National Assets

Did you know?

Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has a 1,046 kilometre (650 mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and the People's Republic of China in the far northeast. Tajikistan also lies very close to Pakistan but is separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Thus, it occupies a crossroads between South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. The region forming modern Pakistan was at the heart of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and then later was the recipient of Vedic, Persian, Indo-Greek, Turco-Mongol, Islamic and Sikh cultures. The area has witnessed invasions and/or settlements by the Indo-Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Afghans, Mongols and the British.

The British granted independence and also the creation of the Muslim majority state of Pakistan that comprised the provinces of Sindh, North-West Frontier Province, West Punjab, Balochistan and East Bengal. With the adoption of its constitution in 1956, Pakistan became an Islamic republic. In 1971, a civil war in East Pakistan resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. It is also the sixth most populous country in the world and has the second largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia. Pakistan has the second largest Shia Muslim population in the world. It is the world's only Muslim-majority nuclear state. Pakistan is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Next Eleven economies and the D8.

The name Pakistan means Land of (the) Pure in Urdu and Persian (Farsi). It was coined in 1934 as Pakstan by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never. The name is a portmanteau representing the "thirty million Muslims of PAKISTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of British Raj — Punjab, Afghania (now known as North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Sindh, and Balochistan."

Urdu is Pakistan's national language and has been promoted as a token of national unity. More than 95% of Pakistanis can speak or understand Urdu as their second or third language in many cases, though only about 8% of the population of Pakistan has Urdu as its mother tongue. English is Official Language. In addition there are five major provincial languages: Punjabi, Pashto, Saraiki, Sindhi, Kashmiri and Balochi. These and almost all of the other languages spoken in Pakistan belong to the Indo-Iranic language group. Some have a speaking population of hundreds of thousands, while others have only a few thousand or a few hundred speakers. There are approximately 64 languages are spoken throughout the country.

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In August 2004, Pakistan unfurled a 340x510 (173,400 square foot) foot National flag. The country held the record for producing the world's largest flag. It was rolled out in National Stadium Karachi in 2004.

The national flag of Pakistan was designed by Syed Amir-uddin Kedwaii and was based on the original flag of the Muslim League, which itself drew inspiration from the flag of the Mughal Empire in India. It was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, just days before independence. The flag is referred to in the national anthem as Parcham-e-Sitāra-o-Hilāl in Urdu (Flag of the Crescent and Star). The flag comprises a dark green field, representing the Muslim majority of Pakistan, with a vertical white stripe in the hoist, representing religious minorities. In the center is a white crescent moon and a white five-pointed star, which symbolize progress and light respectively. The flag symbolizes Pakistan's commitment to Islam, the Islamic world, and the rights of religious minorities. The green and white together stand for peace and prosperity. The crescent symbolizes progress, and the star represents light and knowledge.

The Interior Ministry of Pakistan provides dimensions for flags in different circumstances:

For ceremonial occasions. 21' x 14', 18' x 12', 10' x 6-2/3' or 9' x 6 1/4.

For use over buildings. 6' x 4' or 3' x 2'.

For cars 12" x 8".

For tables 10 1/4" x 8 1/4".

Flag flying days are as follows:

March 23 (Full-mast)

Adoption of the Lahore Resolution (1940) and declaration of the Islamic Republic (1956)

April 21 (Half-mast)

Anniversary of the death of the National Poet, Muhammad Iqbal (1938)

July 8 (Half-mast)

Anniversary of the death of the Mother of the Nation Fatima Jinnah (1967)

August 14 (Full-mast)

Independence Day (1947)

September 11 (Half-mast)

Anniversary of the death of the Father of the Nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1948)

October 16 (Half-mast)

Anniversary of the death of the first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan (1951)

December 25 (Full-mast)

Birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876)

Any other day notified by the Government

The use of the national flag is regulated by the Pakistan Flag Rules, which were introduced in 2002 by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

Did you know?

The State Emblem of Pakistan was adopted in 1954. The emblem's green colour and the star and crescent at the top are symbols of Islam, the religion with which most Pakistani citizens identify. In the center is a quartered shield, with each quarter containing a major crop of Pakistan at the time of its adoption: cotton, jute, tea, and wheat. The floral wreath around the shield is Poet's Jasmine (the national flower) and represents the Mughal cultural heritage of Pakistan. The scroll at the bottom contains the national motto in Urdu, coined by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which reads from right to left: (ایمان ، اتحاد ، نظم) Iman, Ittehad, Nazm translated as "Faith, Unity, Discipline".

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At independence, on August 14, 1947, Pakistan did not have a National Anthem. The flag itself had only been approved by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan three days earlier. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, asked Lahore-based Hindu writer, Jagannath Azad on August 9, 1947 to write a National Anthem for Pakistan in five days. The anthem written by Azad was quickly approved by Jinnah, and it was played on Radio Pakistan. When the flag was hoisted at the independence ceremony it was accompanied by the song, "Pakistan Zindabad, Azadi Paendabad". Azad's work remained as Pakistan’s National Anthem for approximately eighteen months and then the theme song had been named with "Flag Anthem" rather than National Anthem. Flag Anthem written by Azad was as follows:

اے سرزمین پاک - O land of Pakistan,

ذرے تیرے ہیں آج - Each particle of yours

ستاروں سے تابناک - Is more illuminated than stars.

روشن ہے کہکشاں سے کہیں - Today your dust

آج تیری خاک - Is brighter than the galaxy

The National Anthem of Pakisan is known as "Qaumi Tarana". The music composed by Chagla reflects his background in both eastern and western music. The lyrics are written in a highly Persianized form of Urdu. Every word in the entire anthem is a loanword from Persian except the word "ka" ( کا, "of" ). The anthem lasts for 1 minute and 20 seconds and uses twenty one musical instruments and thirty eight different tones. In early 1948, A. R. Ghani from Transvaal, South Africa, offered two prizes of five thousand rupees each for the poet and composer of a new national anthem. The prizes were announced through a Government press note published in June 1948. In December 1948, a National Anthem Committee (NAC) was formed, initially chaired by the Information Secretary, Sheikh Muhammad Ikram. Committee members included several politicians, poets and musicians such as Abdur Rab Nishtar, Ahmed Chagla and Hafeez Jullundhri. The committee had some difficulty at first in finding suitable music and lyrics.The music of the anthem was composed by Ahmed Ghulamali Chagla, with lyrics written by Abu-Al-Asar Hafeez Jullundhri. The three stanza composition was officially adopted in 1954. However, the music for the anthem had been composed in 1950 and had been used on several occasions before official adoption. Here is the timeline for National Anthem.

1949 - Musical composition by Ahmad G. Chagla (running time, 1 minute 20 seconds)

1952 - Verses written by Hafeez Jullundhri, selected from 723 entries

1954 - Released on Radio Pakistan on 13 August. Singers of the anthem were: Ahmad Rushdi, Shamim Bano, Kokab Jehan, Rasheeda Begum, Najam Ara, Naseema Shaheen, Zwar Hussain, Akhtar Abbas, Ghulam Dastgir, Anwar Zaheer and Akhtar Wassi.