PAKISTAN, FLAG OF

national flag consisting of a green field with a large white crescent and star; at the hoist end is a vertical white stripe. The flag's width-to-length ratio is 2 to 3. When the independence struggle in British-dominated India began, many Muslims preferred to create a new state where they would be the majority. Therefore the All India Muslim League was founded as part of the broader movement toward Indian independence. At their first meeting, held on December 30, 1906, in what is today Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, they approved the Muslim League flag. Its green background and white star and crescent symbol were widely recognized as Islamic emblems. The star and crescent, adopted by Muslim states from earlier usage, today provide a striking Islamic symbol frequently found on flags, on buildings, and in the visual arts. At midnight on August 14/15, 1947, Pakistan became independent under a national flag that differed from that of the Muslim League only in having a white vertical stripe at the hoist. It was explained that white represented all the colours in the spectrum and therefore appropriately stood for all minority religious groups in the country. Green and white were further seen as symbols of prosperity and peace; the crescent was referred to as a symbol of progress; and the star was called an emblem of knowledge and light. No change was made in the flag when Pakistan became a republic nor when the eastern half of the country separated in 1972 to become Bangladesh. Whitney Smith History Background to partition The concept of a separate Muslim nation or people, qaum, is inherent in Islam, but this concept bears no resemblance to a territorial entity. The proposal for a Muslim state in India was first enunciated in 1930 by the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, who suggested that the four northwestern provinces (Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, and the North-West Frontier Province) should be joined in such a state. In a 1933 pamphlet Choudhary Rahmat Ali, a Cambridge student, coined the name Pakstan (later Pakistan), on behalf of those Muslims living in Punjab, Afghan (North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Sind, and Balochistan. Alternatively the name was said to mean Land of the Pure. Hugh Russell Tinker The Muslim League and Mohammed Ali Jinnah The movement among the Muslim population of the India-Pakistan subcontinent that culminated in the creation of Pakistan stemmed from the historical fact that, for more than six centuries before the effective domination of the British in India, Muslim soldiers and administrators had controlled a population in which Hindus were a numerical majority, although mass conversions to Islam in economically backward areas like East Bengal (Bangladesh) produced local Muslim majorities. When the British replaced Muslim domination by their own, the tradition of rule prevented the Muslims from adapting themselves to the new situation as readily as the Hindus; but the failure of the risings of 1857 dashed Muslim hopes of a restoration of their authority. Later, while Hindus were pressing for constitutional reform through the Indian National Congress, the Muslims sought various guarantees to safeguard their minority position and finally founded their own political organization, the All-India Muslim League, at Dacca in 1906. For a more complete discussion of Pakistan under British rule and the history of Pakistan before British domination see India, history of. The gradual clarification of the British intention to grant self-government to India along the lines of British parliamentary democracy aroused Muslim apprehensions regarding ultimate political subjection to the Hindu majority. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, as eager as any Hindu nationalist to bring British rule to an end, was at length driven to the conclusion that the only way to preserve Indian Muslims from complete subordination to the Hindus was to establish a separate Muslim state. By 1940 the demand for Pakistan had been formally endorsed by the Muslim League under his leadership. British policy, supported by the weight of the Hindu nationalist movement, laboured hard to avoid disrupting the economic and political unity built up during British rule. None of the suggested alternatives to separation of Pakistan commended themselves to Jinnah, whose leadership of the bulk of the community was unchallenged; without his cooperationof which the price was PakistanIndian independence was impracticable. His courage and implacable determination triumphed in the end. The economy Pakistan operates a mixed economy in which the state-owned enterprises (including industrial corporations, trading houses, banks, insurance companies, institutions of higher learning, medical schools and hospitals, and transport companies) account for nearly half of the gross national product (GNP). In addition, the state, with the help of an intricate system of industrial licensing and trade regulations, controls new private investments. The state also has at its disposal labour, health, and tax laws to oversee the functioning of the private sector. The balance between the public and private sectors of the economy was altered in favour of the former in 197274 as a result of a series of nationalization measures. Until then, and unlike most other developing countries, Pakistan had regarded the private sector as the leading sector of the economy. The economy, which was primarily agricultural at the time of independence, is now considerably diversified. Agriculture, although still the largest sector, now contributes less than one-fourth of the GNP, while manufacturing provides almost one-fifth. In terms of the structure of its economy, Pakistan resembles the middle-income countries of East and Southeast Asia more than the poor nations of the Indian subcontinent. Economic performance compares favourably with that of many other developing countries; the GNP has increased at an average rate of more than 5 percent a year since independence. At the same time, there has been a relentless increase in population, so that, despite a real growth in the economy, output per capita has risen slowly. By 1990 Pakistan's economy was four times as large as it was at the time of independence in 1947, its population was three and a half times as large, and its per capita income was twice as large. In general, although the GNP per capita is relatively low, Pakistan does not have a high incidence of absolute poverty (the level below which a minimally adequate diet and other essential requirements are not affordable); the proportion of the population living in absolute poverty is considerably smaller than in other South Asian countries. The relative prosperity of the industrialized regions around Karachi and Lahore contrasts sharply with the poverty of the Punjab's barani areas, the semiarid Balochistan, and the North-West Frontier Province. One of the paradoxes of Pakistan's economic situation is that, in spite of a healthy increase in its GNP and in spite of its success in alleviating the worst forms of poverty, it has continued to experience a very low level of social development. The social status of Pakistani women is particularly low. The country has a high rate of infant mortality, losing before they reach one year of age more than 100 children out of every 1,000 born; its maternal mortality rate, at 6 per 1,000 live births, is among the highest in the world; the rate of literacy, with only one of every seven women able to read and write, is very low compared to that of other developing countries. A system of medium-term planning was introduced in 1958 with the belated publication of the first five-year plan (195560). In the following decades a series of five-year plans were formulated, but these met with varying degrees of success. During the 1980s a movement toward an Islamic economy was announced by the Pakistani government. This movement involved the purging of economic practices outlawed by Muslim theology, such as riba (interest), and the mandatory reinstatement of the zakat (an annual tax on several types of personal financial assets that is used to provide aid for the poor) and the ushr (the zakat on land), which had not been universally adhered to but remained central tenets of Islamic law. General Zia had promised further Islamization of the economy, but he died before these steps could be taken. Under Benazir Bhutto, his successor, the Islamization movement slowed, although the government was obliged to keep on the books most of the legislation enacted during the Zia period. Taxation accounts for more than three-quarters of government revenue, and government expenditures exceed revenues by a large amount. Income tax rates have been comparatively high, but the tax base has been so small that individual and corporate income tax revenues have remained substantially less than excise, sales, and other indirect taxes. The government has been able to maintain heavy expenditure on development and defense because of the inflow of foreign aid and the remittances sent by Pakistanis working abroad. In the 1970s and '80s external capital inflows were equivalent to as much as one-tenth of the GNP and financed well over half of the total domestic investment. In allowing this dependence on foreign capital to persist, however, the country has accumulated an enormous foreign debt, the financing of which has been a major problem. The trade union movement dates to the late 19th century, but, because Pakistan's industrial sector (inherited at independence) was so small, organized labour as a proportion of total employment is still in a minority. This has not prevented it from becoming an important political force. Before the 1971 civil war, there were well over 1,000 registered unions, most of them organized within individual establishments. Countrywide unions based on a common craft or industry were very few. Most of the unions were situated in the urban centres and were affiliated to one of three national labour confederations. After the civil war and the emergence of Bangladesh, the number of unions declined to a few hundred, affiliated to one umbrella organization, the Pakistan National Federation of Trade Unions. Because of the high rates of unemployment, employers remained in a strong position, and many of them were able to bypass working agreements and laws. Only the unions in the bigger industries (e.g., cotton textiles) had the necessary coherence to fight back. Labour laws introduced in 1972 met some of the demands (job security, social welfare, pensions) of organized labour but also sought to control political activity by industrial workers. Labour union activity was severely constrained by the military government of 197788 but was revived by the administration of Benazir Bhutto. Mineral resources The exploration of Pakistan's mineral wealth is far from complete, but more than 20 different types of minerals have been located. Coal mining is one of the country's oldest industries. The quality of the coal is poor, and the mines work below capacity because of the lack of demand. Iron ore deposits are also mostly of poor quality. The most extensive known reserves are situated in the Kalabagh region in western Punjab. Other low-grade ore reserves have been found in Hazara in the North-West Frontier Province. Small reserves of high-grade iron ore have been identified in Chitral and in the Chilghazi area (located in northwestern Balochistan), also in the North-West Frontier Province. Deposits of copper ore, equaling or surpassing the reserves of iron ore, have been located, but most sites remain unexploited. There are enormous reserves of easily exploited limestone that form the basis of a growing cement industry, the largest component of the manufacturing sector. Other minerals that are exploited include chromite (mostly for export), barite (a white, yellow, or colourless mineral resembling marble), celestite (strontium sulfate), antimony, aragonite (a mineral resembling calcite [calcium carbonate]), gypsum, rock salt, and marble. Radioactive minerals have been found in southwestern Punjab. Pakistan also has small quantities of oil and some very large natural gas fields. The first oil discovery was made in 1915. Pakistan intensified the search for oil and natural gas in the 1980s and was rewarded with the discovery of a number of new oil fields in the Potwar Plateau region and in Sindh. The oil fields near Badin, in Sindh, are particularly promising. Oil fulfills a substantial portion of Pakistan's energy requirements, and the search for new and richer fields has continued. The largest natural gas deposits are at Sui (on the border between Balochistan and the Punjab), discovered in 1953. A smaller field, at Mari, in the northeast of Sindh province, was found in 1957. A number of smaller natural gas fields were discovered in the 1980s. A network of gas pipelines links the fields with the main consumption areas: Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad (Lyallpur), and Islamabad. The land Relief and drainage Pakistan is situated at the western end of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, which is bounded to the north by the mountain wall of the Great Himalayan mountain ranges and their offshoots. It is situated in the northwestern part of the southern Asian subcontinent and may be divided into six natural regionsthe northern mountains, the submontane plateau, the Indus Plain, the Balochistan Plateau, the western bordering mountains, and the desert areas. The northern mountains The western ranges of the Himalayan mountains occupy the entire northern end of Pakistan, extending about 200 miles (320 kilometres) into the country; they are among the youngest mountains on Earth, having attained their present elevation only within the past one million years. Four of the peaks exceed an elevation of 26,000 feet (8,000 metres), and most rise to heights of more than 15,000 feet. These include such towering peaks as Nanga Parbat (26,660 feet [8,126 metres]; located in Jammu and Kashmir) and K2, also called Godwin Austen (28,251 feet [8,611 metres]). Beyond the Karakoram Range in the extreme north lies the Chinese Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang; to the northwest, beyond the Hindu Kush, are the Pamirsthe Roof of the Worldwhere only a narrow strip of Afghan territory separates Pakistan from Tajikistan. The Himalayan massif (mountainous mass) that isolates the South Asian subcontinent from Central Asia was pierced in 1970 when a road was completed across the Karakoram Range, linking the town of Gilgit in Pakistan with Kashgar in Sinkiang, China. This road carries considerable commerce between Pakistan and China. The northern mountain barrier influences the rainfall pattern in Pakistan by intercepting monsoon (rain-bearing) winds from the south. Melting snow from the mountains also feeds rivers, including the Indus, which emerge from the east-west aligned ranges to flow southward. The population in this inhospitable region is generally sparse, although in a few favoured places it is dense. In most of the tiny settlements of this region, the usual crop is barley; fruit culture, especially of apricots, is of special importance. Timber, mainly pine, is found in some parts, but its occurrence varies with rainfall and altitude. Many slopes have been denuded of cover by excessive timber felling and overgrazing. The people Ethnic composition Race as such plays little part in defining regional or group identity in Pakistan, and no ideal racial type is accepted by all Pakistanis. The population is a complex mixture of indigenous peoples, many racial types having been introduced by successive waves of migrations from the northwest, as well as by internal migrations across the subcontinent of India. Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Pathans (Pashtuns), and Mughals came from the northwest and spread across the Indo-Gangetic Plain, while the Arabs conquered Sindh. All left their mark on the population and culture of the land. During the long period of Muslim rule, immigrants from the Middle East were brought in and installed as members of the ruling oligarchy. It became prestigious to claim descent from them, and many members of the landed gentry and of upper-class families are either actually or putatively descended from such immigrants. In 1947, when Pakistan and India became independent, there was another massive migration, of a different character, when millions of Muslim refugees were uprooted from different parts of India and settled in Pakistan; an equal number of Hindus were uprooted from Pakistan and driven across to India. This development further complicated the racial mixture of the population of the various regions of Pakistan. By the early 1990s Pakistan's population was divided into five ethnic groups, defined broadly. The Punjabis constitute the majority, with more than 55 percent of the population; the Sindhis account for another 20 percent, the Pathans and the mujahirs for about 10 percent each, and the Balochs for about 5 percent. There are subgroups within each of these five categories. The Arains, Rajputs, and Jatsall Punjabisregard themselves as ethnically distinct. Some groups overlap the five categories: for instance, there are Punjabi Pathans as well as Hazarvi Pathans. Some smaller groups, such as the Brohis in Sindh and the Seraikis in Punjab, are also ethnically distinct. Linguistic composition Pakistan is in general linguistically heterogeneous, and no single language can be said to be common to the whole population. Each of its principal languages has a strong regional focus, although statistics show some languages to be distributed between various provinces because administrative boundaries cut across linguistic regions. The picture is also complicated by the fact that, especially in Sindh, there are substantial numbers of Urdu- and Punjabi-speaking immigrants (muhajirs) who moved from India following partition. The languages claimed as mother tongue include Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, and Brahui. Urdu is the youngest of the nation's languages and is not indigenous to Pakistan; it is very similar to Hindi, an official language of India. Although the two languages have a common base, in its literary form Urdu emphasizes words of Persian and Arabic origin, whereas Hindi emphasizes words of Sanskrit origin. Urdu is written in a modified version of the Persian script (written from right to left), whereas Hindi is written in Devanagari script from left to right. Because it is preeminently the language of the educated Muslims of northern India, including the Punjab, Urdu has strong associations with Muslim nationalism; hence the ideological significance of Urdu in Pakistani politics. The 1956 constitution prescribed the use of English for official purposes for 20 years, and the 1962 constitution made the period indefinite. The 1973 constitution, however, designated a 15-year transition period to Urdu, after which English would no longer be used for official purposes. English is spoken by only a small percentage of the people. Urdu is the mother tongue of only a small percentage of the population of Pakistan; it is taught in the schools along with the regional languages. Punjabi has its own script, Gurmukhi, but it is mainly used in India. In Pakistan, Punjabi is mainly spoken rather than written; it is also a predominantly rural rather than an urban language. Urdu, rather than Punjabi, is the first language taught in schools in Punjab, so that every educated Punjabi reads and writes Urdu. There was a movement for the promotion of the Punjabi language in the 1980s and '90s, and some Punjabi literature is being published using the Urdu script; among the works published are Punjabi classics that have hitherto been available in Gurmukhi script or preserved in oral tradition. Sindhi is derived from the Virachada dialect of Prakrit; it has fewer dialects than Punjabi. It is written in a special variant of the Arabic script. Most of the educated middle class in Sindh were Hindu, and their departure to India in 1947 had a traumatic effect on Sindhi culture. Vigorous efforts were therefore directed toward a recovery and preservation of the rich Sindhi literary and cultural heritage. Large numbers of Urdu-speaking refugees settled in Sindh, and they now constitute the majority of the population of its larger towns. As a consequence, the movement for the promotion of Sindhi language and culture was sometimes expressed as opposition toward Urdu. The Sindhi population feared that their language and culture would be overrun by the language and culture of the muhajir community; this fear led to the language riots of 1972 and to the government's decision to grant special status to the Sindhi language. The rise of militant ethnic politics in the 1980s can be traced to this decision. Pashto, the language of the Pathans (Pashtuns, or Pakhtuns) of the North-West Frontier Province, has no written literary traditions although it has a rich oral tradition. There are two major dialect patterns within which the various individual dialects may be classified; these are Pakhto, which is the northern (Peshawar) variety, and the softer Pashto spoken in southern areas. As in the Punjab, Urdu is the language taught in schools, and educated Pathans read and write Urdu. Again, as in the case of Punjabi, there was a movement for developing the written language in Persian script and increasing the usage of Pashto. From 1979 onward, as many as 3.5 million largely Pashto-speaking refugees arrived in Pakistan from Afghanistan. While most were accommodated in refugee camps in and around Peshawar, a number of them settled in Karachi, further complicating the city's ethnic and linguistic picture. The two main spoken languages of Balochistan are Balochi and Brahui. Makrani is an important dialect of Balochi; it is spoken in Makran, the southern region of Balochistan, bordering on Iran.