Karachi is the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh. It is the largest city in Pakistan and 12th largest in the world,with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast and formerly served as the country's capital from 1947 to 1959. Ranked as a beta-global city,it is Pakistan's premier industrial and financial centre,with an estimated GDP of over $200 billion (PPP) as of 2021. Karachi is a metropolitan city and is considered Pakistan's most cosmopolitan city,and among the country's most linguistically,ethnically,and religiously diverse regions,as well as one of the country's most progressive and socially liberal cities.
Osama bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian-born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda,a militant terrorist organization espousing Islamism,pan-Islamism and jihadism. Bin Laden participated in the Afghan mujahideen's jihad against the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War,and supported the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Opposed to the United States' foreign policy in the Middle East,Bin Laden declared war on the U.S. in 1996. He supervised international terrorist attacks against Americans,including the September 11 attacks inside the U.S. in 2001.
Pakistan,officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,is a country in South Asia. It is the fifth-most populous country,with a population of over 241.5 million,having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital,while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country by area. Bounded by the Arabian Sea on the south,the Gulf of Oman on the southwest,and the Sir Creek on the southeast,it shares land borders with India to the east;Afghanistan to the west;Iran to the southwest;and China to the northeast. It shares a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman,and is separated from Tajikistan in the northwest by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor.
Pervez Musharraf was a Pakistani military officer and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008.
Islamabad is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of 1,108,872 people and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Built as a planned city in the 1960s and established in 1967,it replaced Karachi as Pakistan's national capital.
Since the Partition of British India in 1947 and subsequent creation of the dominions of India and Pakistan,the two countries have been involved in a number of wars,conflicts,and military standoffs. A long-running dispute over Kashmir and cross-border terrorism have been the predominant cause of conflict between the two states,with the exception of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971,which occurred as a direct result of hostilities stemming from the Bangladesh Liberation War in erstwhile East Pakistan.
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms,first serving from 1990 to 1993,then from 1997 to 1999 and later from 2013 to 2017. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pakistan,having served a total of more than 9 years across three tenures. Each term has ended in his ousting.
The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces,tasked primarily with the aerial defence of Pakistan,with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy when required,and a tertiary role of providing strategic airlift capability to Pakistan. As of 2024,as per the International Institute for Strategic Studies,the PAF has more than 70,000 active-duty personnel. PAF stands as the eight largest Air Force in the world. PAF is the largest Air Force of the Muslim world in terms of aircraft fleet. Its primary mandate and mission is "to provide,in synergy with other inter-services,the most efficient,assured and cost effective aerial defence of Pakistan." Since its establishment in 1947,the PAF has been involved in various combat operations,providing aerial support to the operations and relief efforts of the Pakistani military. Under Article 243,the Constitution of Pakistan appoints the President of Pakistan as the civilian Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS),by statute a four-star air officer,is appointed by the President with the consultation and confirmation needed from the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He is the founder and former chairman of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from 1996 to 2023. He was the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
The Indo-Pakistani war of 1971,also known as the third India-Pakistan war,was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 December 1971. The war began with Pakistan's Operation Chengiz Khan,consisting of preemptive aerial strikes on eight Indian air stations. The strikes led to India declaring war on Pakistan,marking their entry into the war for East Pakistan's independence,on the side of Bengali nationalist forces. India's entry expanded the existing conflict with Indian and Pakistani forces engaging on both the eastern and western fronts. Thirteen days after the war started,India achieved a clear upper hand,and the Eastern Command of the Pakistan military signed the instrument of surrender on 16 December 1971 in Dhaka,marking the formation of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh. Approximately 93,000 Pakistani servicemen were taken prisoner by the Indian Army,which included 79,676 to 81,000 uniformed personnel of the Pakistan Armed Forces,including some Bengali soldiers who had remained loyal to Pakistan. The remaining 10,324 to 12,500 prisoners were civilians,either family members of the military personnel or collaborators (Razakars).
The Bangladesh Liberation War,also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence and known as the Liberation War in Bangladesh,was an armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan,which resulted in the independence of Bangladesh. The war began when the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan—under the orders of Yahya Khan—launched Operation Searchlight against East Pakistanis on the night of 25 March 1971,initiating the Bangladesh genocide.
The Pakistan national cricket team has represented Pakistan in international cricket since 1952. It is controlled by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB),the governing body for cricket in Pakistan,which is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Pakistan compete in cricket tours and tournaments sanctioned by the PCB and other regional or international cricket bodies in Test,One Day International (ODI),and Twenty20 International (T20) formats. Pakistan are current ICC Champions Trophy holders.
The Kargil War,also known as the Kargil conflict,[note (I)] was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Ladakh and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India,the conflict is also referred to as Operation Vijay,which was the codename of the Indian military operation in the region. The Indian Air Force acted jointly with the Indian Army to flush out the Pakistan Army and paramilitary troops from vacated Indian positions along the LoC,in what was designated as Operation Safed Sagar.
Asif Ali Zardari is a Pakistani politician serving as the 14th president of Pakistan since 10 March 2024,having held the same office from 2008 to 2013. He is the president of Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians and was the co-chairperson of Pakistan People's Party from December 2007 until December 2015.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB),formerly known as Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan,is a sports governing body for cricket in Pakistan responsible for controlling and organising all tours and matches undertaken by the Pakistan national cricket team. A member of the International Cricket Council since 1952,it represents the country's men's and women's national teams in international cricket tournaments played under the ICC.
The Bangladesh genocide was the ethnic cleansing of Bengalis,especially Bengali Hindus,residing in East Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War,perpetrated by the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Razakars. It began on 25 March 1971,as Operation Searchlight was launched by West Pakistan to militarily subdue the Bengali population of East Pakistan;the Bengalis comprised the demographic majority and had been calling for independence from the Pakistani state. Seeking to curtail the Bengali self-determination movement,erstwhile Pakistani president Yahya Khan approved a large-scale military deployment,and in the nine-month-long conflict that ensued,Pakistani soldiers and local pro-Pakistan militias killed between 300,000 and 3,000,000 Bengalis and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women in a systematic campaign of mass murder and genocidal sexual violence. In their investigation of the genocide,the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists concluded that Pakistan's campaign involved the attempt to exterminate or forcibly remove a significant portion of the country's Hindu populace.
The insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,also known as the War in North-West Pakistan or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa War,is an ongoing armed conflict involving Pakistan and Islamist militant groups such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),Jundallah,Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI),TNSM,al-Qaeda,and their Central Asian allies such as the ISIL–Khorasan (ISIL),Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan,East Turkistan Movement,Emirate of Caucasus,and elements of organized crime. Formerly a war,it is now a low-level insurgency as of 2017.
The Pakistani Taliban,formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan,is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud,its current leader is Noor Wali Mehsud,who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban share a common ideology with the Afghan Taliban and have assisted them in the 2001–2021 war,but the two groups have separate operation and command structures.
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani female education activist,film and television producer,and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history,the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize. Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native homeland,Swat,where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement,and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi,she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."
The Pakistan Super League,also known as PSL and HBL PSL for sponsorship reasons,is a men's T20 cricket league held annually in Pakistan. Founded by the PCB in 2015,the league features six city-based franchise teams. Instead of operating as an association of independently owned teams,the league is a single entity in which each franchise is owned and controlled by the investors.
