The Indus is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The 3,180 km (1,980 mi) river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, bends sharply to the left after the Nanga Parbat massif, and flows south-by-southwest through Pakistan, before emptying into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi.
The Geography of Pakistan encompasses a wide variety of landscapes varying from plains to deserts, forests, and plateaus ranging from the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean in the south to the mountains of the Karakoram, Hindukush, Himalayas ranges in the north. Pakistan geologically overlaps both with the Indian and the Eurasian tectonic plates where its Sindh and Punjab provinces lie on the north-western corner of the Indian plate while Balochistan and most of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lie within the Eurasian plate which mainly comprises the Iranian Plateau.
Transport in Pakistan is extensive and varied. In recent years, new national highways have been built, with the addition of motorways which have improved trade and logistics within the country. Pakistan's rail network is also undergoing expansion in recent years. Airports and seaports have been built with the addition of foreign and domestic funding. Transportation challenges in Pakistan are escalating due to poor planning, inadequate governance, and corrupt practices.
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.
Gilgit is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region. It is the capital of the Gilgit-Baltistan region. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit and the Hunza rivers. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a hub for trekking and mountaineering expeditions in the Karakoram mountain range.
The Karakoram Highway, also known as the KKH, National Highway 35, N-35, and the China–Pakistan Friendship Highway, is a 1,300 km (810 mi) national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab province of Pakistan to the Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan, where it crosses into China and becomes China National Highway 314. The highway connects the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plus Gilgit-Baltistan with China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The highway is a popular tourist attraction and is one of the highest paved roads in the world, passing through the Karakoram mountain range, at 36°51′00″N75°25′40″E at maximum elevation of 4,714 m (15,466 ft) near Khunjerab Pass. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions under which it was constructed, it is often referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The highway is also a part of the Asian Highway AH4.
The Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, arranged and negotiated by the World Bank, to use the water available in the Indus River and its tributaries. It was signed in Karachi on 19 September 1960 by then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistani president Field Marshal Ayub Khan.
Kabul Express is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language adventure thriller film written and directed by documentary filmmaker Kabir Khan and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films. It was released on 15 December 2006. The film stars John Abraham, Arshad Warsi, Salman Shahid, Hanif Humgaam and Linda Arsenio. Kabul Express is the first fictional film for director Kabir Khan who has made several documentaries over the years in Afghanistan. According to him, Kabul Express is loosely based on his and his friend Rajan Kapoor's experiences in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Kabul Express was shot entirely in Afghanistan.
Pakistan and the United States established relations on 15 August 1947, a day after the independence of Pakistan, when the United States became one of the first nations to recognise the country.
Tourism in Pakistan is a growing industry. In 2010, Lonely Planet termed Pakistan "tourism's 'next big thing'". The country is geographically and ethnically diverse, and has a number of historical and cultural heritage sites. Condé Nast Traveller ranked Pakistan The Best Holiday Destination for 2020 and also declared it the third-highest potential adventure destination in the world for 2020. As security in the country improves, tourism increases; in two years, it has increased by more than 300%.
Daulat Beg Oldi is a traditional campsite and current military base located in the midst of the Karakoram Range in northern Ladakh, India. It is on the historic trade route between Ladakh and the Tarim Basin, and is the last campsite before the Karakoram Pass. It is said to be named after Sultan Said Khan of the Yarkent Khanate, who died here on his return journey from an invasion of Ladakh and Kashmir. Chip Chap River, the main headwater of the Shyok River, flows just to the south. The Line of Actual Control with Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin is five miles to the east.
The Depsang Plains, a high-altitude gravelly plain in the northwest portion of the disputed Aksai Chin region of Kashmir, divided into Indian and Chinese administered portions by a Line of Actual Control. India controls the western portion of the plains as part of Ladakh, while the eastern portion is controlled by China and claimed by India. The Line of Control with Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan is 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of the Depsang Plains, with the Siachen Glacier in-between. Ladakh's traditional trade route to Central Asia passed through the Depsang Plains, with the Karakoram Pass lying directly to its north.
Imran Garda is a South African journalist, presenter, and novelist. The long-running host of The Newsmakers from 2015 to 2020, Garda returned to TRT World in 2022 with the one-on-one interview program The InnerView. He was formerly the host of Third Rail on Al Jazeera America based in New York City. Garda was also a senior presenter and producer for AJ+, Al Jazeera Media Network's all digital video news channel based in San Francisco. Previously, he worked for Al Jazeera English in Doha, Qatar and Washington, DC. He also hosted the show The Stream.
Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River is a non-fiction book by Alice Albinia published in 2008 by John Murray. It is a part-memoir part-essay recount of Albinia's Journey through Central and Southern Asia, following the course of the Indus River from Karachi to Tibet. Throughout the book, Albinia encounters and describes facets of culture and history, and relates them to the existence of the river. The book gives an insight into the communities as well as the history and political framework of the countries through which the Indus flows. Empires of the Indus was awarded the Jerwood Award by the Royal Society of Literature in 2005.
Hassan Ali Effendi was an educationist in South Asia who is credited as the founder of one of the first Muslim schools in British India: the Sindh Madrasatul Islam, located in Karachi in modern-day Pakistan.
The Indus river dolphin is a species of freshwater dolphin in the family Platanistidae. It is endemic to the Indus River basin in Pakistan and Beas River in northwestern India. This dolphin was the first discovered side-swimming cetacean. It is patchily distributed in five small, sub-populations that are separated by irrigation barrages.
Karachi–Peshawar Railway Line is one of four main railway lines in Pakistan, operated and maintained by Pakistan Railways. The line starts from Kiamari station in the province of Sindh and ends at Peshawar Cantonment Station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The railway track is dual between Keamari and Shahdara Bagh, Chaklala and Golra Sharif. The total length of the line is 1,687 kilometers (1,048 mi), with 176 railway stations in between. The line serves as the country's main passenger and freight line with 75% of the country's cargo and passenger traffic.
The M-14 Motorway, also known as the Islamabad–Dera Ismail Khan Motorway and the Hakla–Yarik Motorway, is a four-lane north–south motorway in Pakistan. The 285-kilometre-long (177 mi) motorway is a part of the Western Alignment of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, and offers high speed road connections between the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area, and the southern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province around Dera Ismail Khan.
The Imran Khan government was the federal cabinet of Pakistan from 20 August 2018 to 10 April 2022. It was formed by Imran Khan following general elections on 25 July 2018, which saw the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf come to power. The cabinet had 34 federal ministers, 7 ministers of state, 10 Advisers to the Prime Minister and 35 Special Assistants to the Prime Minister (SAPM), most of whom assumed office on 20 August 2018. The government was dissolved on 3 April 2022 following the dissolution of the National Assembly of Pakistan by the President, Arif Alvi at the behest of the Prime Minister, Imran Khan. On 7 April 2022, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the restoration of the Federal Cabinet and National Assembly. On 10 April 2022 the government was defeated in a Vote of No-confidence (VONC) against Imran Khan, leading to its subsequent dissolution.
The first 100 days of the Imran Khan premiership began with his oath of office ceremony on 18 August 2018 as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan – shortly after the oath-taking of the 15th National Assembly of Pakistan on 13 August, and the elected parliament's vote of confidence for Khan's premiership on 17 August. The 100th day of his premiership was 25 November 2018.
