Pakistan

Pakistan is the land of the Indus. The river comes down from the northern mountains and crosses the whole country to the Arabian Sea, and with its tributaries it waters Punjab, the ‘land of five rivers’, and Sindh through one of the largest irrigation networks on earth. The Hindu Kush rises in the north-west, where the Khyber Pass leads towards Afghanistan; Balochistan in the west is all dry ranges and plateaus; and the sands of the Thar and Cholistan deserts reach across the south-east.

Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, great centres of the Indus Valley Civilisation, had planned streets and drains more than four thousand years ago. Later the region was the heart of Gandhara, where Greek and Buddhist art met around Taxila, and Islam reached Sindh with the Arab conquest of 711. Muslim dynasties ruled from Lahore and Delhi, and Ranjit Singh’s Sikh Empire held Punjab until the British annexed it in 1849. Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s movement created Pakistan in August 1947, and its eastern wing became Bangladesh in 1971.

Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki and Balochi are each spoken by millions. Sufi shrines such as Data Darbar in Lahore and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s tomb at Sehwan draw devotees to qawwali and the drumming dance of dhamaal, and cricket is a national passion. Cotton runs through the economy, grown in Punjab and Sindh and turned into the textiles that lead exports. Sialkot makes footballs and surgical instruments, and remittances from the Gulf and Britain support many families.