Pakistan

The Indus Valley around Pakistan was home to one of the world's first urban civilisations more than four thousand years ago, with sophisticated cities such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. In the centuries that followed the region saw Persian, Greek, and Buddhist Gandharan cultures, before Islam arrived and, under the Mughal Empire, flourished across the subcontinent. British colonial rule gave way in 1947 to the partition of British India, which created Pakistan as a separate Muslim-majority state, a birth accompanied by mass migration and terrible violence.

Pakistan's landscape rises from the Arabian Sea coast and the flat, fertile plains of the Indus, the river that has nourished life here since antiquity, to some of the highest mountains on Earth in the north, where the Karakoram and Himalayas meet. The country holds K2, the second highest peak in the world, alongside vast glaciers, while to the west lie dry plateaus and deserts. The Indus and its tributaries remain the lifeline of a largely arid land.

The flag of Pakistan is dark green with a white crescent moon and five-pointed star, and a vertical white stripe at the hoist. The green field and the crescent and star represent Islam and the Muslim majority for whom the state was created, while the white stripe stands for the country's religious minorities. Together the design expresses the idea of a Muslim homeland that also makes a place for those of other faiths.

Pakistan was founded as a homeland for Muslims, and Islam is central to its identity and law, with the great majority of the population following the Sunni tradition and a significant Shia minority. The faith shapes the rhythm of daily life, festivals, and public affairs. Small communities of Christians, Hindus, and others remain from the subcontinent's diverse heritage. The role of Islam in the state and society is a defining and sometimes contested feature of national life.

Pakistani cuisine is rich, aromatic, and generous with spices, sharing much with the cooking of northern India and the Mughal courts. Slow-cooked meat dishes, kebabs, and the fragrant layered rice of biryani are centrepieces, eaten with flatbreads such as naan and roti. Lentils, yogurt, and a wealth of spices give the food its depth, and sweet milky tea, along with rich desserts, accompany a culture of warm hospitality and shared meals.

Agriculture is a cornerstone of Pakistan's economy, sustained by one of the largest irrigation systems in the world, fed by the Indus. The country is a major producer of wheat, the dietary staple, along with rice, including prized basmati, cotton that supplies a large textile industry, and sugarcane. The fertile Punjab plains are the agricultural heartland. Water management, as the population grows and the climate changes, is one of the nation's most pressing challenges.

The partition of 1947 that created Pakistan, driven by the leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was one of the largest and most painful migrations in history. In 1971 the country's eastern wing broke away after a war to become Bangladesh. Pakistan has since become a nuclear-armed power and has lived through cycles of civilian and military rule, while remaining a key actor in the politics of a turbulent region.

Pakistan has a population of well over 240 million people, the fifth largest in the world, and it is young and growing rapidly. The nation is a mosaic of peoples, including Punjabis, Sindhis, Pashtuns, and Baloch, each with their own language and traditions, united by Islam and by Urdu as the national language. The population is concentrated along the Indus and in great cities such as Karachi, the largest, and the cultural centre of Lahore.