0014) 97

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (New York: Oxford University Press,

2006). 98

Asko Parpola, Deciphering the Indus Script (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009). 99

Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century (New

Delhi: Pearson Education, 2008), 187. 100

Romila Thapar, ―The Aryan Question Revisited‖ (lecture transcript, Academic Staff College, Jawaharlal Nehru

University, 11 October 1999), http://members.tripod.com/ascjnu/aryan.html 101

William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel, The Essential World History: Volume 1: To 1800, 6th ed. (Boston:

Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011), 95–102. 102

Ahmad H. Dani, The Historic City of Taxila (Paris: UNESCO, 1986).

http://www.heritage.gov.pk/html_Pages/history1.html

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Empire eventually fell to the Persian Sassanids in the west and the Guptas in the east.103

During

the fifth century C.E., White Huns (Hepthalites) swept from the north into modern Pakistan and

northern India. (The White Huns left no written records, but it is thought that they were

assimilated into the local population after their defeat by the Turks in the sixth century C.E.104

)

At the end of the fifth century C.E., the local Rai Dynasty came to power, and was succeeded by

the short-lived Hindu Brahman dynasty in the mid-seventh century.105

Islamic Empires

The Early Islamic Empires

The first Islamic incursion came from the south. In 712, the Umayyad

Caliphate (also Omayyad) conquered the ancient port of Daibul on the

Arabian Sea and advanced north up the Indus River. The southern Indus

region, primarily Buddhist at the time, was ruled by an unpopular

Brahman governor and thus was easily conquered. Umayyad control

ultimately reached as far north as Multan, in southern Punjab.106

A few

decades later, the Abbasid Caliphate overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate

and took control of the southern Indus territories. Under Umayyad and

early Abbasid rule, Arabs and Sindhis established intellectual contacts.

Islamic mystics, known as Sufi masters, helped spread the Muslim

religion. They remain a significant cultural component of Sindhi

literature and religion to this day.107

As the Abbasid Caliphate declined, the Ghaznavids entered into the Indus region from the

Turkish principality of Ghazni, in modern Afghanistan. Mahmud of Ghazni expanded the empire

as far as Lahore, its administrative and cultural center. By the late 12th century, Muhammad of

Ghor had advanced east through the Ghaznavid Empire; Lahore fell to him in 1187, and it

became the Ghorid capital.108

His successor established the Sultanate of Delhi, which grew

rapidly and eventually controlled all of northern India and the Indus River Plain for several

hundred years.109

During this time, many Punjabis converted to Islam. A brief invasion by

Mongolian armies led by Tamerlane in 1398 hastened the decline of the Sultanate, although it

did regain some of its power during the Lodhi Dynasty in the late 15th century. Nonetheless, the

Sultanate was soon to be replaced by the greatest of the Muslim dynasties, the Mughal

Empire.110

103

Peter B. Golden, Central Asia in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 31 – 33. 104

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Hephthalite,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/262325/Hephthalite 105

Robin Coningham and Mark Manuel, ―The Early Empires of South Asia,‖ in The Great Empires of the Ancient

World, ed. Thomas Harrison (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009), 226–249. 106

Stanley Lane-Poole, History of India: Volume III: Medieval India from the Mohammedan Conquest to the Reign

of Akbar the Great (London: Grolier, 1906), 31–33. 107

K. Ayyappa Panicker, Medieval Indian Literature: An Anthology (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2000), 489–511. 108


Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011), 214–216. 109

Karl J. Schmidt, An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1995), 39.

http://books.google.com/books?id=FzmkFXSgxqgC&lpg=PA3&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=&f=false 110


Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011), 216–221.

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The Mughal Period

Babur, an ethnic Mongol and descendant of Tamerlane,

saw his empire (in present-day Uzbekistan) conquered at

the turn of the 16th century. Regrouping, he moved

southwest, first into modern Afghanistan, then into

Punjab, and finally into the Ganges Plain. In 1526,

Babur‘s armies, despite being vastly outnumbered,

defeated the last Lodhi sultan at the Battle of Panipat.

Superior weaponry and tactics were largely responsible

for his victory.111

Babur founded the Mughal Empire.112

He died only a few years later, however, and his son Humayun proved unable to consolidate

control over the newly conquered regions. But under his grandson Akbar, the Mughal Empire

began to flourish.

During Akbar‘s reign, the mansabdari administrative system was introduced. Under this military

and civilian meritocracy, mansabdars earned cash payments and personal fiefs based on their

performance and ability to enlist troops. None of this land was inheritable, however, and thus did

not increase the power of given families.113

The Mughal period is also remembered for its

architectural achievements; the most famous is the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. Within modern

Pakistan, the Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens, and Badshahi Mosque in Lahore were built during

the early Mughal Empire. By the late 17th century, the empire overextended its troops and its

money.114

As local rebellions ensued, a small island nation in Europe began to focus attention on

the Indian subcontinent.

111

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Babur: Victories in India,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/47524/Babur/ 112

Craig Baxter, ―Ch. 1—Historical Setting: The Mughal Period,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study, ed. Peter R. Blood,


bin/query2/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+pk0016) 113






bin/query2/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+pk0016)

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Colonial Era

The British Enter the Indus River Plain

During the 18th century, the Mughal Empire was

fragmenting into independent principalities, while

England and France competed to expand far-flung coastal

trading posts. Military support for these trading ventures

became crucial as hostile European competition reached

trading enclaves around the world.115

The British fought

three wars against the French on Indian soil to emerge as

the preeminent European power on the subcontinent in the mid-1700s. Within modern Pakistan,

British influence came late. During the first part of the 19th century, both Sindh and Punjab were

independently ruled.116

Neither region had escaped British attention, however. A treaty signed in

1832 recognized Sindhi integrity and banned British transport of armed vessels or military stores

on the Indus River.

In 1839, the British ignored the ban and launched the First British–Afghan War. Armed conflict

between the Sindhi rulers and the British quickly followed. In 1843, the British annexed all of

Sindh after their victory at the Battle of Miani.117

The Upper Sindh region of Khairpur avoided

the conquest by treaty, becoming one of many ―Princely States‖ and retaining some degree of

sovereignty. In Punjab, the kingdom began to unravel after the death of Ranjit Singh, the Sikh

ruler, in 1839.118

The British, watching the chaotic events in Punjab, readied for war. Ultimately,

two Anglo–Sikh wars occurred in the 1840s that eventually left Punjab under British control.119

After the first of these wars, the British ceded Kashmir to Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu for a

concessionary sum of money. Thus began a Hindu dynasty in a mostly Muslim land, sowing the

seeds of a conflict that continues to this day.120

115

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―India: History: India and European Expansion: The Anglo-French Struggle,‖

2011, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India 116




G. Anderson and Manilal Bhagwandas Subendar, The Last Days of the Company: A Source Book of Indian

History, 1818–1858 (London: G. Bell & Son, 1918), 28–31. 118

J. S. Grewal, The New Cambridge History of India: II.3: The Sikhs of the Punjab, rvsd. ed. (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1998), 119–127. 119

Amarpal S. Sidhu, The First Anglo–Sikh War (Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Amberley, 2010). 120

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Dogra Dynasty,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/167993/Dogra-dynasty

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India



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Colonial Rule

The Indus River Plain entered the British fold just as the

first wave of rebellion spread though India. During the

India Mutiny of 1857, Indian soldiers staged uprisings in

various cities of northern India. Eventually the British put

down the revolt with the assistance of troops from Punjab.

The end of the mutiny marked the beginning of direct

British rule in India and the end of the reign of the last

Mughal emperor.121

The tribal areas of the Pashtuns and

Baluchis were located on the western frontiers of the

Indian Empire. The British considered these areas vital because the mountains (and passes into

Afghanistan) provided a defensible buffer against Russian advances into Central Asia.122

The

British ultimately negotiated agreements that transformed much of modern Balochistan into

princely states, allowing the British to control the areas of the southern mountain passes into

Afghanistan.123

In the Pashtun regions to the north, the British waged a Second Afghan War from 1878–1879. A

treaty negotiated by British diplomat H.M. Durand in 1893 defined the boundary (the Durand

Line) between Afghan and British claims. Today, the Afghanistan–Pakistan border divides the

traditional Pashtun homeland between the two countries. The British thereafter loosely ―ruled‖

their side of the tribal areas as the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), known today as

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.124, 125

Punjab and Sindh became the granaries of northern India

under the British. Irrigation systems lengthened growing seasons and expanded the amount of

farmland, creating canal colonies in once-semiarid regions of central and southern Punjab and

increasing the agricultural output of Sindh.126

121

Emily Goldman, Power in Uncertain Times: Strategy in the Fog of Peace (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press,

2010), 69–71. 122

Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). 123

Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011), 342–348. 124

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Durand Line,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/174128/Durand-Line 125

Lawrence James, Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India (New York: Macmillan, 2000), 366–367. 126

Alice Albinia, Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010), 47–48.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/174128/Durand-Line

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The Beginnings of the Hindu–Muslim Split

The British suspected the Muslim aristocracy‘s involvement in the

Indian Mutiny of 1857.127

While the British-educated Hindu middle

class thrived, the Muslim upper classes (who had ruled India for many

centuries) increasingly found themselves culturally and politically

isolated within the British Raj. As Indian nationalism rose as a popular

cause, many Muslim leaders viewed the nationalist groups—most

notably, the Indian National Congress—as representatives of Hindu

interests.128

At the beginning of the 20th century, the British

implemented administrative and political changes to divide Hindus and

Muslims within India. After the All-India Muslim League was founded

in 1906, the British enacted legislation that allowed Muslims separate

electorates for the Indian Legislative Council.129

In 1916, the Congress and the Muslim League signed the Lucknow Pact,

in which the Congress accepted the separate Muslim electorates, and the Muslim League agreed

to support the Congress‘s drive to expel the British. One of the key architects of this pact was the

lawyer Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a member of both the Muslim League and the Congress.130

During the 1920s, the nonviolent boycotts advocated by Mohandas Gandhi increasingly

dominated the home-rule movement in India. Jinnah, now Muslim League president, opposed

Gandhi‘s Hindu-based approach, which he felt was unconstitutional. The Nehru Report of 1928

urged the Congress party to put aside their Lucknow Pact commitment to Muslim electorates.

Frustrated, Jinnah resigned his Muslim League presidency and moved to England for 5 years to

resume his law practice.131, 132

Independence and Partition

In 1934, Jinnah returned to India to reclaim leadership of the Muslim League, but he was no

longer the ambassador of Hindu–Muslim unity. He had embraced the Two Nations Theory, first

introduced by Muhammad Iqbal in 1930.133

In 1940, Jinnah submitted the Lahore Resolution. It

called for the eastern and northwestern Muslim majority areas in India to ―be grouped to

constitute independent States in which the constituent units should be autonomous and

sovereign.‖134

After the Lahore Resolution, relations between the Congress and the Muslim

League became increasingly strained, and positions hardened. In the 1946 elections following

World War II, the Muslim League gained 90% of the Muslim seats in the Indian Parliament. This

127

Sheila McDonough, ―The Muslims of South Asia (1857–1947),‖ in Muslim Perceptions of Other Religions: A

Historical Survey, ed. Jean Jacques Waardenburg (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 250–252. 128

Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011), 53–56. 129

S. Mahmud Ali, Understanding Bangladesh (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 2–8. 130

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Lucknow Pact,‖ 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/350663/Lucknow-Pact 131

D. N. Panigrahi, India’s Partition: The Story of Imperialism in Retreat (New York: Routledge, 2004), 46–55. 132

Nikhat Ekbal, Great Muslims of Undivided India (Delhi: Kalpaz Publications, 2009), 72. 133

S. Alexander Haslam, Stephen D. Reicher, and Michael J. Platow, The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity,

Influence, and Power (New York: Psychology Press, 2011), 153. 134

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, ―The Muslim League: Decline of a National Party,‖ in Political Parties of South Asia, ed.

Subrata K. Mitra, Mike Enskat, and Clemens Spieß (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 134–135.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/350663/Lucknow-Pact

30 | © D L I F L C

earned them a place at the negotiating table for whatever agreements the British might entertain

concerning Indian independence.

A final British plan for an independent India proposed a central government controlling

functions such as defense, foreign policy, and currency, while Muslim- and Hindu-majority

provinces otherwise maintained autonomy. The plan was rejected by the Congress. When the

British later rejected Jinnah‘s proposal for equal power sharing in an interim Indian government,

the Muslim League decided to boycott the new government. Shortly after, in August 1946,

Jinnah called for ―Direct Action,‖ triggering violent communal riots in Bengal and Bihar in

eastern India.135

The British hastily fashioned plans to implement the independence of a

partitioned India. They determined to separate both Bengal and Punjab into Hindu and Muslim

areas, and the princely states were to align with the country chosen by their rulers.136, 137

On 14

August 1947, India and Pakistan became independent nations. The partition boundary was

announced 3 days later, triggering one of the largest and most violent mass population

migrations in history.138, 139

The Nation of Pakistan

Post-Independence

Pakistan faced many issues upon independence. Was the country to be

an Islamic nation under shari‘a law, or a secular state with a Muslim

majority? How would a country in two parts separated by 1,600 km

(1,000 mi) of a hostile neighboring country govern itself?140

What

would be the national language when the East spoke Bengali and the

West primarily spoke Punjabi and Sindhi? How could Pakistan

assimilate the new Pakistanis who streamed into the country after

partition? In addition, the status of Balochistan and the North-West

Frontier Province were still unresolved at independence. The Pakistani

military used force to bring some of the Baluchi state of Kalat into

Pakistan.141

In the NWFP, the Pashtun leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a Congress member who

fought against partition. Though he urged his followers in the NWFP not to vote in the plebiscite

to join Pakistan, the plebiscite passed despite a large boycott.142

135

Piers Brendon, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781–1997 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008),

409–410. 136

Joya Chatterji, The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India, 1947–1967 (New York: Cambridge University Press,

2010), 19–60. 137

Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Kudaisya, The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia (New York: Routledge, 2000),

217–218. 138

Yasmin Khan, The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (New Haven: Yale University Press,

2007). 139



Elliot Tepper, ―Pakistan in Retrospect,‖ International Journal 27, no. 3, India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh (Summer

1972): 357–380. 141

Shaheen Sardar Ali and Javaid Rehman, Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities of Pakistan: Constitutional

and Legal Perspectives (Richmond, Surrey, England: Curzon, 2001), 61–62. 142

Anas Malik, Political Survival in Pakistan: Beyond Ideology (New York: Routledge, 2011), 139–140.

31 | © D L I F L C

But the foremost territorial issue was Kashmir. When the Hindu maharajah of Kashmir, who

initially did not agree to become part of either country, saw Pashtun tribesmen nearing his capital

of Srinigar, he finally agreed to join with India. All factions in Kashmir continue to debate the

details of that formal agreement and use them to justify their positions. The immediate result was

a war between India and Pakistan only 2 months after independence.143

The two adversaries

eventually agreed to a ceasefire line, but they have yet to arrive at a long-term solution to the

Kashmir issue. Jinnah became Pakistan‘s first Governor General, but ruled for only a year before

dying of tuberculosis. He advocated equal rights for all citizens of Pakistan, regardless of their

religion. Jinnah‘s statements suggest that he had favored secular statehood for Pakistan, but

Pakistan eventually moved in a different direction.144

A Country Divided

During the first 25 years of Pakistan‘s history, many of the issues that

had arisen at independence continued to fester. The national language

chosen was Urdu, a primary language only for the muhajirs (Muslims

who had fled India after Partition), and this choice upset the Bengali

population of East Pakistan. The Kashmir conflict continued and

Pakistan and India again went to war over the region in August 1965.

Ethnic tensions in the Sindhi cities heightened as the muhajirs became

the dominant group in Karachi and Hyderabad. In 1956, Pakistan

completed drafting its constitution and became an Islamic Republic.

Still, there were protests in East Pakistan over the language issue. In

addition, East Pakistan perceived economic favoritism toward the

western part of the country, where the capital Karachi was. These issues

translated into a political power struggle between the Muslim League,

the dominant party of West Pakistan, and the East Pakistan-based United Front Party.145

In 1958, the Pakistani military carried out the first of a string of coups that have characterized

much of Pakistan‘s history. The new leader, Mohammed Ayub Khan, abolished the constitution

and imposed martial law for more than three years until a new constitution with strong

presidential powers took effect in 1962.146

But the 1965 war with India over Kashmir weakened

Khan‘s political base. Many believed that he had capitulated to India in negotiating the ceasefire

agreement. In addition, many East Pakistanis perceived insufficient Bengali representation and

unbalanced distribution of tax revenues between East and West. As the army was forced to quell

uprisings, Khan‘s position became increasingly untenable. In 1969, he declared martial law

again. He handed over power to his Commander-in-Chief, Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, who

scheduled elections for the following year.147

143

Kuldip Singh Bajwa, Jammu and Kashmir War, 1947–1948 (New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications, 2003). 144

Anas Malik, Political Survival in Pakistan: Beyond Ideology (New York: Routledge, 2011), 38. 145

Aleksandar Pavkovi and Peter Radan, Creating New States: Theory and Practice of Secession (Burlington, VT:

Ashgate, 2007), 105–106. 146


University of California Press, 1990), 17–19. 147


University of California Press, 1990), 19–24.

32 | © D L I F L C

The Bangladesh Independence War

The December 1970 elections began the final chapter in the continuing

political battle between East and West Pakistan. The Aswami League,

which strongly advocated a six-point program for significant financial

and political autonomy for the two Pakistans, swept all seats in East

Pakistan. The Aswami leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, now felt that his

party had the mandate to form a national government. On this point he

was opposed by West Pakistan political leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,

whose party controlled the majority of the legislative seats from the

western half. When negotiations reached an impasse, President Khan,

on 1 March 1971, delayed convening the new National Assembly.

Strikes and protests broke out across West Pakistan, causing an open

revolt. By the end of the month, Rahman was under arrest and Pakistani

army forces were flowing into East Pakistan to crush the rebellion.

Pakistan was involved in a civil war.148

The ensuing conflict eventually drew in India, where millions of East Pakistani Hindus had fled

during the civil war.149

In early December 1971, full-scale war broke out between the two

countries. Besides fighting in East Pakistan, the two countries battled in Punjab and Kashmir.

For Pakistan, the war was a disaster for their military. By mid-December 1971, the Pakistani

forces had surrendered to the combined Indian and rebel forces. In the wake of the Pakistani

defeat, East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh.150

Bhutto and ul-Haq

Bhutto became the new President and Chief Martial Law Administrator of the now contiguous

country, and Yahya Khan resigned only days after the 1971 war. Under Bhutto, Pakistan began

the slow process of rebuilding. The military was purged, with Muhammad Zia ul-Haq becoming

the new Army Chief of Staff. Educational and healthcare reforms were instituted, major

industries and banks were nationalized, and a new constitution was enacted.151

In 1973, Bhutto

resigned the presidency to become prime minister, the primary seat of power under the new

constitution. Elections were scheduled in 1977, and a strong opposition known as the Pakistan

National Alliance (PNA) ran a vigorous campaign against Bhutto‘s Pakistan People‘s Party

(PPP). When the election resulted in an overwhelming victory for the PPP, street protests broke

out. Bhutto ordered the army to quell the demonstrations and had the PNA leadership arrested.152

On 5 July 1977, the military stepped in. They arrested Bhutto, declared martial law, and Zia

became President and Chief Martial Law Administrator. Plans were initially announced to hold

an election within 90 days, but the election was cancelled when it appeared Bhutto might win.

148

Katherine Southwick, ―The Urdu-speakers of Bangladesh: An Unfinished Story of Enforcing Citizenship

Rights,‖ in Statelessness and Citizenship: A Comparative Study of the Benefits of Nationality, ed. Brad K. Blitz and

Maureen Lynch (Northampton, MA: Edward Elger, 2011), 119–120. 149

Allan D. Cooper, The Geography of Genocide (Lanham, MD: University of America Press, 2009), 167–168. 150


University of California Press, 1990), 206–220. 151

Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011), 72. 152

Brian Cloughley, War, Coups & Terror: Pakistan’s Army in Years of Turmoil (New York: Skyhorse Publishing,

2008), 26–27.

33 | © D L I F L C

Instead, Bhutto was put on trial and convicted for conspiracy to murder a rival politician. Despite

world outcry for clemency, Zia did not back down, and Bhutto was hanged in 1979.153

Zia

pursued a policy of Islamization in which Pakistan increasingly aligned with the rest of the

Muslim world and instituted many Islamic laws and punishments.154

The Zia regime still faced

numerous challenges. Balochistan nationalism was largely quelled by economic development in

the region, but ethnic tensions in the cities of Sindh Province had turned violent. After the Soviet

Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, Pakistan‘s border regions in the North-West

Frontier Province became bases for Afghani mujahideen fighting the Soviets.155

Recent History

Return to Democracy

Zia ended martial law in 1985, but before doing so, a constitutional

amendment was passed that enormously affected the Pakistan political

landscape during the 1990s. The Eighth Amendment allowed Pakistan‘s

President, a figurehead position as defined by the 1973 constitution, to

reserve the power to dismiss the Prime Minister and National Assembly

and to call for new elections.156

In August 1988, a plane carrying Zia,

the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, and top Pakistani military officials

mysteriously crashed, killing all aboard. An election scheduled for

November went on as planned, and the PPP, led by Bhutto‘s daughter,

Benazir Bhutto, won the most seats. Bhutto became the first Muslim

woman head of state.157

Bhutto‘s term lasted only 20 months before

Pakistan President Gulam Ishaq Khan used the Eighth Amendment to

dismiss her on charges of corruption and to call for a new election.

The election, held 2 months later, swept in the Islamic Democratic

Alliance (IJI) and their leader Nawaz Sharif, a Punjabi industrialist. The IJI and Sharif instituted

reforms that boosted Pakistan‘s economy, although critics argued that the fast pace of reforms

hurt the most vulnerable segments in Pakistani society.158

The Sharif government also passed

legislation expanding shari‘a law.

Pakistan‘s pendular politics continued when Sharif and Khan stepped down in 1993 after a

constitutional confrontation, followed by another election and the return of the PPP and Benazir

Bhutto. Bhutto‘s second tenure as Prime Minister was longer than her first, but economic

decline, continued ethnic unrest in Sindh, and further charges of corruption eventually weakened

153

Zahid Hussain, The Scorpion’s Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan—And How It Threatens

America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 52–53. 154

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Pakistan: History: Zia ul-Haq,‖ 2011,


Sumit Ganguly, ―Pakistan: Neither State Nor Nation,‖ in Multination States in Asia: Accommodation or

Resistance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 89–91. 156

Anas Malik, Political Survival in Pakistan: Beyond Ideology (New York: Routledge, 2011), 39. 157

Stanley A. Wolpert, India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation? (Berkeley: University of California

Press, 2010), 58. 158

Imran Ali, ―Power and Islamic Legitimacy in Pakistan,‖ in Islamic Legitimacy in a Plural Asia, ed. Anthony Reid

and Michael Gilsenan (New York: Routledge, 2007), 131.


34 | © D L I F L C

her political position. Pakistan‘s new President Farooq Leghari dismissed Bhutto in 1996.159

In

the ensuing elections early the next year, Sharif‘s new party, the Pakistan Muslim League

(Nawaz), won an overwhelming majority. Soon after Sharif returned to power, an amendment

was passed to repeal the Eighth Amendment that had been used so often during the preceding

decade.160

Back to Military Control

In 1998, Sarif appointed Pervez Musharraf as Army Chief of Staff. As a

muhajir, Musharraf was an outsider in the primarily Punjabi power

circles and thus seemed less of a threat to Sharif. But Sharif did not

foresee that Musharraf would replace him less than two years later.

Musharraf came to power after Sharif tried to fire and arrest him. This

triggered a military revolt that led to Sharif‘s ouster and Pakistan‘s

return to martial law.161

Sharif saw Musharraf as a threat because the

Pakistani military was unhappy when Sharif backed down from another

military conflict with India over Kashmir in early 1999.162

At that time,

Pakistan had carried out its initial nuclear weapons test. The U.S. and

other nations pressured Sharif to pull Pakistani-backed infiltrators out of

India‘s side of the Line of Control.163, 164

Besides losing military

support, Sharif was increasingly vulnerable because of the country‘s

faltering economy, unhappiness over press restrictions, and legal

maneuvers to stifle political opposition.165

After Musharraf assumed power as Chief Executive, a 1999 ruling by the Pakistani Supreme

Court validated the coup and gave him 3 years of executive and legislative authority starting

from the coup date. He named himself President in 2001, and a referendum in April 2002

extended his presidency for another 5 years.166

National Assembly elections were held later in

the year, giving Musharraf‘s political party a plurality. Following the elections, the Assembly

elected Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as Prime Minister, the first Baluchi to hold that position.167

Musharraf continued as President and Army Chief of Staff until 2008.

159

William B. Milam, Bangladesh and Pakistan: Flirting with Failure in South Asia (New York: Columbia

University Press, 2009), 138–139. 160

Veena Kukreja, Contemporary Pakistan: Political Processes, Conflicts, and Crises (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Publications, 2003), 240–242. 161

Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (New

York: Penguin Books, 2009), 41–43. 162

Lawrence Freedman, A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East (New York: Public Affairs,

2008), 369–370. 163

Devin T. Hagerty, ―The Kargil War: An Optimistic Assessment,‖ in Nuclear Proliferation in South Asia: Crisis

Behaviour and the Bomb, ed. Sumit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur (New York: Routledge, 2008), 100–116. 164

Neil Joeck, ―The Kargil War and Nuclear Deterrence,‖ in Nuclear Proliferation in South Asia: Crisis Behaviour

and the Bomb, ed. Sumit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur (New York: Routledge, 2008), 117–143. 165

BBC News, ―Business: The Economy: Pakistan‘s Economic Nightmare,‖ 14 October 1999,

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/473661.stm 166

Tariq Ali, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 10–

12. 167

Carina Jahani, Agnes Korn, and Paul Brian Titus, The Baloch and Others: Linguistic, Historical and Socio-

Political Perspectives on Pluralism in Balochistan (Wesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2008), 265.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/473661.stm

35 | © D L I F L C

The Aftermath of 9/11

A turning point in Pakistan‘s role in the world came in the

wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States in

2001. Pakistan, which had supported the ruling Taliban in

Afghanistan, reversed policy under pressure from the

United States and other countries, and joined the coalition

to remove the Taliban from power. Pakistan also

committed to eliminate terrorist camps operating on its

soil.168

U.S. military and economic assistance to Pakistan

increased dramatically as the United States sought to

foster an ally in the region.169

The Pakistani military made some headway in their

counterterrorism efforts in the ensuing years. In the summer and fall of 2009, military campaigns

in the Swat and Waziristan valleys led to the capture and the killing of militants.170

In October 2007, Musharraf won the presidential election. He resigned from his army post to be

sworn in as president. By that time, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had returned from exile,

and general elections were slated for January 2008. Shortly after emergency rule was lifted,

however, Bhutto was assassinated and general elections were postponed to February 2008. In

August 2008, Musharraf resigned under pressure of impeachment proceedings against him.171

On

6 September 2008, Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto‘s widower and PPP member, was elected

president.

The end of 2008 also saw strained relations with India as bombings in Mumbai were linked to

Pakistani militants. Moreover, in the global economic crisis, Pakistan had to borrow billions of

dollars from the International Monetary Fund to balance its payments.

168

Donald P. Wright, A Different Kind of War: The United States Army in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF),

October 2001–September 2005 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2010), 39–40. 169

Katie Paul, ―About Those Billions,‖ Newsweek Online, 21 October 2009,

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/10/21/about-those-billions.html 170

Robert A. Pape and James K. Felman, Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to

Stop It (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 156. 171

Jonathan R. White, Terrorism & Homeland Security, 7th ed. (Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning, 2011), 406.

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/10/21/about-those-billions.html

36 | © D L I F L C

Recent Events

Zardari has faced persistent questions regarding his

popularity, and some government officials question his

legitimacy. In November 2009, he transferred authority

over the country‘s nuclear weapons program to his Prime

Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. Zardari‘s decision

came days after the expiration of an amnesty protecting

him and other government officials from graft charges.172

In fact, public dissatisfaction with Zardari, Gilani, and

opposition leader Sharif continues to escalate. Some prominent critics, including Shaheen Sehbai

and Shafqat Mahmood, hope that Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani will at least forcibly

remove the leadership and replace them with a caretaker civilian government. Others wish for

the general to take control of the government.

On 2 May 2011, members of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, more

commonly known as SEAL Team 6 or DEVGRU, conducted a major operation inside Pakistan,

code-named Operation Neptune Spear. In the suburban town of Abbottabad, the elite team raided

the compound where Osama bin Laden was believed to have been living for the past 6 years.

They found bin Laden and killed him.173

It is highly expected that the discovery of bin Laden living so openly and close to the capital will

further strain relations between the United States and Pakistan. It again raises the question as to

how committed the Pakistani government—and the military and intelligence service in

particular—is to fighting al-Qaeda.174

In fact, it was revealed in early 2011 that the U.S.

government has long considered the Inter-Services Intelligence Directive (ISI), the main

Pakistani intelligence agency, to be a terrorist organization.175

172

Seth G. Jones, In the Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan (New York: W.W. Norton & Co.,

2009), 308. 173

Philip Rucker, Scott Wilson, and Anne E. Kornblut, ―Osama bin Laden Buried at Sea after Being Killed by U.S.

Forces in Pakistan,‖ Washington Post Online, 02 May 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/osama-bin-

laden-is-killed-by-us-forces-in-pakistan/2011/05/01/AFXMZyVF_story.html 174

Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, ―Osama bin Laden Killed by US in Pakistan Raid,‖ 03 May 2011. 175

Jason Burke, ―Guantánamo Bay Files: Pakistan‘s ISI Spy Service Listed as Terrorist Group,‖ Guardian Online

(UK), 25 April 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-isi-inter-services-intelligence

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/osama-bin-laden-is-killed-by-us-forces-in-pakistan/2011/05/01/AFXMZyVF_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/osama-bin-laden-is-killed-by-us-forces-in-pakistan/2011/05/01/AFXMZyVF_story.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-isi-inter-services-intelligence

37 | © D L I F L C


1. Pakistan‘s history is one of the world‘s most ancient civilizations.

True

Pakistan‘s 4,500 year history dates back to the beginning of one of the oldest urban

civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization.

2. Zia ended martial law in 1985.

True

Zia ended martial law in 1985, but before doing so, a constitutional amendment was passed

that enormously affected the Pakistan political landscape during the 1990s.

3. Much of what is today Pakistan was under the control of Zoroastrian kings when Islam was

introduced in the eighth century C.E.

False

In 712, the Umayyad Caliphate conquered the ancient port of Daibul on the Arabian Sea and

advanced north up the Indus. The southern Indus region, primarily Buddhist at the time, was

ruled by an unpopular Brahman governor and thus was easily conquered.

4. Overwhelming force was a key factor in the establishment of the Mughal Empire.

False

In 1526, Babur‘s armies, despite being vastly outnumbered, defeated the last Lodhi sultan at

the Battle of Panipat. Superior weaponry and tactics were largely responsible for his victory.

5. Provisions of the agreement ending the Anglo–Sikh Wars of the 1840s were indirectly

responsible for the ongoing sectarian violence in Kashmir.

True After the first of these wars, the British ceded Kashmir to Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu for a

concessionary sum of money. Thus began a Hindu dynasty in a mostly Muslim land, sowing

the seeds of a conflict that continues to this day.

38 | © D L I F L C

Chapter 3: Economy

Introduction

Since independence, Pakistan‘s economy has alternated

between periods of slow and fast growth. Large-scale

manufacturing has been a major component of the

government‘s growth strategy during this time, with

much of this sector focused on consumer goods such as

textiles, garments, and processed foods.176

Though Pakistan‘s economy was often characterized as

―resilient,‖ that is no longer the case.177, 178, 179

Official

government figures maintain that the economy has

continued to grow despite numerous shocks to its political and economic systems, ranging from

military coups and ethnic violence to economic sanctions and catastrophic natural disasters. But

many independent observers believe that such positive figures are artificially inflated.180

By 2008, political instability, reduced investment, and high global commodity prices had raised

Pakistan‘s deficit, increased inflation, and reduced the value of the currency.181

An International

Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of USD 10.8 billion and a stabilization program averted a default on

foreign debt payments and restored macroeconomic balance.182

The Gross Domestic Product

(GDP) growth rate for the 2008–2009 fiscal year was a mere 2%, however, and expectations for

fiscal year 2010–2011 growth have been reduced to 2.5%. Although this reduction is partly

caused by the devastating floods of 2010, it also represents systemic weaknesses of the Pakistani

economy.183

Despite a generally above-average increase in per capita income and gross national product

(GNP, the value of all final goods and services produced within a given period) over the last

several years, Pakistan is still one of the world‘s poorest nations. In the most recent Human

Development Index published by the United Nations, Pakistan ranked 125th out of 169

countries.184

High illiteracy rates (especially among women), poor health infrastructure, rapid

176

Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin, Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2007),

136. 177

BBC News, ―IMF Praises Pakistan‘s Resilience,‖ 20 August 2002,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2205896.stm 178

Associated Press of Pakistan, ―Pak Economic Resilience Gets Translated Into High Growth Rate,‖ 18 April 2007,

http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7872 179

Ayub Mehar, ―End of Another Decade of Economic Weakening,‖ Economic Review 42, no. 2 (February 2011),

5–8. 180

Ayub Mehar, ―End of Another Decade of Economic Weakening,‖ Economic Review 42, no. 2 (February 2011),

5–8. 181

Embassy of Pakistan, ―Economy and Trade,‖ n.d., http://www.embassyofpakistan.com/economy_trade.php 182

Reuters, ―Factbox—Pakistan‘s Economy,‖ 23 September 2009,

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP97692.htm 183

Jane‘s Defence, ―Economy, Pakistan,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24 March 2011. 184

United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2010 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,

2010), 151, http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Complete_reprint.pdf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2205896.stm

http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7872

http://www.embassyofpakistan.com/economy_trade.php

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP97692.htm

http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Complete_reprint.pdf

39 | © D L I F L C

population growth, and political instability are some factors that have kept Pakistan from

progressing further in the fight against poverty.185

Agriculture

Agriculture continues to be a large segment of Pakistan‘s

economy contributing about 22% of Pakistan‘s GDP and

employing 43% of the country‘s workforce.186, 187, 188

Agricultural products also contribute directly or indirectly

to over 75% of Pakistan‘s exports.189

The agricultural sector contributes to Pakistan‘s

economic growth in terms of the raw materials it

supplies, the market it provides for industrial products,

and as a source of foreign exchange earnings.190

Yet this sector suffers from limited investment

and low productivity. Poor input and infrastructure, insufficient use of resources, inefficient

allocation of water for its irrigation systems, and imbalanced distribution of farmland hinder

agricultural progress.191

Though nearly 70% of the country‘s population relies on agriculture for

its livelihood, a few wealthy landowners own more than half the arable land. These landowners,

who become legislators and politicians, influence policy and pursue their interests over the issues

and challenges of industry and small landowners.192, 193

The primary agricultural regions are in the provinces of Sindh and Punjab in the heavily irrigated

Indus River Plain. Non-irrigated regions are primarily in northernmost Punjab and the Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Province and constitute about one-fourth of cultivated land in Pakistan. These

areas rely on summer rain to grow winter-sown crops.194

185

Isobel Coleman, ―Gender Disparities, Economic Growth and Islamization in Pakistan,‖ Council on Foreign

Relations, July 2004,

http://www.cfr.org/publication/7217/gender_disparities_economic_growth_and_islamization_in_pakistan.html 186

Asian Development Bank, ―Asian Development Outlook 2009 Update: Pakistan,‖ 2009,

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2009/update/PAK.pdf 187

Central Intelligence Agency, ―Pakistan: Economy,‖ in The World Factbook, 28 April 2011,

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html 188

Asian Development Bank, ―Pakistan: Economic Data,‖ 2011, 1,

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Key_Indicators/2010/pdf/PAK.pdf 189


125. 190

Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, ―Pakistan Agriculture Economy and Policy

Report,‖ February 2009,

http://www.fas.usda.gov/country/Pakistan/Pakistan%20Agriculture%20and%20Policy%20Report.pdf 191







The World Bank, ―Pakistan: Priorities for Agriculture and Rural Development,‖

http://go.worldbank.org/KQ3CN5O0J0 194


127.

http://www.cfr.org/publication/7217/gender_disparities_economic_growth_and_islamization_in_pakistan.html

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2009/update/PAK.pdf


http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Key_Indicators/2010/pdf/PAK.pdf

http://www.fas.usda.gov/country/Pakistan/Pakistan%20Agriculture%20and%20Policy%20Report.pdf



http://go.worldbank.org/KQ3CN5O0J0

40 | © D L I F L C

Cotton is the most important cash crop because it is the raw material for Pakistan‘s vital textile

and garment industries. Pakistan is the fourth-largest consumer and producer of cotton in the

world.195

Wheat is the biggest grain crop and major food staple.196

Acreage has also been

increasingly devoted to fruit, particularly citrus, mangoes, and apples.197

Industry

Pakistan‘s industrial sector, including manufacturing,

mining, construction, and electricity and gas, generates

about 25% of GDP. Industry employed 20% of the work

force and had an estimated 3.4% growth rate in 2008.198

Manufacturing is the largest portion of this sector, and it

has historically experienced higher growth than the

economy as a whole; however, this has not been the case

since 2009.199

Most workers in this sector are involved in

small-scale manufacturing enterprises that typically pay

less and have working conditions inferior to those in larger operations.200

These small-scale

enterprises produce items such as carpets, knives, leather and sporting goods, garments, and

furniture.201

Large-scale manufacturing has been a major component of the government‘s growth strategy,

focusing on a few consumer goods such as textiles, garments, processed foods, paper, and

tobacco.202, 203

In overall manufacturing, the percentages of intermediate and capital goods, such

as fertilizers, cement, chemicals, steel, and automobiles, have been increasing.204

Projections for the 2010–2011 fiscal year anticipate a significant decline in industrial output

largely because the codependent agricultural sector has yet to recover from the devastation of

massive flooding in 2010.205

195




Pakissan.com, ―Wheat,‖ 2010, http://www.pakissan.com/english/allabout/crop/wheat/index.shtml 197

Ministry of Food, Agriculture & Livestock, Government of Pakistan, ―Area Under Fruit—Pakistan,‖ May 2006,

http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/divisions/food-division/media/fv_05-06_tbl1.pdf 198




http://www.adb.org/documents/books/ado/2011/ado2011.pdf 200


135. 201


135. 202


136. 203

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, ―Pakistan: The Economy: Industry,‖ 2011,


Jane‘s Defence, ―Economy, Pakistan,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24 March 2011. 205

Jane‘s Defence, ―Economy, Pakistan,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24 March 2011.


http://www.pakissan.com/english/allabout/crop/wheat/index.shtml

http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/divisions/food-division/media/fv_05-06_tbl1.pdf


http://www.adb.org/documents/books/ado/2011/ado2011.pdf


41 | © D L I F L C

Services

The service sector is the largest component (55%) of

GDP and employs about 37% of the working

population.206

Service accounted for twice as much GDP

growth as agriculture in 2010, while industry rebounded

from a negative growth rate in 2009 to lead GDP growth

in 2010.207, 208

Export shares of the service sector were

third after textiles and other export commodities with

USD 24 billion in 2008.209

Improvements in service

helped narrow the trade deficit because of lower imports,

but the high cost of services in Pakistan contributed to core inflation.210, 211, 212

Transportation

Pakistan‘s transportation sector contributes over 10% to GDP and employs more than 6% of its

workforce. Despite ongoing privatization initiatives throughout Pakistan‘s major industrial and

service sectors, government agencies and businesses continue to control transportation growth

and development.213

Though Pakistan has a functional transportation infrastructure, it needs

further development. Lack of growth in transportation is slowing the country‘s economic

expansion as a whole.214

Poor reliability and high cost of transportation coupled with long travel times result in lower

export competitiveness, a higher cost of doing business, and reduced participation in global

supply chains that require speedy delivery.215

The government, with foreign assistance, is

devoting significant resources toward improving road and rail infrastructure. A prime example of

206






http://www.adb.org/documents/books/ado/2011/ado2011.pdf 209

Humair Ishtiaq, ―Rising Services Export,‖ Dawn, 30 November 2009,

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/economic-and-

business/rising-services-export 210



Humair Ishtiaq, ―Rising Services Export,‖ Dawn, 30 November 2009,

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/economic-and-

business/rising-services-export 212

Aneel Salman, ―Pakistan: Economic Outlook and Priorities in 2009—What and How‖ (paper, South Asia

Analysis Group, paper no. 3519, 25 November 2009),

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers36%5Cpaper3519.html 213

The World Bank, ―Transportation: Pakistan,‖ 2011,

http://www.worldbank.org.pk/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/PAKISTANEXTN/0,,conte

ntMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.html 214



ntMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.html 215



ntMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.html



http://www.adb.org/documents/books/ado/2011/ado2011.pdf

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/economic-and-business/rising-services-export





http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers36%5Cpaper3519.html

http://www.worldbank.org.pk/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/PAKISTANEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.html






42 | © D L I F L C

this endeavor is the Makran coastal road, a 653 km (406 mi) highway connecting Karachi with

the newly developed Gwadar port.216, 217

The country‘s rail system, Pakistan Railways, is one of the largest government-run transportation

enterprises. It handles passenger and freight traffic. With rates for the latter partially subsidizing

the former, it is cheaper to transport freight by road than rail. Thus, quite a high percentage of

freight is carried on the nation‘s motorways.218

Pakistan‘s commercial aviation and port industries have

yet to reach their potential. Domestic and international air

cargo travels primarily through Karachi‘s Jinnah

International Airport, although Islamabad and Lahore

handle significant amounts of cargo. The major airline is

the government-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA),

which handles about 70% of domestic air passengers and

almost all domestic freight.219

Port traffic has grown

steadily in the last few years. Almost all international

trade is handled by two major ports, Port Karachi and Port Qasim.220

But the government is

pouring money into the development of Port Gwadar, a project bankrolled with significant

Chinese contributions.

216



ntMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.htmlm 217

Jane‘s Defence, ―Infrastructure, Pakistan,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24 March 2011, 218

Associated Press of Pakistan, ―PM Approves Plan to Upgrade Pakistan Railways,‖ 15 June 2007,

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10923 219

The World Bank, ―Pakistan Transport Sector,‖ 2009, http://go.worldbank.org/A0D9IJ5SH0 220


http://www.worldbank.org.pk/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/PAKISTANEXTN/0,,print:

Y~isCURL:Y~contentMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.html

http://www.worldbank.org.pk/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/PAKISTANEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.htmlm

http://www.worldbank.org.pk/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/PAKISTANEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.htmlm

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10923

http://go.worldbank.org/A0D9IJ5SH0

http://www.worldbank.org.pk/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/PAKISTANEXTN/0,,print:Y~isCURL:Y~contentMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.html

http://www.worldbank.org.pk/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/PAKISTANEXTN/0,,print:Y~isCURL:Y~contentMDK:22354893~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:293052,00.html

43 | © D L I F L C

Natural Resources

Energy

Pakistan‘s main natural resources are arable land, water,

hydroelectricity, and energy, including natural gas, oil,

and coal.221

Because Pakistan‘s oil production is modest,

however, it depends on imports to satisfy domestic oil

demand.222

Natural gas accounts for the largest share of

Pakistan‘s energy use, amounting to about 50% of total

energy consumption. Pakistan currently consumes all the

domestic natural gas it produces; without higher production rates, it will need to become a

natural gas importer. Because energy problems are undermining the country‘s growth in all

industries and taking a toll on public finances, Pakistan is making privatization of the gas and oil

sectors a priority. But workers have protested the move and delayed progress toward that goal.223,

224

Pakistan‘s proven coal reserves are mostly located in the Thar Desert of Sindh Province. The

Thar deposits are the largest in the world.225

At about 174 billion tons, they are expected to have

the potential to satisfy the country‘s energy needs for 100 years.226

Since the discovery of these

deposits in 1992, however, coal production in Pakistan has not significantly increased, and the

country imports coal to meet its modest coal demands.227

221

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, U.S. Department of State, ―Background Note: Pakistan: Economy,‖

06 October 2010, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#econ 222

Jane‘s Defence, ―External Affairs, Pakistan: Imports,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24

March 2011. 223

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, U.S. Department of State, ―Background Note: Pakistan: Economy,‖

06 October 2010, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#econ 224

Jane‘s Defence, ―Natural Resources, Pakistan: Natural Gas,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia,

24 March 2011. 225

Siddharth Srivastava, ―Pakistan‘s Thar Desert Coal Deposits,‖ Asia Sentinel, 09 May 2011,

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3179&Itemid=243 226

―Thar Coal Reserves Can Provide Energy for 100 Years,‖ PakTribune, 12 November 2009,

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?221266 227

Jane‘s Defence, ―Natural Resources, Pakistan: Mineral Deposits,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South

Asia, 24 March 2011.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#econ

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#econ

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3179&Itemid=243

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?221266

44 | © D L I F L C

Mineral Resources

In 2009, Pakistan‘s mineral industry accounted for 2.9%

of GDP with a 5.8% growth rate.228

The sector employs

less than 2% of the population in both state and private

companies. Construction and industrial materials such as

limestone, gypsum, aragonite/marble, and clays have

been extensively mined.229

Chromite and iron ore are

currently mined more than other minerals. Balochistan in

particular is the site of several reserves of valuable

minerals, including the recent discovery of possibly the

seventh-largest copper reserves in the world.230

The Pakistani government is also exploring

Balochistan‘s granite and marble deposits.231

Many Baluchis feel that the national government

has excluded Balochistan from its fair share of the proceeds of its valuable mineral and natural

gas deposits. This perception has become an underlying element of the ongoing unrest there.232,

233

Trade

Pakistan has been running a sizable trade deficit for several years. In 2004, the trade imbalance

was roughly USD 2.75 billion.234

With the recent global economic crisis, it soared to USD 20.91

billion in 2008, but declined to USD 17.04 billion in the 2009 fiscal year and to USD 11.6

million in 2010.235, 236

The principal culprit for the continual deficit has been the rising price of

oil imports, which has hit developing countries like Pakistan particularly hard. The trade gap has

been offset primarily by the privatization of national companies, foreign direct investment, and

larger remittances from Pakistanis working abroad.

228

U.S. Geological Survey, ―2009 Minerals Yearbook: Pakistan,‖ 2009,

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/2009/myb3-2009-pk.pdf 229

Geological Survey of Pakistan, ―Metallic & Nonmetallic Mineral Resources of Pakistan,‖ n.d.,

http://gsp.gov.pk/old/resources/metallic.html 230

Khaleeq Kiani, ―$1.25bn Copper, Gold Reserves Discovered,‖ Dawn, 13 April 2006

http://archives.dawn.com/2006/04/14/top8.htm 231

Daily Times (Pakistan), ―Govt to Explore Balochistan‘s Mineral Resources: Wattoo,‖ 18 July 2009,

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:rtddLqY5ZTsJ:www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp%3Fpag

e%3D2009%255C07%255C18%255Cstory_18-7-

2009_pg5_5+%22Govt+to+explore+Balochistan%27s+mineral+resources%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&clie

nt=firefox-a&source=www.google.com 232

Khalid Khokhar, ―Wooing the Angry Baloch,‖ The News International, 21 April 2011,

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=42822&Cat=2&dt=4/21/2011 233

Andrew McGregor, ―Pakistan Launches New Offensive in Balochistan,‖ Terrorism Focus 3, no. 25 (27 June

2006) http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=819 234

Federal Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan, ―Table 14.1. Value of Foreign Trade,‖ 2007,

http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/statistics/external_trade/14.1.pdf 235

Reuters, ―Pakistan‘s September Trade Deficit Narrows to $897 Mln,‖ 12 October 2009,

http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINISL2166020091012 236

Jane‘s Defence, ―Economy: Assessment,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24 March 2011.

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/2009/myb3-2009-pk.pdf

http://gsp.gov.pk/old/resources/metallic.html

http://archives.dawn.com/2006/04/14/top8.htm

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:rtddLqY5ZTsJ:www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp%3Fpage%3D2009%255C07%255C18%255Cstory_18-7-2009_pg5_5+%22Govt+to+explore+Balochistan%27s+mineral+resources%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com




http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=42822&Cat=2&dt=4/21/2011

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=819

http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/statistics/external_trade/14.1.pdf

http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINISL2166020091012

45 | © D L I F L C

Exports

Pakistan‘s exports have steadily grown since the midpoint

of the previous decade. For the fiscal year 2010, exports

accounted for nearly USD 23 billion. The most important

markets for Pakistani exports over this period were to the

United States and the European Union.237

But in 2009,

exports dramatically declined, particularly to the United

States and United Arab Emirates, because of decreased

consumer demand and global trade.238

Effective measures

are needed to build a much larger export base that is sufficient to finance oil, machinery, and

other essential imports.239

The World Trade Organization (WTO) statistics for 2009 reveal that

just under one-third of Pakistan‘s commodity exports were textiles and clothing.240

Leather

goods, woolen carpets and rugs, rice, and sporting goods are also significant export goods. Of

Pakistani exports in 2009, 16% went to the United States, followed by the United Arab Emirates,

Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, and China.241

Imports

Pakistan‘s imports increased in 2008, totaling USD 38 billion. In fiscal year 2009, imports were

reduced 10% from the previous year because of lower oil prices and import restrictions.242

But

for fiscal year 2010, imports rose to nearly USD 33 billion.243

Petroleum and petroleum-based

products are Pakistan‘s largest import commodities. Machinery and equipment also make up a

high percentage of Pakistan‘s imports.244

Fertilizers, iron, steel, and vegetable fats and oils are

also significant import items.245

China was Pakistan‘s largest import partner in 2009, with Saudi

Arabia (Pakistan‘s largest supplier of oil), the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and

Kuwait being the top five.246

237

Jane‘s Defence, ―External Affairs, Pakistan: Exports,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24

March 2011. 238

Ministry of Commerce, Pakistan, Government of Pakistan, ―Trade Policy,‖ 2010,

http://www.commerce.gov.pk/tradestat.asp 239



World Trade Organization, ―Time Series: Merchandise Trade by Commodity: Pakistan,‖ 2009,

http://stat.wto.org/StatisticalProgram/WSDBViewData.aspx?Language=E 241







Federal Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan, ―Imports by Commodities of Last 5 Years,‖ 2011,

http://www.statpak.gov.pk/fbs/sites/default/files/external_trade/14.3.pdf 245

Federal Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan, ―Imports by Commodities of Last 5 Years,‖ 2011,

http://www.statpak.gov.pk/fbs/sites/default/files/external_trade/14.3.pdf 246



http://www.commerce.gov.pk/tradestat.asp


http://stat.wto.org/StatisticalProgram/WSDBViewData.aspx?Language=E




http://www.statpak.gov.pk/fbs/sites/default/files/external_trade/14.3.pdf

http://www.statpak.gov.pk/fbs/sites/default/files/external_trade/14.3.pdf


46 | © D L I F L C

Tourism

Pakistan has considerable tourism potential, with many archaeological and historical attractions,

plus the heights of the Himalaya Mountains and the Karakoram Range. The industry has suffered

greatly in recent years largely because of political and civil unrest.

Banking and Finance

The national currency of Pakistan is the rupee

(abbreviated PKR). In 2010, the PKR-to-USD exchange

rate was 85.27:1, an increase of nearly 15 rupees to the

dollar from the previous two years.247

An increase of

imports into Pakistan tends to devalue the rupee and raise

the exchange rate against the dollar.

As a result of consolidation, modernization, and

improved transparency, Pakistan‘s banking system has

undergone significant changes over the last two decades,

moving from a state-dominated sector to a more privately owned system. Today, an

overwhelming majority of the commercial banks in Pakistan are private.248

Yet on a regional

basis, the Pakistani financial sector lags in performance.

The State Bank of Pakistan manages the currency, public debt, and exchange controls. It also

developed a framework for integrating Islamic banking practices into the national financial

system.249

Banks now offer numerous financial instruments and partnerships in lieu of interest-

bearing loans for commercial banking transactions that do not involve foreign currencies. This

arrangement exists, in part, because the Quran forbids the charging of interest.250

With Pakistan’s economy under renewed pressure, partly from the worldwide economic

recession, the State Bank of Pakistan instituted austerity measures in the latter part of 2010.

Those measures had the unintended consequence of driving inflation to a record high, bringing

consumer spending sharply down and further exacerbating the economic crisis.251

247



The Heritage Foundation, ―2011 Index of Economic Freedom: Pakistan,‖ 2011,

http://www.heritage.org/Index/country/Pakistan 249

Amr Mohamed El Tiby, Islamic Banking: How to Manage Risk and Improve Profitability (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley,

2011), 3–24. 250

Anthony Tarantino and Deborah Cernauskas, ―Faith-Based Risk Management—Shariah,‖ in Essentials of Risk

Management Finance (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010), 253–267. 251

Jane‘s Defence, ―Economy, Pakistan: Monetary Policy,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24

March 2011.


http://www.heritage.org/Index/country/Pakistan

47 | © D L I F L C

Investment

Total investment in Pakistan has declined over the last

few years because of the political instability and unsafe

investment climate. The same factors have caused stock

market outflows.252

Other deterrents include corruption,

arbitrary and inconsistent regulations, poor infrastructure,

and a lack of coordination across the national and

regional governments.253, 254

The ongoing privatization of government-owned

businesses and industries has spurred much of the foreign investment in Pakistan. Pakistani law

requires that 90% of these privatization proceeds go toward debt retirement.255

Pakistan was thus

able to reduce its debt service (the percentage of export and remittance revenues that go toward

debt repayment) from 25% in 2000 to 15% in 2010.256

Foreign direct investment has steadily

declined over the past 5 years, however, from a high of USD 5.5 billion in 2007 to USD 1.4

billion in 2010, with projections showing a continuing trend in 2011.257, 258

Standard of Living

In Pakistan, the global financial crisis made a bad living situation worse. Already, 38% of

Pakistani children were moderately underweight due to food and fuel insecurity. By 2008, the

effects of spiking commodity prices had caused half the general population to go without

adequate food supplies.259

Today, one-third of the population, more than 50 million people, live

in poverty.260

Women, children, the disabled, and the elderly suffer the most. Some children are

forced to work and parents are not able to obtain healthcare for their family. Pakistanis are also

forced out of their homes because of insecurity and conflict. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Province, 2 million people have been displaced, the largest emigration since the partition from

252



Ansar Abbasi, ―Corruption Retarding Investment in Pakistan: WB,‖ News International, 10 July 2009,

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=23190&Cat=13&dt=7/11/2009 254



FDi Magazine, ―Unstoppable Train,‖ 25 April 2007, http://www.fdiintelligence.com/Archive/Unstoppable-train 256

World Bank Group, ―Pakistan: Data Profile,‖ December 2010, http://ddp-

ext.worldbank.org/ext/ddpreports/ViewSharedReport?&CF=1&REPORT_ID=9147&REQUEST_TYPE=VIEWAD

VANCED&HF=N&WSP=N PAK 257

Jane‘s Defence, ―Economy, Pakistan: Main Economic Indicators,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South

Asia, 24 March 2011. 258

―FDI Falls to $1.23bn in July-April,‖ News International, 17 May 2011,

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=47334&Cat=3&dt=5/17/2011 259

Sam Taylor, ―Pakistan Reels as Global Financial Crisis Hits Poor Families Hard,‖ UNICEF Newsline, 29 May

2009, http://www.unicef.org/emerg/pakistan_49842.html 260

The World Bank, ―Social Protection in Pakistan,‖ 26 February 2010,

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:22182478~page

PK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:223547,00.html


http://thenews.jang.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=23190&Cat=13&dt=7/11/2009


http://www.fdiintelligence.com/Archive/Unstoppable-train

http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/ext/ddpreports/ViewSharedReport?&CF=1&REPORT_ID=9147&REQUEST_TYPE=VIEWADVANCED&HF=N&WSP=N%20PAK%20%20%20



http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=47334&Cat=3&dt=5/17/2011

http://www.unicef.org/emerg/pakistan_49842.html

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:22182478~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:223547,00.html


48 | © D L I F L C

India in 1947.261

In October 2009, 20 food hubs of the UN World Food Program in Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Province were temporary closed because of security concerns.262

Before the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, Pakistan had made strides in raising its per capita

income and improving quality of life.263

The per capita gross national income has nearly doubled

since 2000 to USD 1,000 in 2009.264

Life expectancy, primary school enrollment, and most

health indices, such as infant and child mortality rates and immunization rates, showed

improvement between 2000 and 2009.265, 266

Most of these successes are the result of the Social

Action Program (SAP) put in place during the 1990s and early 2000s.267

Employment Trends

The estimated unemployment rate for 2010 was 15%,

almost the same as the preceding year.268

When added to

the other negative economic, political, and social trends

that define Pakistani society today, this creates viable

conditions for terrorist organizations to easily recruit

volunteers.269

With the steep decline in foreign direct

investment and the continuing global economic

slowdown, it seems unlikely that Pakistan will be able to

reverse this trend soon.

261

Sam Taylor, ―Pakistan Reels as Global Financial Crisis Hits Poor Families Hard,‖ UNICEF Newsline, 29 May

2009, http://www.unicef.org/emerg/pakistan_49842.html 262

IRIN News, ―Pakistan: Security Fears Prompt Closure of WFP Food Hubs,‖ 21 October 2009,

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86672 263

The World Bank, ―Pakistan: Achieving Results in a Challenging Environment,‖ 2011,

http://go.worldbank.org/VC9EWUBCC0 264







Federal Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan, ―Pakistan Social And Living Standards Measurement

Survey (Pslm) 2008-09 Provincial/District,‖ 2011, http://www.statpak.gov.pk/fbs/content/pakistan-social-and-

living-standards-measurement-survey-pslm-2008-09-provincial-district 267

The World Bank, ―Social Protection in Pakistan,‖ 26 February 2010,

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:22182478~page

PK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:223547,00.html 268



Robert A. Pape and James K. Feldman, Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to

Stop It (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2010), 132–133.

http://www.unicef.org/emerg/pakistan_49842.html

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86672

http://go.worldbank.org/VC9EWUBCC0

http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/ext/ddpreports/ViewSharedReport?&CF=1&REPORT_ID=9147&REQUEST_TYPE=VIEWADVANCED&HF=N&WSP=N%20PAK%20






http://www.statpak.gov.pk/fbs/content/pakistan-social-and-living-standards-measurement-survey-pslm-2008-09-provincial-district

http://www.statpak.gov.pk/fbs/content/pakistan-social-and-living-standards-measurement-survey-pslm-2008-09-provincial-district




49 | © D L I F L C

Public versus Private Sector

In 1991, the government established the Privatization

Commission Secretariat to oversee the transition of

government-owned assets, including ―banks, industrial

units, public utilities, oil, gas and transport companies,

and infrastructure service providers[,]‖ to private

industry.270

This reversed a long-standing practice of

central planning by the federal government. The

privatizations have positively affected the economy by

stimulating foreign investment, creating jobs, and

increasing quality through competition.271

Militant activity and unstable government have

curtailed growth, however, because foreign investors fear investing in an uncertain economy.

270

Privatisation Commission, Government of Pakistan, ―Who We Are,‖ n.d.,

http://www.privatisation.gov.pk/about/who%20we%20are1.htm 271

Jane‘s Defence, ―Economy, Pakistan: Privatisation,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24 March

2011.

http://www.privatisation.gov.pk/about/who%20we%20are1.htm

50 | © D L I F L C

Business Outlook

According to the World Bank, despite Pakistan‘s growing

economy, the business outlook for the country remains

uncertain.272

Pakistan‘s rapid economic growth in the past

decade was the result of external financing, profits from

privatization, grants, and foreign-investments that offset

the trade deficit.273

But because revenues and savings

were stagnant, Pakistan‘s economy was unable to stay

balanced when the global financial crisis hit in 2007–

2008. Macroeconomic reform and lower global

commodity prices have helped to stabilize external and fiscal imbalances, lower inflation, and

build up foreign reserves. To reduce the government‘s vulnerability to shock, Pakistan needs to

increase its revenues.274

An ongoing issue is diversification. Pakistan‘s industrial exports are still tied to textiles and

garments. Competitive pressures from other countries and the industry‘s sensitivity to drops in

cotton production pose key challenges to textiles. In addition, a large percentage of textile

exports are with only a few countries in Europe and North America. Insufficient diversification

made export trade vulnerable to a recent downswing in trading activity with these partners.275

Pakistan continues to look for ways to diversify its economy. One potential growth area is the

outsourcing of software, information technology, and business services for developed countries

(similar to India‘s model). Yet several significant hurdles must be overcome, including a

shortage of technical graduates, high bandwidth costs, and security concerns by some Western

companies.276

To date, lower-tech outsourcing, such as call centers and business process offices,

has been growing the fastest.277

With the Strategic Trade Policy Framework for 2009–2012, the

government of Pakistan is trying to expand its export base and diversify its economy in

promising sectors.278

272

World Bank, ―2009 Pakistan Economic Update,‖ 29 October 2009, http://go.worldbank.org/ZTVKU33FB0 273

Asian Development Bank, ―South Asia: Pakistan,‖ Asian Development Outlook 2007, March 2007,

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2007/PAK.asp 274

The World Bank, ―Pakistan: 2009 Pakistan Economic Update,‖ 29 October 2009,

http://go.worldbank.org/ZTVKU33FB0 275

Asian Development Bank, ―South Asia: Pakistan,‖ Asian Development Outlook 2007, March 2007,

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2007/PAK.asp 276

Naween A. Mangi and Rafiq Dossani, DAWN, ―Pakistan not yet on the Outsourcing Map,‖ Walter A.

Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University, 12 September 2005,

http://aparc.stanford.edu/news/pakistan_not_yet_on_the_outsourcing_map_20050921/ 277

Naween A. Mangi, ―Pakistan: Better Late Than Never in Outsourcing,‖ BusinessWeek, 9 May 2005,

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_19/b3932079.htm 278

Globe Trade Alert, ―Pakistan: Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2009–12,‖ 8 September 2009,

http://www.globaltradealert.org/measure/pakistan-strategic-trade-policy-framework-2009-12

http://go.worldbank.org/ZTVKU33FB0

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2007/PAK.asp

http://go.worldbank.org/ZTVKU33FB0

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2007/PAK.asp

http://aparc.stanford.edu/news/pakistan_not_yet_on_the_outsourcing_map_20050921/

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_19/b3932079.htm

http://www.globaltradealert.org/measure/pakistan-strategic-trade-policy-framework-2009-12

51 | © D L I F L C


1. The agricultural sector employs more Pakistanis than any other sector of the economy.

True

Agriculture continues to be a large segment of Pakistan‘s economy. Agriculture

contributes about 22% of Pakistan‘s GDP and employs 43% of the country‘s workforce.

2. Pakistan‘s primary agricultural areas rely solely on seasonal rains for watering crops.

False

The primary agricultural regions are in the provinces of Sindh and Punjab in the heavily

irrigated Indus River Plain. Non-irrigated regions are primarily in northernmost Punjab

and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and constitute about one-fourth of cultivated land

in Pakistan.

3. Tobacco is the most important cash crop in Pakistan.

False

Cotton is the most important cash crop because it is the raw material for Pakistan‘s vital

textile and garment industries.

4. Most jobs in the industrial sector are found in small-scale manufacturing enterprises

rather than large industrial facilities.

True

These small-scale enterprises produce items such as carpets, knives, leather, sporting

goods, garments, and furniture.

5. The service sector provides the largest portion of Pakistan‘s gross domestic product.

True

The service sector is the largest component (55%) of GDP and employs about 37% of the

working population. Service accounted for twice as much GDP growth as agriculture in

2010.

52 | © D L I F L C

Chapter 4: Society

Introduction

Pakistan is a multiethnic nation with a high population

growth rate, causing the average age to become

increasingly younger. It is the sixth most populous

country with 185 million people, 38% of whom are under

the age of 15.279

Pakistan has one of the largest refugee

populations, most of whom are Afghans.280

The majority

of Pakistanis live along the Indus River, and about 35%

live in urban areas.281

Pakistani customs have changed

little over the centuries. Art, literature, and culinary

traditions adopted from the Mongols, Turks, and Persians are still in place today. Its culture is

rich with handicrafts influenced by the various waves of invaders. The people of Pakistan are

well-known for the courtesy they extend to guests, however, a travel advisory warns against

tourist travel because of possible terrorist activities.282

Ethnic Groups

Pakistan‘s ethnic groups are categorized by a combination of language, religion, and tribal

affiliation. The major ethnic groups are Punjabis (approximately 45%), Pashtuns (15%), Sindhis

(14%), Saraiki (8%), Muhajirs (8%), Baluchis (4%), Kashmiri and other (combined 6%).283

In

1971, when East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh, Pakistan‘s largest

ethnic group was the Bengali. The separation changed the ethnic mix of Pakistan. The Muhajirs

had already immigrated to Pakistan from India after Partition (1947), and most settled in urban

Sindh. Sindhis and Punjabis still live in Sindh and Punjab provinces along the Indus River.

Punjabis are now the majority population. The Pashtuns live in the mountains of the Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Province. Pashtuns also live alongside Baluchis on the Balochistan Plateau in

Balochistan Province.284

Saraikis live primarily in the region between northern Sindh and

southern Punjab provinces. They speak Saraiki and lobby actively for an ethnic province of their

279

Population Reference Bureau, ―Data by Geography: Pakistan: Summary,‖ 2011,

http://www.prb.org/Datafinder/Geography/Summary.aspx?region=146&region_type=2 280

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, ―2011 Country Operations Profile–Pakistan,‖ 2011,

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e487016 281

Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State, ―Background Note: Pakistan: People,‖ 6 October 2010,

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#people 282

Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State, ―Travel Warning: Pakistan,‖ 2 February 2011,

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_5269.html 283

Central Intelligence Agency, ―Pakistan: People,‖ in The World Factbook, 25 April 2011,



237.

http://www.prb.org/Datafinder/Geography/Summary.aspx?region=146&region_type=2

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e487016

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#people

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_5269.html


53 | © D L I F L C

own.285

Tension between ethnic groups in Pakistan, spurred in part by religious zeal, is the cause

of much unrest and hostility.286

Punjabis

The Punjabi people are a diverse mixture of pre-Islamic

Jat and Rajput castes, with groups originating from places

as diverse as Arabia, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and

Persia.287

They are divided into different tribes by

ancestry and occupation; the Punjabi language unites

them.288

Punjabis dominate the upper military and civil service echelons and, in large part, run the central

government. Many other ethnic groups resent this situation. It is particularly abhorrent to

Sindhis, who are few in number, of humble means, and underrepresented in civil service

positions.289

Tensions mounted between them and Punjabis in the early 1980s, when the Sindhis

were feeling alienated from the state. The capital of Pakistan had been moved in the 1960s from

Karachi (in Sindh) to Islamabad (in northern Punjab).290, 291

Sindhis

The name Sindh derives from a Sanskrit word for the Indus River and is also the source of the

words ―India‖ and ―Hindu.‖ Sindhis speak the Sindhi language, and most practice Islam. They

have deep roots in Sindh Province, where life is based on a strong feudal structure. Large Sindh

landowners own most of the farms and reap most of the benefit of work done by tenant farmers.

Even in elections, Sindhi villagers cannot override the rules and mandates set by landowners.

Muhajirs from India replaced the departing Hindu Sindhis after Partition and gained power at the

expense of the remaining Sindhis.292

Ethnic tension between the Sindhis and Muhajirs continues

because there is still no clear solution to the unequal power distribution.293

285

Harihar Bhattacharyya, Federalism in Asia: India, Pakistan and Malaysia (New York: Routledge, 2010), 34. 286

Selig S. Harrison, ―Pakistan‘s Ethnic Fault Line,‖ Washington Post, 11 May 2009,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/10/AR2009051001959.html 287

Peter R. Blood, ed., ―Ch. 3—Society: Population: Punjabis,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study, Federal Research

Division, Library of Congress, 1994, http://countrystudies.us/pakistan/32.htm 288

Peter R. Blood, ed., ―Ch. 3—Society: Population: Punjabis,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study, Federal Research


Harihar Bhattacharyya, Federalism in Asia: India, Pakistan and Malaysia (New York: Routledge, 2010), 103–

104. 290

Peter R. Blood, ed., Pakistan: A Country Study, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1994. 291


238–239. 292

Harihar Bhattacharyya, Federalism in Asia: India, Pakistan and Malaysia (New York: Routledge, 2010), 37–38. 293


239–240.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/10/AR2009051001959.html



54 | © D L I F L C

Muhajirs

As a consequence of Partition, 7 million Muhajirs emigrated from India in 1947, replacing

millions of Hindus and Sikhs who departed for India. Although they represent only 8% of

Pakistan‘s total population, they now form 50% of the population of two cities in Sindh

Province, Karachi and Hyderabad. Furthermore, they displaced many native Sindhis from

prominent positions. In India, the Muhajirs had lived mainly in cities, where they obtained

professional skills and high levels of education. When they immigrated to Pakistan, they became

entrepreneurs and civil servants, assuming a disproportionate share of positions in government,

finance, and business. Many joined the Muhajir Quami National Movement (MQM), spurred by

animosity toward them.294

Pashtuns

The Pashtuns constitute one of the largest tribal groups in

the world. Many believe they descend from European

soldiers of Alexander the Great‘s army. The majority of

Pashtun clans live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and

Balochistan provinces. They are known for their complex,

male-centered code of conduct—Pashtunwali—that

requires honor, revenge, hospitality, and formal

abasement. Pashtunwali code commands that women be

restricted to private family compounds. On the few

occasions when Pashtun women leave their homes, they wear a burqa, which covers them

completely except for small openings for the eyes. The fourth part of the Pashtun code, formal

abasement, requires that those who lose a fight show submission, and those who win show

mercy.295

Most Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims, and adhere to an egalitarian ethos in their

communities.296

Pashtuns make up the bulk of the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is a long-

standing nationalist movement among ethnic Pashtuns. Pashtun political leaders warn that

younger cadres may abandon politics for arms.297

Preventing the radicalization of more Pashtuns

is important. They are essential to successful counterterrorism.

294


240–241. 295


241–245. 296

Peter R. Blood, ed., ―Ch. 3—Society: Population: Pakhtuns,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study, Federal Research


Ben Arnoldy, ―Pakistan‘s Pashtuns, Looking for Statehood, May Look to Taliban,‖ Christian Science Monitor, 8

October 2009, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2009/1008/p08s04-wosc.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyber_Pakhtunkhwa


http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2009/1008/p08s04-wosc.html

55 | © D L I F L C

Baluchis

Pakistan‘s fifth largest tribal group lives mainly in

Balochistan, a barren landscape that extends into Iran and

Afghanistan. Baluchis share this region with other ethnic

groups of common beliefs, moral order, customs, and

literature. Baluchis place great importance on personal

honor, loyalty, hospitality, generosity, and offering

protection to those in need.298

They engage in pastoral

nomadism and agriculture. Their arid land requires

irrigation, so they use water from oases or from channels that divert water from rivers. Their

society is organized into a ―feudal militaristic‖ order in which the word of the tribe‘s leader is

law. Known for resisting intrusions into their way of life, they are among Pakistan‘s poorest

people. Most speak Baluchi, an Indo-Iranian language, although some speak Brahui, an ancient

Dravidian language.299

An ongoing ethnic insurgency among the Baluchis aims to combine the

ethnic provinces in Pakistan and Iran into a separate Balochistan.300, 301

Saraikis

The Saraiki were the dominant ethnic group of the Princely State of Bahawalpur, which opted in

1947 to join Pakistan. Rather than creating a Bahawalpur province, the Pakistani government

merged the territory with that of Punjab. There have been various movements among the Saraikis

to attain greater autonomy as either a separate province of Pakistan or a sovereign nation. The

Saraiki movements have been predominantly nonviolent. Some Saraiki politicians have made

threats that if their demands are not heeded, they might take up arms.302, 303

298

Peter R. Blood, ed., ―Ch. 3—Society: Population: Baloch,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study, Federal Research



245–246. 300

Aleem Maqbool, ―Balochistan Reaches Boiling Point,‖ BBC News, 7 January 2010,


BBC News, ―Rebel Leader Capture Delights Iranian Press,‖ 24 February 2010,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8534158.stm 302

Riaz Missen, ―Seraiki Nationalism in Focus,‖ Dawn, 2 May 2009, http://archives.dawn.com/archives/67393 303

Muhammad Feyyaz, ―Demand for Saraiki Province‖ (background paper, Pakistan Institute of Legislative

Development and Transparency, March 2011).



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8534158.stm

http://archives.dawn.com/archives/67393

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Kashmiri

According to a 2008 estimate, 4.1 million people live in

that part of Kashmir that is administered by Pakistan. The

vast majority of these people are ethnic Kashmiris.304

Although the Kashmiri are predominantly Sunni Muslim,

the pre-1947 ruler of Kashmir was Hindu. He opted to

join the territory to India following the independence of

British India. This triggered a series of wars that have left

the area divided among Pakistan, India, and China.

The Kashmiris have their own language and a long history of independence from both Pakistan

and India prior to 1947. Yet they are closely related to the other people of the region and

influenced by the same factors. Pakistani-controlled territory in Kashmir has served as a staging

point for militants who have frequently attacked sites in India, and a number of militant groups

are active in the area and among the Kashmiri.305

Languages

Although more than 20 languages are spoken in Pakistan, the most common are Urdu, Pashto,

Sindhi, Punjabi, and Baluchi. These languages are classified as Indo-European languages and use

the same Perso-Arabic script, which is based on the Arabic alphabet and modified to

accommodate additional sounds from Persian.306

Many languages in the region use the Arabic

alphabet and add letters, dots, and other shapes to represent additional sounds from the native

language. The script reads from right to left and letters are written in cursive style. All consonant

sounds are represented in the script; however, some vowel sounds are not written, which

sometimes makes reading difficult. In Pakistan, Urdu and English are the official languages and

are used in university classrooms, private schools, government and legal documents, and in army

manuals.

Urdu

Urdu, an Indo-Aryan language, is spoken by approximately 104 million people. Urdu and Hindi

(now spoken mostly in India) rank among the top five most-used languages in the world and

largely are mutually intelligible when spoken.307

Urdu is spoken as a native language by only 8%

of the population, yet is Pakistan‘s national language.308

Over 75% of Pakistanis and 95% of

304

Jane‘s Defence, ―Territories, Pakistan-administered Kashmir,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment–South Asia,

26 April 2011. 305

Jane‘s Defence, ―Non-State Armed Groups, Pakistan,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment–South Asia, 26 April

2011. 306


236. 307

This figure includes those who speak Urdu as a second language. 308




57 | © D L I F L C

those who live in cities in Pakistan understand Urdu.309

The word urdu comes from the Turkish

word ordu, which means ―camp‖ or ―army.‖ Muslim soldiers of Persian, Arab, and Turkish

descent used Urdu as a common language during their conquest of India.310, 311

Punjabi

Punjabi, an Indo-Aryan language, is spoken by about 104

million people, mainly in Punjab Province in Pakistan and

Punjab State in India. It is the world‘s 12th most spoken

language and is used by approximately 44% of the

Pakistani population.312, 313

The writing system for

Punjabi varies from Devanagari to Shahmukhi to

Gurmukhi, depending on socio-geographical factors.

Punjabi‘s many dialects follow a geographical continuum

in which they merge with Sindhi in Pakistan and Hindi in

India. Dialects are spoken by peoples of different religions, including Hindus, Christians, and

Muslims, as well as Sikhs, for whom it is the language of their sacred text.314

Pashto

Pashto is an Indo-Iranian language that first appeared in written form in the 16th century. Pashto

is spoken by 25–30 million people living mainly in Afghanistan and Pakistan‘s Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Province.315

In Pakistan, it is spoken by 8% of the people.316

It has many dialects,

which vary by country. Eastern Pashto is spoken in Pakistan and Western Pashto in Afghanistan,

where it is an official language along with Dari.

309


237. 310

M. Obaidul Hamid, ―Planning for Failure: English and Language Policy and Planning in Bangladesh,‖ in

Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity

Efforts, Volume 2, eds. Joshua Fishman and Ofelia Garcia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 193–194. 311

M. Paul Lewis, ed., ―Urdu,‖ in Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th ed. (Dallas: SIL International, 2009),

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=urd 312

M. Paul Lewis, ed., ―Statistical Summaries,‖ in Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th ed. (Dallas: SIL

International, 2009), http://www.ethnologue.org/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size 313



M. Paul Lewis, ed., ―Panjabi, Western,‖ in Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th ed. (Dallas: SIL

International, 2009), http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pnb 315

Peter Austin, One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost (Berkeley: University of California Press,

2008), 141. 316



http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=urd

http://www.ethnologue.org/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size


http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pnb


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Sindhi

Sindhi is the third most spoken language in Pakistan.

About 12% of the Pakistani population speaks Sindhi,

predominantly in southeast Pakistan.317

Another 2.8

million speakers live in India. Sindhi appeared as a

written language with its own script around the eighth

century C.E. An Indo-Aryan language, Sindhi‘s modern

script is based on a version of the Perso-Arabic script

adopted in the mid-19th century.318

Today, Sindhi is

written in Arabic script in Pakistan.319

Over 70% of Sindhi words are Sanskrit, though small

parts of its vocabulary are Dravidian, Arabic, and Persian.320

The Sindhi language—a strong

element of Sindhi identity—has a rich literary history, and was the majority language before

Partition in the area now known as Pakistan. After the large migration in 1947 of Urdu-speaking

Muslims from India (Muhajirs), Sindhi speakers became the minority in the cities, and became

greatly disadvantaged socially, educationally, and economically.321

Saraiki

Recognized by the Pakistani government as a separate language in 1981, Saraiki was long

labeled as a dialect of Punjabi. About 10% of Pakistanis speak the language.322

Since the 19th

century, when it became a written as well as spoken language, it has primarily been written in the

same modified Persian script used for Urdu. Since the mid-1970s, the Saraiki people have more

aggressively asserted their ethnic identity by forming social organizations and political parties,

and using their language to promote their cause.323

317



Florian Coulmas, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999), 469. 319

M. Paul Lewis, ed., ―Sindhi,‖ in Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th ed. (Dallas: SIL International, 2009),

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=snd 320

Lachman M. Khubchandani, ―Sindhi,‖ in The Indo-Aryan Languages, eds. George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain

(New York: Routledge, 2003), 684. 321

Tariq Rahman, ―Language, Politics, and Power in Pakistan: The Case of Sindh and Sindhi,‖ Ethnic Studies

Report 17, no. 1 (January 1999), 27, http://www.worldsindhi.org/publishedreports/reports/tariqrahman.pdf 322



Tariq Rahman, Language, Education and Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 230.


http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=snd

http://www.worldsindhi.org/publishedreports/reports/tariqrahman.pdf


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Religion

Islam

Islam is the second largest religion in the world (second

to Christianity) with over 1 billion followers. The word

―Islam‖ means ―to submit‖ or ―to surrender.‖ Islam, like

Judaism and Christianity, is a monotheistic religion and

recognizes the validity of the Old and New Testaments.

But Muslims believe that the final and culminating

revelations were made to Muhammad, the last prophet.324

The Quran (the Final Testament), is

considered the record of God‘s revelations to Muhammad. The Five Pillars of Islam are 1) belief

in Allah as the only God and Muhammad as his prophet, 2) praying five times each day, 3)

almsgiving, 4) fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan, and 5) making the

pilgrimage to Mecca. A Muslim is encouraged to lead a healthy life that exemplifies the qualities

of kindness, chastity, honesty, mercy, courage, patience, and politeness.325

Sunni and Shi’a Islam

Sunni and Shi‘a are the two major sects within the Islamic religion. Upon Muhammad‘s death,

the community debated how to select a new leader. Some believed religious leadership should be

based on merit; they saw leadership as a trust that is earned. They later became identified as

Sunnis. Another group believed leadership should descend from Muhammad through his family.

They believed that to live in unity with the truth of Islam, people need the help of divinely

favored individuals: those from the Prophet‘s lineage. Of the four caliphs who ruled after

Muhammad, Ali was the closest relative. Those who believe that Ali should have been the

immediate successor are called Shi‘a, short for Shi’a-t-Ali, or ―party of Ali.‖ Shi‘ites today

receive their spiritual leadership from a council of imams.326

Islam in Pakistan

About 97% of Pakistanis are Muslim. Sunni Muslims make up 77% and Shi‘a Muslims the other

20%. Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and others make up the remainder of the population.327

The term

―Islamist‖ (not to be confused with ―Islamic‖) refers to a practitioner of political Islam who

seeks to end the secular state and replace it with a strict religious state. In Pakistan, various

Islamist groups are often opposed to each other as well as to Western influence. The Islamist

324

Reza Aslan, No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam (New York: Random House, 2006),

34–35. 325

Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam (New York: Macmillan, 1993), 118–137. 326

Jonathan P. Berkey, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800 (New York:

Cambridge University Press, 2003), 87–88. 327

Peter R. Blood, ed., ―Ch. 3—Society: Religion,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study, Federal Research Division,

Library of Congress, 1994, http://countrystudies.us/pakistan/38.htm


60 | © D L I F L C

cause was strengthened in Pakistan when shari‘a courts were established under Zia ul-Haq and

then in the early 1990s under Prime Minister Sharif.328

Cuisine

Many kinds of bread or roti made of unleavened wheat

are a substantial part of Pakistani cuisine. The common

bread, chapatti, is shaped from wheat dough into a thin

disc that is baked on a dry hot iron pan. Another slightly

thicker bread cooked in oil is called parata. A type of

bread or cake called naan is cooked in a clay vessel called

a tandoor.329

Pakistani cuisine consists of foods that are abundant and cheap. The milk in which both the curds

and butterfat have been removed is called lassi. Lentils are the more common vegetable, while

meat, eggs, and fruits are consumed by wealthier Pakistanis.330

Though every region in Pakistan has its unique cuisine, all Pakistani cooks rely heavily on

spices, herbs, and flavorings to benefit an otherwise bland dish. Spices such as chili powder,

turmeric, garlic, paprika, pepper, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and saffron are used liberally in

Pakistani cooking.331

Traditional Dress

The traditional dress in Pakistan is the salwar kameez, Pakistan‘s national dress. The salwar are

the loose-fitting pants with the kameez worn over them like a tunic or long shirt. This salwar

kameez can be worn by men and women and styled accordingly. In urban settings it is quite

common to find people, especially of the younger generations, wearing Western style clothing

instead of traditional attire.

328

Peter R. Blood, ed., ―Ch. 1—History: Zia Ul-Haq,‖ in Pakistan: A Country Study, Federal Research Division,

Library of Congress, 1994, http://countrystudies.us/pakistan/21.htm 329


324. 330

Pamela Goyan Kittler and Kathryn Sucher, Food and Culture, 5th ed. (Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth,

2004), 451. 331

Clive Carpenter, ed., Middle East, Western Asia, and Northern Africa, World and Its People (New York:

Marshall Cavendish, 2006), 394–395.


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Women

To accompany their salwar kameez, Pakistani women

wear the dupatta, a long headscarf.332

Women also wear

traditional shoes called khussa. They are hand-stitched

lightweight flats, often decorated with ornate embroidery.

In northwest Pakistan, the Kalash women traditionally

wear a shushut, or headdress. To accompany this, they

also wear long black dresses decorated with beadwork or

embroidery.333

Another head covering worn by Muslim women in Pakistan is the niqab that covers the face

completely except for the eyes. The hajib, the most common of the headscarves, is square in

shape and wraps around the head, leaving the face exposed.334

Men

Men in Pakistan wear the salwar kameez and usually

wear a hat. There are various hats depending on the

region. Pakistani men also wear turbans, and the style

changes with each region.335

Gender Issues

Patriarchal Culture

Because Pakistan is a patriarchal culture, men and women conceptually inhabit separate worlds.

The home is defined as the women‘s world whereas the outside world is defined as the men‘s

world. Pakistani women are considered domestic producers and providers, lacking social status

and value. In addition, the preference for sons is dominant in Pakistan, so giving birth to a female

child is not as celebrated as giving birth to a son.336

Men in general receive a better education

and more access to public resources than women do. Among children in poor families, the rate of

chronic malnutrition is higher for girls than boys. Women lack access to proper healthcare

because of their low economic, social, and cultural status. Since men are allowed to eat first,

there often is little or no food for the women, so they may suffer nutritional deficiencies.

332

Kathryn Besio, ―In the Lady‘s Seat: Cosmopolitan Women Travelers in Pakistan,‖ in Women, Religion, & Space:

Global Perspectives on Gender and Faith, eds. Karen M. Morin and Jeanne Kay Guelke (Syracuse: Syracuse

University Press, 2007), 97. 333

Caroline Crabtree and Pam Stallebrass, Beadwork: A World Guide (New York: Rizzoli, 2002), 124. 334

Mohammad A. Qadeer, Pakistan: Social and Cultural Transformation in a Muslim Nation (New York:

Routledge, 2006), 198. 335

Carolyn Black, Pakistan: The People (New York: Crabtree Publishing Co., 2003), 16–17. 336

Khan M. Ibrahim and Ulrich Laaser, eds., Critical Gender Issues in Developing Countries: The Case of Pakistan

(Lage, Germany: Jacobs, 2001).

62 | © D L I F L C

Women‘s roles are clearly delineated and limited. Girls are expected to marry at a young age and

give birth to numerous children. In general, women lack access to financial resources including

earnings, formal lending institutions, or careers. Except in urban areas, they generally do not

work outside the home for wages; if they do, they remain responsible for household duties.

Violence toward Women

Violence toward women is a powerful mechanism used

by the family and society to silence any voices of

resistance. Forms of violence toward Pakistani women

have included physical and mental torture, murder, honor

killing, sexual harassment, rape, kidnapping, trafficking,

and prostitution. Statistics on these occurrences have

remained low because these violations tend to be

underreported.337

Despite women‘s legal rights to own land and inherit property, few women have access to these

resources. A 1995 report found that only 36 women out of 1,000 rural households surveyed in

Punjab owned property in their names, and of those, only one-quarter had control of their

property.338

Bills of Protection for Women

In 2001, the Government of Pakistan amended their constitution to address issues of gender

inequality. The amendment gave women more representation in local and national government.

As of 2005, women‘s representation was better in Pakistan‘s government than in ―most countries

of the world, including the largest democracies.‖ There has been much talk of reforms for

women in the social, political, and economic arenas, but actual reforms have been. A recent

study revealed that ―[l]ack of political will, weak and corrupt governance structures, limited

technical and intellectual capacity of institutions, and resource constraints have been the main

impediments in policy implementation.‖339

337

Barbara A. Weightman, Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East, and Southeast Asia (Hoboken, NJ:

John Wiley & Sons, 2011), 76–77. 338

Ghulam Moheyuddin, ―Background, Assessment, and Analysis of the Gender Issues in Pakistan‖ (background

paper, World Bank Institute, November 2005), http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/683/01/MPRA_paper_683.pdf 339

Ghulam Moheyuddin, ―Background, Assessment, and Analysis of the Gender Issues in Pakistan‖ (background

paper, World Bank Institute, November 2005), http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/683/01/MPRA_paper_683.pdf

http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/683/01/MPRA_paper_683.pdf

http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/683/01/MPRA_paper_683.pdf

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Arts

Ghazals

Taken from both Arabic and Persian poetry, ghazals are

songs about love. Considered semi-classical music, these

songs are accompanied by percussion and stringed

instruments. They were originally sung in Farsi; singers

today perform them mainly in Urdu, but can sing them in

other Pakistani languages. Pakistani women are the

primary singers of this style of music.340

Storytelling

Storytelling to music is an ancient art, now becoming ―endangered‖ in Pakistan. One center of

this art form was in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, specifically in Peshawar. People would

come to the central marketplace to listen to storytellers from varied cultural backgrounds tell

their tales. Although professional storytellers have largely disappeared, this tradition in modified

form made its way into the theaters and continues in the major cities of Pakistan.341

Folklore

Folklore in Pakistan is a mixture of beliefs, facts, and fiction, and has been told over the

generations so much that the Pakistanis claim that it has become difficult to tell the fact from the

fiction. The stories often revolve around themes of unconditional love with dynamic female

characters willing to fight societal norms for the love of their mate.

Symbolism is a large part of Pakistani folklore. It is seen in characters such as faqirs, or holy

persons, who can destroy or restore life and turn blood into water. Other symbols that figure into

Pakistani folk tales are ogres, heroes, and sleeping beauties. These characters find themselves in

incredible situations that they must overcome, such as a quest in search of fortune or responding

to warning dreams. The story then attempts to explain the situation and provide a favorable

outcome. Pakistani children‘s folktales originally derived from India and have gained so much

popularity that books about them have been published and television shows have portrayed

them.342

340

Jason Porterfield, Islamic Customs and Culture (New York: Rosen Pub., 2009), 43. 341

ArtsEdge, The Kennedy Center, ―Gift of the Indus: The Arts and Culture of Pakistan: Theater,‖ 2011,

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/interactives/pakistan/arts-of-pakistan/theater.htm 342

Margaret A. Mills, Peter J. Claus, and Sarah Diamond, eds., South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia:

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (New York: Routledge, 2003).

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/interactives/pakistan/arts-of-pakistan/theater.htm

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Sports and Recreation

While such sports as skiing, baseball, cycling, rowing, and yachting are quite popular, cricket

remains the most popular game. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, known as Pakistan‘s founder, had a

great love for sports. He recognized their potential to promote discipline and health among

Pakistan‘s citizens.343

As a result, Pakistan has participated internationally in the Olympics, the

Commonwealth, Asian, and South Asian Federation games, and the Cricket World Cup.

Cricket

In Pakistan, cricket teams began to develop after

Partition and have grown more numerous over the

years. Pakistan now has men‘s, women‘s, youth, and

school cricket leagues. In 1992, the national team won

the World Cup, the most prestigious award in the sport.

In 2009, they won the World Twenty20 championship,

the newest tournament sponsored by the International

Cricket Council.344

Field Hockey

The Pakistan Hockey Federation started in 1948, and field hockey today is Pakistan‘s national

sport. Pakistani hockey gained recognition during the 1960s when the team participated

internationally, and Pakistan later won several world titles, the last in 1994. Pakistan has both

men‘s and women‘s hockey teams.345, 346

Gulli Danda

Similar to cricket or even baseball, gulli danda is a sport played in rural areas. It requires a

danda and a gilli, two sticks, one swung at the other with a golf-like swing. As in baseball, the

person hitting the gilli is out when another player catches it. There is no running to bases; rather,

if the gilli is not caught, the hitter hits another one. After three strikes, the hitter is out.347

343

Om Gupta, Encyclopaedia of India, Pakistan & Bangladesh (Delhi: Isha Books, 2006), 183–184. 344

Omar Noman, Pride and Passion: An Exhilarating Half Century of Cricket in Pakistan (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1998), 212. 345

Ian Graham, Pakistan (North Mankato, MN: Smart Apple Media, 2004), 20. 346

Sally Morgan, Focus on Pakistan (Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library, 2007), 50. 347

Steve Craig, Sports and Games of the Ancients (Westport, CT: Greenword Press, 2002), 63–65.

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Rugby

The Karachi Rugby Football Union was formed in 1926

and almost folded by the 1980s. In the 1990s, local

players established clubs in Lahore and Karachi, and

foreign staff from embassies and business agencies

established a club in Islamabad. Popularity has since

increased considerably, and in 2000, the Pakistan Rugby

Union was established. Pakistan fielded its first national

team in 2003. Rugby has become so popular that schools

now offer it in their curricula.348

348

Pakistan Rugby Union, ―Pakistan Rugby Union,‖ 2007, http://www.pakistanrugby.com/about.html

http://www.pakistanrugby.com/about.html

66 | © D L I F L C


1. Punjabis are the largest ethnic group in Pakistan.

True

Making up about 45% of the Pakistani population, the Punjabis dominate in the upper

echelons of the military and civil service and, in large part, run the central government.

2. Sindhi is the national language of Pakistan.

False

Urdu was made the national language after partition in 1947. This demotion of the Sindhi

language was seen as a blow to the cultural unity of Sindhis.

3. The Muhajirs are an ethnic group indigenous to Pakistan.

False

Muhajir is the catchall term for the 7 million Muslims who emigrated from India in 1947,

replacing millions of Hindus and Sikhs who departed for India. Originally these people came

from a variety of backgrounds, but the Pakistanis categorized them together as new arrivals

who did not conform to the country‘s preexisting ethnicities.

4. Pashtunwali is the term used for the Pashtuns‘ code of conduct.

True

This code of conduct places tremendous value on hospitality and the granting of refuge to all

who seek it; an obvious advantage to the Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives seeking to hide from

U.S. and allied forces in the area of the Pakistan–Afghanistan border where the Pashtuns live.

5. A number of Pakistan‘s ethnic groups seek greater autonomy from the central government or

outright independence.

True

The Balochis, Pashtuns, and Saraikis are prime examples of Pakistani ethnic groups that are

pursuing greater freedom from the government through a variety of means, including armed

struggle and legislation.

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Chapter 5: Security

Introduction

Pakistan has had a tumultuous history, from its violent

birth in 1947 to wars with India, civil war and the

secession of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1971, and

four military coups. Although a democracy, it was

founded for religious reasons. Today, Pakistan tries to

balance its secular and religious identities.

The already complicated story of Pakistan began a new

chapter in 2001, when the country became an ally of the

United States in global counterterrorism. To advance its

own efforts at development, Pakistan accepted substantial economic and military assistance from

the United States. For years, Pakistan had supported the predominantly Pashtun Taliban

government in neighboring Afghanistan. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan renounced

its relationship with the Taliban. Still, many Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters found refuge in

Pakistan, fleeing U.S. and allied forces after the ouster of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Pakistan largely left these fighters alone for the next several years. But in the summer and fall of

2009, the Pakistani military conducted aggressive campaigns in the Swat and Waziristan valleys.

These protracted battles restored some degree of government control over these areas and forced

the Taliban fighters underground.349

United States–Pakistan Relations

Since late 2001, the United States and Pakistan have

battled against extremist groups in the region. Hundreds

of al-Qaeda members have been captured or killed,

sometimes with the assistance of the Pakistani military

and intelligence organizations. U.S. economic and

military aid have been reestablished, totaling tens of

billions of USD since 2001.350, 351, 352

Pakistan was given

Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status in 2004.353

In

September 2009, Pakistan successfully pleaded for an additional USD 7.5 billion in aid for the

next 5 years. Conditions were placed on how it would be spent.354

349

New York Times, ―Times Topics: Swat Valley,‖ 16 November 2010,

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/pakistan/northwest-

pakistan/swat_valley/index.html 350

Jeremy Page and Zahid Hussain, ―Barack Obama‘s Pakistan Policy in Disarray after Opposition to $7.5bn Aid

Conditions,‖ Times Online, 14 October 2009 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6873616.ece 351

Derrick Z. Jackson, ―U.S. Aid to Pakistan a Shell Game,‖ Boston Globe, 6 October 2009,

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/10/06/us_aid_to_pakistan_a_shell_game/ 352

Katie Paul, ―About Those Billions,‖ Newsweek, 21 October 2009, http://www.newsweek.com/id/218932 353

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, U.S. Department of State, ―Background Note: Pakistan: U.S.-

Pakistan,‖ 6 October 2010, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm 354

Ashish Kumar Sen, ―Congress Allays Pakistani Fears Over Aid,‖ Washington Times, 15 October 2009,

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/15/congress-allays-pakistani-fears-about-conditions-f/

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/pakistan/northwest-pakistan/swat_valley/index.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/pakistan/northwest-pakistan/swat_valley/index.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6873616.ece

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/10/06/us_aid_to_pakistan_a_shell_game/

http://www.newsweek.com/id/218932

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/15/congress-allays-pakistani-fears-about-conditions-f/

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The United States has increasingly criticized Pakistan‘s efforts to suppress the Taliban. The U.S.

government has been especially persistent in demanding that Pakistan launch an offensive

against the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan, partly because the May 2010 Times Square

car bombing attempt in New York City was linked with that organization.355

Relations with Neighboring Countries

Pakistan, nearly twice the size of California, is strategically located within Southwest Asia.356

To

its east and north lie the world‘s two most populous countries, India and China, with rapidly

developing economies. In the west are Iran and oil states. Most of Pakistan‘s western border is

with Afghanistan, a country that has been repeatedly invaded and embroiled in civil wars for

over 30 years. During those conflicts, western Pakistan has hosted refugee camps and informal

military bases for different combatants.

India

Pakistan gained independence in 1947. The partitioning

of the former British colony of India, which carved East

Pakistan and West Pakistan from Indian territory, was

marked by mass violence that forced non-Muslims in

Pakistan to move to India and Muslims in India to

migrate to Pakistan. The partition also caused the current

Jammu and Kashmir controversy. Two Pakistani–Indian

Wars in 1965 and 1971 over this issue were followed in

1972 by an agreement formalizing the ―Line of Control‖

for Jammu and Kashmir. The ―Line of Control‖ is essentially the same as the boundary

established after Partition and the 1947–1948 war.357

Contention has continued, especially over

the interpretation of this boundary near the valuable water supply of the Siachen Glacier in

western Jammu and Kashmir; this resulted in another Pakistani–Indian armed conflict in 1984.

Since then, there have been long standoffs punctuated by occasional battles in this region.358

In 1999, the two countries clashed over Jammu and Kashmir for the first time since Pakistan

matched India‘s status as a country with nuclear weapons capability.359

The 1999 hostilities

raised fears that the two long-time enemies might be tempted to use their nuclear arsenals.360

Relations in the last decade have alternated between tense political and military standoffs and

periods of thaw, with ongoing terrorist attacks within Kashmir being an additional source of

conflict. Major terrorist attacks in the last few years have created a highly tense situation. India

continues to demand that Pakistan extradite those responsible for the November 2008 terrorist

attacks in Mumbai, India, and has placed all negotiations on hold until this matter is resolved.

355

Jane‘s Defence, ―External Affairs, Pakistan,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 24 March 2011. 356

PakistaniDefence, ―Geo-Strategic Importance,‖ 2001, http://www.pakistanidefence.com/Info/GeoStrategic.html 357

The 1971 war began as a conflict between India and Pakistan over East Pakistan secession that led to the creation

of the country of Bangladesh. But it eventually spread to a western front, especially to Jammu and Kashmir. 358

Tim McGirk and Aravind Adiga, ―War at the Top of the World,‖ Time, 4 May 2005,

http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501050711/story.html 359

BBC News, ―India-Pakistan: Troubled Relations—Kargil Conflict,‖ 2005,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/south_asia/2002/india_pakistan/timeline/1999.stm 360

BBC News, ―India-Pakistan: Troubled Relations—Nuclear Rivalry,‖ 2005,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/south_asia/2002/india_pakistan/timeline/1998.stm

http://www.pakistanidefence.com/Info/GeoStrategic.html

http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501050711/story.html



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Iran

Iran borders Pakistan along the western edge of

Balochistan Province. Although the two countries have

generally been on good terms, their relationship was

strained during the Afghanistan civil wars of the 1990s

because they supported opposing sides. Since the fall of

the Taliban, the two countries have moved closer.361, 362

With Indian assistance, Iran has recently built a new

deep-water port at Chabahar, only a few hundred

kilometers down the coast from Pakistan‘s new port at Gwadar. The two new ports are near the

strategic Gulf of Oman that serves shipments from oilfields. This has created competition to

develop inland trade and access routes to aid the flow of energy resources to the Central Asian

republics and China.363

In early 2011, the Bahraini government contracted with the Fauji Foundation, an enterprise

operated by the Pakistani Ministry of Defense, to recruit Pakistani mercenaries from retired

military personnel.364

These mercenaries were deployed to help quell unrest, particularly among

Bahrain‘s minority Shi‘ite population. This action has caused a diplomatic problem with Iran,

which is a regional power sympathetic to the Bahraini Shi‘ites.365

Afghanistan

Since 11 September 2001, the Pakistan–Afghanistan

border may have become the world‘s most publicized

frontier. Known as the Durand Line, Afghanistan does

not recognize this border, which divides the traditional

tribal areas of the Pashtuns and Baluchis. The border runs

2,430 km (1,507 mi) from near the northernmost tip of

Pakistan‘s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province to the

country‘s westernmost point at Ribat.366

Smugglers, refugees, terrorists, and everyday Pashtun tribesmen have long been able to move

freely from one country to the other. Controversy over the porous border has been heightened in

recent times because terrorists and Taliban militia have moved freely within these nominally

governed Federally Administered Tribal Areas (known as FATA or simply ―tribal areas‖) of

Pakistan. The Pakistani army responded by building fences along 35 km (22 mi) of the border,

361


Pakistan,‖ 6 October 2010, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm 362

Sudha Ramachandran, ―‗Brothers‘ in Arms,‖ Asia Times Online, 18 March 2005,

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GC18Df06.html 363

Ziad Haider, ―Baluchis, Beijing, and Pakistan‘s Gwadar Port,‖ Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 6,

no. 1 (Winter/Spring 2005): 95–103. 364

R.S.N. Singh, The Military Factor in Pakistan (New Delhi: Lancer, 2008), 131–132. 365

Jane‘s Defence, ―Iran Complains about Pakistani Mercenaries in Bahrain,‖ Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, 21 April

2011. 366

Jayshree Bajoria, ―The Troubled Afghan–Pakistani Border,‖ Council on Foreign Relations, 20 March 2009,

http://www.cfr.org/publication/14905/troubled_afghanpakistani_border.html#p6

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GC18Df06.html

http://www.cfr.org/publication/14905/troubled_afghanpakistani_border.html#p6

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which Afghan troops in turn have tried to remove. The resulting border skirmishes have

threatened the cooperation needed by Afghanistan, Pakistan, and NATO forces to control the

Taliban insurgency.367

The call for a full border fence is an ongoing issue, and Pakistan has

resorted to placing landmines in strategic areas of the border.368, 369

Each government continues

to accuse the other of interfering in its national affairs.370

Pakistani officials have accused

Afghanistan in particular of allowing India to use Afghan territory to support violent unrest

within the tribal areas.371

During Taliban rule in Afghanistan, Pakistan accepted approximately 2 million Afghani

refugees.372

But the prospect of greater numbers of refugees, who pose a security risk and an

economic burden, caused Pakistan to officially close the border. Nevertheless, both countries are

trying to improve and strengthen ties by furthering mutual interests. Pakistan has pledged aid to

Afghanistan, and by 2009, there was a ―new environment‖ of confidence and trust between

them.373, 374

By late 2009, however, Pakistan had interrupted the India–Afghanistan transit of the

Wagah border, nullifying a previous Afghanistan–Pakistan agreement that allowed Afghanistan

to import Indian goods.375

China

In 1950, Pakistan was one of the first non-Communist

countries to recognize the People‘s Republic of China

(PRC), and diplomatic relations between the two have been

generally good since then. For many years, their mutually

strained relations with India and the Soviet Union

reinforced their strategic relationship. China has several

border disputes with India in the Jammu and Kashmir area.

In 1963, the two countries negotiated a border agreement

367

BBC News, ―Afghanistan ‗Border Fence‘ Clash,‖ 19 April 2007,


Associated Press, ―Pakistan Will Secure Afghan Border with Fences, Landmines,‖ CBCNews (Canada), 28

December 2006, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2006/12/28/pakistan-border.html 369

Kenneth R. Rutherford, Disarming States: The International Movement to Ban Landmines (Santa Barbara, CA:

ABC-CLIO, 2010), 21–26. 370

Frederic Gare, ―Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations in the Post-9/11 Era‖ (endowment paper, Carnegie Endowment

of International Affairs, no. 72, October 2006), http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/cp72_grare_final.pdf 371

Frederic Gare, ―Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations in the Post-9/11 Era‖ (endowment paper, Carnegie Endowment

of International Affairs, no. 72, October 2006), 372

Yale Law School, Avalon Project, ―Congressional Testimony of Acting Assistant Secretary Alan Kreczko,

Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, Department of State, Before the Committee on International

Relations, United States House of Representatives,‖ 1 November 2001,

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/sept11/testimony_019.asp 373


Pakistan,‖ 6 October 2010, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#foreign 374

Al Jazeera, ―Pakistan Hails New Afghan Relations,‖ 24 February 2009,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/200922421140626741.html 375

Thai Indian News, ―Pakistan Nixes India-Afghanistan Transit Trade,‖ 25 November 2009,

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/pakistan-nixes-india-afghanistan-transit-trade_100280063.html


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2006/12/28/pakistan-border.html

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/cp72_grare_final.pdf

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/sept11/testimony_019.asp

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#foreign

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/200922421140626741.html

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/pakistan-nixes-india-afghanistan-transit-trade_100280063.html

71 | © D L I F L C

that gave China control over the Trans-Karakoram tract, a region that India still claims as part of

greater Jammu and Kashmir.376

Although the external dynamics have changed over the last

decades with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rapprochement of China with India, and the

rise of insurgency in Pakistan, the two countries have so far maintained their ―all weather

relationship.‖377

China has provided Pakistan with major economic, military, and technical assistance, including

nuclear technology. They have collaborated on numerous projects, including gold and copper

mines, power plants, and highways.378

In 1986, the two countries finished building the

Karakoram Highway to link China to Pakistan‘s northern area. Pakistan and China are widening

this road as part of a program to better connect western China with Pakistan‘s new deep-sea port

at Gwadar, which was built with extensive Chinese aid.379, 380, 381

China is also financing a

highway link from Gwadar to Rawalpindi, near where the Karakoram Highway to China

begins.382

This joint venture has unnerved some Indian officials who claim that Chinese Army

engineers are using the project as a pretext for military construction in Pakistan‘s portion of

Kashmir.383

Pakistan and China signed a comprehensive trade agreement in 2008, anticipating

annual trade of about USD 7 billion a year.384

One point of contention between the two neighbors is China‘s concern over the level of

extremism inside Pakistan, and the fact that China‘s Muslim ethnic separatists find safe haven in

the tribal areas of Pakistan.385, 386

376

International Boundary Consultants, ―India‘s Boundary Disputes with China, Nepal, and Pakistan,‖ International

Boundary Monitor, 15 May 1998, http://www.boundaries.com/India.htm 377

Atul Kumar, China-Pakistan Economic Relations, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies Special Report 30

(New Delhi: Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, September 2006),

http://ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/683644508IPCS-Special-Report-30.pdf 378

Jamal Afridi and Jayshree Bajoria, ―China-Pakistan Relations,‖ (background report, Council on Foreign

Relations, 20 August 2009), http://www.cfr.org/publication/10070/chinapakistan_relations.html 379

Tech Lahore (firm), ―China and Pakistan Launch $327m Joint Venture to Upgrade Karakoram Highway for

Increased Trade,‖ 21 January 2008, http://techlahore.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/china-and-pakistan-launch-327m-

joint-venture-to-upgrade-karakoram-highway-for-increased-trade/ 380

Pallavi Aiyar, ―China, Pakistan to Renovate Karakoram Highway,‖ The Hindu, 11 July 2006,

http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/11/stories/2006071107281300.htm 381

Associated Press, ―New Pakistani Deep Sea Port a Boon for Chinese Trade,‖ The Star (Malaysia), 13 May 2007,

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/5/13/business/20070513083148&sec=business 382

Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, ―Interpreting China‘s Grand Strategy at Gwadar,‖ Institute of Peace and Conflict

Studies no. 1939, 14 February 2006, http://ipcs.org/article/china/interpreting-chinas-grand-strategy-at-gwadar-

1939.html 383

Josy Joseph, ―India Confirms Chinese Military in PoK,‖ Times of India, 12 May 2011,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-confirms-Chinese-military-in-PoK/articleshow/8259346.cms 384

Jamal Afridi, ―China-Pakistan Relations,‖ Council on Foreign Relations, 20 August 2009,

http://www.cfr.org/publication/10070/chinapakistan_relations.html 385

Omar Waraich, ―China Leans on Pakistan to Deal with Militants,‖ Time, 10 April 2009,

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1890205,00.html 386

Asif Hassan, ―Pakistan: China and the Militant Connection,‖ STRATFOR, 7 May 2010,

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100507_pakistan_china_and_militant_connection

http://www.boundaries.com/India.htm

http://ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/683644508IPCS-Special-Report-30.pdf

http://www.cfr.org/publication/10070/chinapakistan_relations.html

http://techlahore.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/china-and-pakistan-launch-327m-joint-venture-to-upgrade-karakoram-highway-for-increased-trade/

http://techlahore.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/china-and-pakistan-launch-327m-joint-venture-to-upgrade-karakoram-highway-for-increased-trade/

http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/11/stories/2006071107281300.htm

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/5/13/business/20070513083148&sec=business

http://ipcs.org/article/china/interpreting-chinas-grand-strategy-at-gwadar-1939.html

http://ipcs.org/article/china/interpreting-chinas-grand-strategy-at-gwadar-1939.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-confirms-Chinese-military-in-PoK/articleshow/8259346.cms

http://www.cfr.org/publication/10070/chinapakistan_relations.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1890205,00.html

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100507_pakistan_china_and_militant_connection

72 | © D L I F L C

Tajikistan

Pakistan was among the first countries to recognize the independence of Tajikistan, and relations

have remained friendly thereafter. Although the two countries do not share a border, they are

only separated by a 14-km (9-mi) sliver of Afghanistan, and share many cultural and historical

connections.387

Throughout the Tajikistan Civil War (1992–1997), Pakistan hosted tens of thousands of refugees

from Tajikistan. Many of these refugees have since returned to Tajikistan.388

Much of Central Asia‘s opiate drug traffic runs through Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The three governments try to work together to thwart such activity.389

As part of the Trilateral Transit Trade Agreement between Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan,

Pakistan has promised to provide Tajikistan with easy access to Pakistani ports. The agreement

also provides for the transmission of electric energy from Central Asia to Pakistan via

Afghanistan.390

Law and Order

Pakistan has the seventh-largest armed force in the world,

though it has insufficient training and out-of-date

equipment.391

One 2008 estimate placed its total strength,

including paramilitary forces and civilian personnel, at

approximately 900,000.392

Pakistan‘s armed forces include

its army, air force, and navy.

Army

The Pakistani Army is the largest of the armed forces at

619,000 members, with 528,000 in reserve.393

Their main

responsibilities are to protect Pakistan‘s borders, maintain border and internal security, and

defend the country‘s national interests.394

It is one of the most organized and powerful

institutions in the country, with control over Pakistan‘s political, social, and economic

resources.395

During the reign of Zia ul-Haq, the Pakistani Army became closely connected to

Islamic parties, whose support eventually allowed General Musharraf to become president as

387

Tajikistan Embassy to Pakistan, ―Tajikistan & Pakistan Relations and the Development of Tajikistan,‖ 2010,

http://www.tajikembassy.pk/pakistan-and-tajikitan-relation.aspx 388

Tajikistan Embassy to Pakistan, ―Tajikistan & Pakistan Relations and the Development of Tajikistan,‖ 2010,

http://www.tajikembassy.pk/pakistan-and-tajikitan-relation.aspx 389

Christopher M. Blanchard, Afghanistan: Narcotics and U.S. Policy (New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2009),

34–36. 390

Central Asia Newswire, ―Tajikistan Wins Preferred Access to Pakistani Ports,‖ 8 March 2011,

http://centralasianewswire.com/International/viewstory.aspx?id=3471 391


Pakistan,‖ 6 October 2010, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#defense 392

―Pakistan,‖ Military Technology 33, no. 1 (2009): 379–383. 393

Defence Pakistan, ―Pakistan Army,‖ 2011, http://www.defence.pk/pakistan-army/ 394

Defence Pakistan, ―Pakistan Army,‖ 2011, http://www.defence.pk/pakistan-army/ 395

C. Christine Fair, ―Why Pakistan‘s Army is Here to Stay: Prospects for Civilian Governance,‖ International

Affairs 87, no. 3 (2011): 571–588.

http://www.tajikembassy.pk/pakistan-and-tajikitan-relation.aspx

http://www.tajikembassy.pk/pakistan-and-tajikitan-relation.aspx

http://centralasianewswire.com/International/viewstory.aspx?id=3471

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3453.htm#defense

http://www.defence.pk/pakistan-army/

http://www.defence.pk/pakistan-army/

73 | © D L I F L C

well as Chief of Staff for the Army.396

The Pakistani Army frequently plays a major role in

humanitarian assistance during the natural disasters.

Air Force

The Pakistani Air Force was formed in 1947. It has

45,000 personnel including civilians, and 330 combat

aircraft. Pakistan‘s three regional commands are in the

northern, southern, and central regions of the country,

with headquarters in Peshawar, Karachi, and

Sargodha.397,

398, 399, 400

Navy

The Pakistani Navy is much smaller than the Army and Air Force, with 27,200 personnel,

including reserves, stationed in various squadrons according to ship type and their mission.401

The Navy‘s main duties are to defend Pakistan‘s coastline, territorial waters, offshore economic

resources, and to maintain Sea Lines of Communications.402

It also has an air component

headquartered at the Pakistan Naval Station Mehran near Karachi.403, 404

Police

In the current model, introduced by the British during

the colonial era, each province has a police force, and

these units take orders from the federal government only

on matters of national security.405

But today‘s Pakistani

Police Force has been poorly managed and trainined. It

was only in 2002 that all 1,250 police stations in

Pakistan had their own vehicles.

Estimates place the number of Pakistani police at about

350,000 for a population of nearly 185 million; clearly insufficient to meet the needs of the

citizenry. For example, Karachi, with a population of around 13 million, has only 29,000 police.

Not surprisingly, the city has one of the highest crime rates in the country. Terrorist

organizations have frequently targeted police personnel and facilities.406

396

Global Security, ―Pakistan Army,‖ n.d., http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/army.htm 397

Andrew Brookes, ―Pakistan Air Force,‖ Pakistan Defence, 2011, http://www.defence.pk/pakistan-air-force/ 398

Dawn, ―US Delivers 6 F-16 Aircraft to Pakistan,‖ 20 November 2010, http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/20/us-

delivers-six-f-16-aircraft-to-pakistan.html 399

Kanti Bajpai, ―India, US: Estranged Democracies?‖ Times of India, 30 April 2011,

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-30/edit-page/29487886_1_india-us-relations-upa-government-

low-point 400

―Pakistan,‖ Military Technology 33, no. 1 (2009): 383. 401

―Pakistan,‖ Military Technology 33, no. 1 (2009): 382. 402

Andrew Brookes, ―Pakistan Air Force,‖ Pakistan Defence, 2011, http://www.defence.pk/pakistan-air-force/ 403

GlobalSecurity, ―Pakistan Navy,‖ 2009, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/navy-intro.htm 404

―Pakistan,‖ Military Technology 33, no. 1 (2009): 382–383. 405

Punjab Police, Government of Punjab, ―Introduction: History,‖ 2010,

http://www.punjabpolice.gov.pk/page.asp?id=136 406

Jane‘s Defence, ―Security and Foreign Forces, Pakistan,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 21

April 2011.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/army.htm

http://www.defence.pk/pakistan-air-force/

http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/20/us-delivers-six-f-16-aircraft-to-pakistan.html

http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/20/us-delivers-six-f-16-aircraft-to-pakistan.html

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-30/edit-page/29487886_1_india-us-relations-upa-government-low-point

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-30/edit-page/29487886_1_india-us-relations-upa-government-low-point

http://www.defence.pk/pakistan-air-force/

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/navy-intro.htm

http://www.punjabpolice.gov.pk/page.asp?id=136

74 | © D L I F L C

In addition, the Pakistani police suffer from chronic corruption.407

As early as 1999, it was

reported that torture was routinely used by Pakistani police, and proper procedures for

interrogation were rarely followed.408

In 2001, the Asian Human Rights Commission stated that

the police force was used by influential people as a tool of oppression. Pakistani government

funding to pay the police force was limited, fueling the abuse of power, corruption, and

intimidation.409

The lack of money, abysmal morale, and a high desertion rate have contributed

to the increased strength of the Taliban. Increased aid and better salaries, although still low, have

raised public approval ratings.410

Frontier Corps (FC)

Serving under the Ministry of the Interior, Pakistan‘s Frontier Corps is deployed along the

Pakistan–Afghanistan border, with headquarters in Quetta and Peshawar. Although members of

the corps are typically recruited from the local population, officers are assigned from the

Pakistan Army. The FC‘s main tasks are border patrol and interdiction; however, they also assist

local law enforcement agencies.

FC units frequently serve in the vanguard of operations against insurgents and other militants in

the western provinces. They are poorly equipped and ill-trained for such operations, so both the

United States and the United Kingdom have provided training and aid for the organization.411, 412,

413

Current strength for the organization is estimated at 80,000 troops. The Pakistani government

intends to use Western aid to expand the FC and transform it into a counterterrorism force.414

407

Hassan Abbas, Police and Law Enforcement Reform in Pakistan: Crucial for Counterinsurgency and

Counterterrorism Success (Clinton, MI: Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, April 2009),

http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/18976/police_law_enforcement_reform_in_pakistan.html 408

Muddassir Rizvi, ―India/Pakistan: Torture is Routine Pakistani Police Procedure,‖ Asia Times Online, 10

December 1999, http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/AL10Df02.html 409

David Rohde, ―Threats and Responses: Law Enforcement; Pakistan‘s Police Force Struggles to Find the

Resources It Needs to Combat Terrorism,‖ New York Times, 30 September 2002,

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/30/world/threats-responses-law-enforcement-pakistan-s-police-force-struggles-

find.html 410

Paul Wiseman and Zafar M. Sheikh, ―Pakistani Police Underfunded, Overwhelmed,‖ USA Today, 5 May 2009,

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-05-05-pakistancops_N.htm 411

Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, Appendix, Budget of the United States

Government, Fiscal Year 2012 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2011), 337–338. 412

Jeremy Page, ―British Forces Train Pakistan‘s Frontier Corps to Fight al-Qaeda,‖ Sunday Times (UK), 21 March

2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5946916.ece 413

GlobalSecurity, ―Frontier Corps,‖ 19 February 2009,

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/pakistan/frontier-corps.htm 414


April 2011.

http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/18976/police_law_enforcement_reform_in_pakistan.html

http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/AL10Df02.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/30/world/threats-responses-law-enforcement-pakistan-s-police-force-struggles-find.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/30/world/threats-responses-law-enforcement-pakistan-s-police-force-struggles-find.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-05-05-pakistancops_N.htm

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5946916.ece

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/pakistan/frontier-corps.htm

75 | © D L I F L C

Intelligence Agencies

Pakistan has three major intelligence agencies: the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence

(ISI), the Intelligence Bureau, and the Military Intelligence. There is a high degree of rivalry and

tension between the three agencies, so they do not work closely together.415

To address this situation, and similar to reform in the U.S. intelligence community, Pakistan is

striving to create a more centralized intelligence structure with a new entity, the National

Counter Terrorism Authority, at the head of the intelligence bureaucracy. Its task would be to

assure greater cooperation between the agencies. But the government has been unable to pass

legislation to allow the new organization to operate.416

Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)

This agency is by far the strongest of the Pakistani

intelligence agencies. Its core responsibilities involve

covert surveillance, collection of foreign and domestic

intelligence, and covert operations. The ISI has used its

ties to drug dealers and Islamic extremists to influence

events in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Kashmir

region of India. As the Taliban began to threaten the

government‘s existence in 2009, however, the ISI

increased its cooperation with American intelligence

officials by joining forces to conduct raids and bombings, even as each side sought conflicting

long-range goals.417, 418

Military Intelligence (MI)

MI, which ostensibly was charged solely with military matters, gained importance during the

Musharraf regime and encroached upon the responsibilities typically assigned to the rival ISI. MI

has become increasingly influential in internal security and domestic political matters.419

Intelligence Bureau (IB)

Reporting directly to the prime minister, the IB is tasked with ―national police affairs and

counterintelligence.420, 421

The agency has frequently been used by military and civilian regimes

to target rivals and manipulate elections.422

415

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace, 2005), 110. 416


April 2011. 417

GlobalSecurity, ―Intelligence: Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI],‖ 26 April 2005,

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/pakistan/isi.htm 418

New York Times, ―Inter-Services Intelligence,‖ 11 May 2010,

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/i/interservices_intelligence/index.html?scp=3&sq

=is%20musharraf%20a%20pashtun&st=cse 419

STRATFOR, ―Pakistan: Military Intelligence, Politics and the Jihadist Struggle,‖ 26 February 2008,

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/pakistan_military_intelligence_politics_and_jihadist_struggle 420

Peter Lyon, Conflict Between India and Pakistan: An Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008), 84. 421

PakistaniDefence, ―Overview of the Intelligence Services,‖ n.d.,

http://www.pakistanidefence.com/Info/Intelligence.html 422

Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011), 210–211.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/pakistan/isi.htm

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/i/interservices_intelligence/index.html?scp=3&sq=is%20musharraf%20a%20pashtun&st=cse

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/i/interservices_intelligence/index.html?scp=3&sq=is%20musharraf%20a%20pashtun&st=cse

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/pakistan_military_intelligence_politics_and_jihadist_struggle

http://www.pakistanidefence.com/Info/Intelligence.html

76 | © D L I F L C

Issues Affecting Internal Stability

Militant Groups

Numerous extremist and terrorist groups, ranging from

local organizations to transnational networks, operate in

Pakistan. Al-Qaeda, the most well-known of these groups,

operates mainly along the border of Afghanistan in the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the Federally

Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and Balochistan.

Insurgents are strong enough today to spread their

influence and to target areas in major urban centers and in military and government installations.

Terrorist incidents arising from ethnic strife, Sunni–Shi‘a tensions, and militant sub-nationalists

have become more sophisticated, coordinated, and frequent since 2007. The government has

made efforts at peace, but also has conducted military offensives such as those in the Swat

Valley and Waziristan. The Pashtun tribal areas adjacent to the Afghanistan border continue to

be a particular security concern. In the annual report on terrorism released in April 2009, the U.S.

State Department labeled much of Pakistan as ―safe havens for AQ [al-Qaeda] terrorists, Afghan

insurgents, and other terrorist groups.‖423

The Pakistani military continues to confront the Taliban and other militant groups in northwest

Pakistan. The American military has used drone attacks to target militants in that region over the

last several years.

Islamist Groups

Al-Qaeda is pan-Islamic in its scope, aiming at the reestablishment of the caliphate and the

creation of Islamic states throughout the Muslim world. To date, it has proved to be the most

lethal and wide ranging of terrorist organizations. Many top-level operatives have been captured

or killed. It is believed that many leading figures of the organization are hiding in Pakistan.424

Another important Islamist group closely associated with al-Qaeda is Tehrik-e-Taliban, an

umbrella organization of the Taliban groups in the region. A U.S. missile killed the former

Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in Waziristan. Mehsud‘s fighters, Tehrik-e-Taliban,

have been blamed for the subsequent wave of terrorist bomb attacks in October 2009.425

More

than 150 people died in 5 separate incidents in 12 days.426

The group is also linked to the failed

car bombing in Times Square in New York City in 2010.427

423

Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State, ―Chapter 2. Country Reports: South

and Central Asia Overview,‖ 5 August 2010, http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/140887.htm 424

Jane‘s Defence, ―Non-State Armed Groups, Pakistan,‖ Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment—South Asia, 26

April 2011. 425

BBC News, ―Q and A: Militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan,‖ 20 October 2009,


BBC News, ―Deadly Bomb Shakes Pakistani City,‖ 16 October 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8310117.stm 427


April 2011.

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/140887.htm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8310117.stm

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Under the leadership of Hakimullah Mehsud, previously noted for his attacks on NATO convoys

and the capture of hundreds of Pakistani soldiers, the Tehrik-e-Taliban remains a viable and

deadly force.428, 429

Sectarian Groups

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a Sunni terrorist group aimed

at creating a Sunni Islamic state in Pakistan. Its

leadership is drawn from mujahidin who fought the

Soviet Union in Afghanistan. They are anti-Shi‘ite and

have frequently attacked Shi‘ite minorities in Pakistan.430

On 14 October 2010, Pakistani police in Multan arrested

members of the group who were planning to assassinate

Prime Minister Gilani.431

The group had previously

threatened to carry out similar attacks against then-Prime

Minister Nawaz Sharif.432

By contrast, Sipah-e-Mohammed, or Soldiers of Muhammad, is a Shi‘ite organization that seeks

to establish a Shi‘ite Islamic state in Pakistan. Other aims of the organization focus on the

liberation of Shi‘ite communities in other countries.433

The group targets law enforcement

officials and Sunnis.434

Ethnic Nationalist Groups

A number of organizations operate in Balochistan and Kashmir with the intent of creating a

separate ethnic homeland or gaining greater autonomy for their people. Among the Baluchi, the

Balochistan Liberation Army, Baluch People‘s Liberation Front, Baluch Republican Army,

Lashkar-e-Balochistan, Baluch Students‘ Organization—Awami, and Baluch Mussalah Difa

Organization are a few of the more prominent groups. In general, these groups aim at carving an

independent Balochistan from Baluchi majority areas in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.435

These groups claim to have made significant progress in recruiting new members in recent years,

and on 16 April 2011, they attacked a regional gas pipeline, rendering it inoperable. In what

428

BBC News, ―Profile: Hakimullah Mehsud,‖ 3 May 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8219223.stm 429


April 2011. 430


April 2011. 431

South Asia Terrorism Portal, ―Lashkar-e-Jhangvi,‖ 2011,

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/lej.htm 432

John R. Hinnells and Richard King, eds., Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice (New York:

Routledge, 2007), 156. 433

South Asia Terrorism Portal, ―Sipah-e-Mohammed Pakistan, Terrorist Group of Pakistan,‖ 2011,

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/SMP.htm 434


April 2011. 435

South Asia Terrorism Portal, ―Balocistan Assessment—2011,‖ 2011,

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/Balochistan/index.html

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/lej.htm

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/SMP.htm

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/Balochistan/index.html

78 | © D L I F L C

seemed to be a response to this attack, the Pakistan Army withdrew from the related gas fields

and handed security for the area to the Frontier Corps.436

In Kashmir, the key groups include Harakat-ul-Mujahideen (Movement of Holy Warriors),

Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure), and Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Muhammad). Although

these organizations differ in their aims for Kashmir, they all perceive their main enemy to be

India. They have carried out attacks in that country from safe havens inside Pakistan and

Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Tactics include suicide bombings, assassinations, car bombings,

and similar terror techniques.437, 438

Water Security

Water—specifically, the lack of access to safe drinking

water—is a critical issue in Pakistan.439

Since water

scarcity is a regional issue, water rights disputes have

led to conflicts between neighboring countries.440

At the

current rate of usage, Pakistan is expected to reach

water-famine status by 2020. By 2015, water shortage

will stop farming, the primary economic activity of

about 70% of the population. At any time, Pakistan only

has 30 days of stored river water, and, along with India

and China, harvests most of its water.441

Pakistan‘s economy and population rely almost entirely

on the snowmelt into the Indus River system from mountains in India. Its availability and quality

determines food security, economic growth, energy production, and human health.

The Indus Treaty of 1960 split the Punjab rivers between Pakistan and India. Though it allocates

the eastern parts of the rivers to India and the western parts of the rivers to Pakistan, Indian dams

built on the eastern rivers divert the waters and reduce water flow to Pakistan.442, 443

On the

western side of Pakistan‘s border, the Kabul River, emanating from Afghanistan, is facing

increased demand for infrastructure development and population growth.444

436


April 2011. 437

South Asia Terrorism Portal, ―Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of the Prophet),‖ 2011,

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/jandk/terrorist_outfits/jaish_e_mohammad_mujahideen_e_tanze

em.htm 438


April 2011. 439

Claudia Parsons, ―Asia Must Tackle Water Security Threat—Report,‖ Reuters, 17 April 2009,

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/04/17/idUSN17333558 440

Rakhika Viswanathan, ―Water Security and the Politicisation of Water in India,‖ Climatico, 29 January 2009,

http://www.climaticoanalysis.org/post/water-security-and-the-politicisation-of-water-in-india/ 441

Sanjeev Miglani, ―Pakistan‘s Cry for Water,‖ in Pakistan: Now or Never? Perspectives on Pakistan (blog),

Reuters, 26 August 2009 http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2009/08/26/pakistans-cry-for-water/ 442

OneIndia News, ―Pakistan Questions India on Kishanganga Dam,‖ 13 April 2009,

http://news.oneindia.in/2009/04/13/pakquestions-construction-of-kishan-ganga-dam-by-india.html 443

P. Stobdan, ―IDSA Comment: Pakistan‘s Water Wars with India?‖ Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, 13

February 2009, http://www.idsa.in/idsastrategiccomments/PakistansWaterWarswithIndia_PStobdan_130209 444

Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security, ―Management of the Kabul River and

Afghanistan‘s Relations with Pakistan,‖ 28 May 2009,

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/jandk/terrorist_outfits/jaish_e_mohammad_mujahideen_e_tanzeem.htm

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/jandk/terrorist_outfits/jaish_e_mohammad_mujahideen_e_tanzeem.htm

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/04/17/idUSN17333558

http://www.climaticoanalysis.org/post/water-security-and-the-politicisation-of-water-in-india/

http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2009/08/26/pakistans-cry-for-water/

http://news.oneindia.in/2009/04/13/pakquestions-construction-of-kishan-ganga-dam-by-india.html

http://www.idsa.in/idsastrategiccomments/PakistansWaterWarswithIndia_PStobdan_130209

79 | © D L I F L C

Looking Forward

U.S. officials believe Pakistan must do more to find,

weaken, and capture militants, especially the Taliban

leadership in Quetta, as well as those who are supplying

their brethren in Afghanistan.445

Pakistani security

services and coalition forces have cooperated in border

security, criminal investigations, and other long-term

projects to fight militancy in Pakistan and abroad.

Pakistan has arrested or detained over 50 members of

Lashkar-e-Taiba believed to be responsible for the

Mumbai attacks that killed 174 in November 2008.446

But it appears that the group, previously

active primarily in the disputed area of Kashmir, has extended the scope of its activities. In April

2011, U.S. Admiral Robert Willard testified before the Senate Armed Services that Lashkar-e-

Taiba had carried out attacks in India and Afghanistan. He stated they also were responsible for

providing materiel for a series of bombings in 2004 and 2005 in Bangladesh.447

In April 2011, Prime Minister Gilani urged visiting members of the U.S. Congress to convince

the Obama administration to share unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology with his country.

He claimed this would enable Pakistan to take a more active role in the fight against terrorists

operating in Pakistan, and reiterated his request that the U.S. refrain from using its UAVs to

carry out such attacks inside Pakistan. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense indicated that it

is open to the idea of providing Pakistan with such weaponry.448

http://www.parliamentariansforconflictprevention.net/meeting/management-kabul-river-and-

afghanistan%E2%80%99s-relations-pakistan 445

Jayshree Bajoria, ―Pakistan‘s New Generation of Terrorists‖ (background report, Council on Foreign Relations),

26 October 2009, http://www.cfr.org/publication/15422/ 446

Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State, ―Chapter 2. Country Reports: South

and Central Asia Overview,‖ 30 April 2009, http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2008/122434.htm 447

Jane‘s Defence, ―US Warns of Pakistani Militant Group‘s International Ambitions,‖ Jane’s Intelligence Weekly,

20 April 2011. 448

Jon Grevatt, ―Pakistan Calls for UAV Purchase to Engender Military Independence,‖ Jane’s Asia—Pacific

Industry Reporter, 19 April 2011.

http://www.parliamentariansforconflictprevention.net/meeting/management-kabul-river-and-afghanistan%E2%80%99s-relations-pakistan

http://www.parliamentariansforconflictprevention.net/meeting/management-kabul-river-and-afghanistan%E2%80%99s-relations-pakistan

http://www.cfr.org/publication/15422/

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2008/122434.htm

80 | © D L I F L C

The 2011 acquittal of a Central Intelligence Agency contractor accused of murder in Pakistan

failed to produce a thaw between the United States and Pakistan. Rather, the act further alienated

the unpopular government of Prime Minister Gilani and President Zardari from the public.

Repeated U.S. UAV attacks against terrorist targets in Pakistan and the May 2011 covert

operation to kill Osama bin Laden have strained the fragile relationship more. This situation is

exacerbated by the fact that Pakistan‘s civilian government exerts little control over its

military.449, 450

All of this has led to a general concern about the stability of the Pakistani government and the

growing belief that a new general election or military coup is likely.451

449

Jane‘s Defence, ―US Relations with Pakistan Under Strain Again,‖ Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, 19 April 2011. 450

Jane Perlez and Ismail Khan, ―Pakistan Tells U.S. It Must Sharply Cut C.I.A. Activities,‖ New York Times, 11

April 2011,

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/world/asia/12pakistan.html?_r=1&scp=49&sq=pakistan%20intelligence&st=c

se 451

C. Christine Fair and Shuja Nawaz, ―The Changing Pakistan Army Officer Corps,‖ Journal of Strategic Studies

34, no. 1 (February 2011): 63–94.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/world/asia/12pakistan.html?_r=1&scp=49&sq=pakistan%20intelligence&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/world/asia/12pakistan.html?_r=1&scp=49&sq=pakistan%20intelligence&st=cse

81 | © D L I F L C


1. Prior to the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

True

For years, Pakistan had supported the predominantly Pashtun Taliban government in

neighboring Afghanistan. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan renounced its

relationship with the Taliban. Still, many Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters found refuge in

Pakistan, fleeing U.S. and allied forces after the ouster of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

2. Despite changes in the leadership, U.S.–Pakistan relations have remained completely

harmonious.

False

The United States has increasingly criticized Pakistan‘s efforts to suppress the Taliban. The

U.S. government has been especially persistent in demanding that Pakistan launch an

offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the North Waziristan region.

3. Relations between Pakistan and India are friendly.

False

The two have fought three major wars against one another, and they still dispute the area of

Kashmir. Militants based in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir frequently launch

terrorist attacks against sites in India.

4. Pakistan and China enjoy close military and diplomatic relations.

True

In 1950, Pakistan was one of the first non-Communist countries to recognize the People‘s

Republic of China, and diplomatic relations between the two have been generally good.

5. Pakistan‘s has one of the smallest armed forces in the world.

False

Pakistan has the seventh-largest armed force in the world, though it has insufficient training

and out-of-date equipment. A 2008 estimate placed its total strength, including paramilitary

forces and civilian personnel, at approximately 900,000.

82 | © D L I F L C

Final Assessment

1. One of the biggest environmental concerns in Pakistan is water quality. True or False?

2. Karachi is the only Pakistani city with a population in excess of 1 million people.

True or False?

3. The partition of British India into the independent countries of Pakistan and India had a

tremendous impact upon the demographics of Pakistani cities. True or False?

4. The recurring wars in Afghanistan have profoundly affected the demographics in the city of

Peshawar. True or False?

5. Pakistan enjoys a tropical climate with ample rainfall. True or False?

6. The Mason-Dixon Line has served as the demarcation between Afghanistan and Pakistan

since the late 19th century. True or False?

7. Political disagreements and personal rivalries split the Hindu and Muslim communities

during the years leading up to and following independence in 1947. True or False?

8. The Partition of British India into the independent countries of Pakistan and India caused

great violence and mass migrations. True or False?

9. Pakistan has been a model of democratic governance in an otherwise chaotic region.

True or False?

10. Pakistan–United States relations are strong and warm. True or False?

11. Pakistan, an oil producing nation, provides for its domestic use and exports excess supplies

of petroleum-based products. True or False?

12. The perception among Balochis that the Pakistani government exploits the vast natural

resources of the region is a chief motivation of unrest in the region. True or False?

13. Foreign direct investment, which first began to grow in the early 2000s, has continued to do

so in recent years. True or False?

14. Pakistan‘s unemployment rate has remained in the single digits. True or False?

15. The Pakistani government has actively pursued the privatization of government assets.

True or False?

16. The vast majority of Pakistanis are Hindu. True or False?

17. In terms of gender relations, Pakistan has a largely egalitarian society. True or False?

83 | © D L I F L C

18. It is not uncommon in major urban areas to see Pakistanis wearing Western clothes.

True or False?

19. Unlike other South Asian cuisine, Pakistani cooking is noted for its uniform blandness.

True or False?

20. The majority of Muslims in Pakistan are Shi‘ites. True or False?

21. Much of Pakistan‘s military hardware is outdated. True or False?

22. Pakistan‘s police force is woefully understaffed and has frequently been cited for human

rights violations. True or False?

23. The Frontier Corps‘ main tasks are border patrol and interdiction. True or False?

24. The U.S. government has insinuated that the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence is in

league with the Taliban and associated militant organizations. True or False?

25. Over the last several years, the Pakistani military has been successful in eradicating most

militant organizations operating in the country. True or False?

84 | © D L I F L C

Further Reading

Abbas, Hassan. Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America’s War on Terror.

Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2005.

Bhutto, Benazir. Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. New York: Harper, 2008.

Gerolymatos, André. ―Pakistan‘s Inter-Services Intelligence and Organized Terror in South

Asia.‖ In Castles Made of Sand: A Century of Anglo-American Espionage and Intervention in

the Middle East. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010.

Haqqani, Husain. Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military. Washington, DC: Carnegie

Endowment for International Peace and Brookings Institution Press, 2005.

Hussein, Zahid. Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam. New York: Columbia

University Press, 2007.

Jones, Seth G., and C. Christine Fair. Counterinsurgency in Pakistan. Santa Monica, CA: Rand

Corporation, 2010.

Menon, Ritu, and Kamla Bhasin. Borders & Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition. New

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.

Mines, Diane P., and Sarah Lamb, eds. Everyday Life in South Asia, 2nd ed. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press, 2010.

Sarin, Victor, Patricia Finn, Tina Pehme, et al. Partition. Woodland Hills, CA: Distributed by

Allumination FilmWorks, 2007.

Shaikh, Farzana. Making Sense of Pakistan. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.