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.
Mohenjo-daro is an archaeological site in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan. Built c. 2500 BCE, it was the largest settlement of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoan Crete, and Norte Chico.
The Ravi River is a transboundary river crossing northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. It is one of five rivers associated with the Punjab region.
Tarbela Dam is an earth-filled dam along the Indus River in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is mainly located in Haripur Tehsil. It is about 20 km (10 mi) from the city of Swabi KPK, 105 km (65 mi) northwest of Islamabad, and 125 km (80 mi) east of Peshawar. It is the largest earth-filled dam in the world. The dam is 143 metres (470 ft) high above the riverbed and its reservoir, Tarbela Lake, has a surface area of approximately 250 square kilometres (97 sq mi).
The Indus River Delta forms where the Indus River flows into the Arabian Sea, mostly in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan with a small portion in the Kutch Region of India. The delta covers an area of about 41,440 km2 (16,000 sq mi), and is approximately 210 km (130 mi) across where it meets the sea. The active part of the delta is 6,000 km2 in area (2,300 sq mi). The climate is arid, the region only receives between 25 and 50 centimetres of rainfall in a normal year. The delta is home to the largest arid mangrove forests in the world, as well as many birds, fish and the Indus dolphin.
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.
The Government of the Punjab is the provincial government of the Pakistani province of the Punjab. It is based in Lahore, the provincial capital. Its powers and structure are set out in the provisions of the Constitution, in which 41 districts come under its authority and jurisdiction. The government includes the cabinet, selected from members the Punjab Provincial Assembly, and the non-political civil staff within each department. The province is governed by a unicameral legislature with the head of government known as the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister, invariably the leader of a political party represented in the Assembly, selects members of the Cabinet. The Chief Minister and Cabinet are thus responsible for the functioning of government and are entitled to remain in office so long as it maintains the confidence of the elected Assembly. The head of the province is known as the Governor, appointed by the federal government, on behalf of the President. The administrative and executive boss of the province is the Chief Secretary Punjab and they head all the provincial departments and the provincial cabinet.
Environmental issues in Pakistan include air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, climate change, pesticide misuse, soil erosion, natural disasters, desertification and flooding. According to the 2020 edition of the environmental performance index (EPI) ranking released by Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, Pakistan ranks 142 with an EPI score of 33.1, an increase of 6.1 over a 10-year period. It ranked 180 in terms of air quality. The climatic changes and global warming are the most alarming issues risking millions of lives across the country. The major reasons of these environmental issues are carbon emissions, population explosion, and deforestation.
Salal Dam, also known as Salal Hydroelectric Power Station, is a run-of-the-river hydropower project on the Chenab River in the Reasi district of the Jammu and Kashmir. It was the first hydropower project built by India in Jammu and Kashmir under the Indus Water Treaty regime. After having reached a bilateral agreement with Pakistan in 1978, with significant concessions made to Pakistan in the design of the dam, reducing its height, eliminating operating pool, and plugging the under-sluices meant for sediment management, India completed the project in 1987. The concessions made in the interest of bilateralism damaged the long-term sustainability of the dam, which silted up in five years. It currently runs at 57% capacity factor. Its long-term future is uncertain.
Aftab Ghulam Nabi KaziSPk, SK, also known as AGN Kazi, was a Pakistani civil servant and a bureaucrat during the Cold War and during the post cold war. Kazi was born in Sindh, Bombay Presidency, in 1919 to an academic family. He started his career in the Indian Civil Service in 1944 and served as the Deputy Commissioner of Bihar and Orissa. After the partition of India, Kazi migrated to Pakistan and joined the Provincial Government of Sindh, and held positions such as Secretary of Finance and Secretary to the Governor.
Electricity in Pakistan is generated, transmitted and distributed by two vertically integrated public sector companies, first one being Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) responsible for the production of hydroelectricity and its supply to the consumers by electricity distribution companies (DISCOS) under the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) being the other integrated company. Currently, there are 12 distribution companies and a National Transmission And Dispatch Company (NTDC) which are all in the public sector except Karachi Electric in the city of Karachi and its surrounding areas. There are around 42 independent power producers (IPPs) that contribute significantly in electricity generation in Pakistan.
The fishing industry plays a significant part in the national economy of Pakistan. With a coastline of about 1,120 km, Pakistan has enough fishery resources that remain to be developed. Most of the population of the coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan depends on fisheries for livelihood. It is also a major source of export earning.
The Khan Khwar Hydropower Plant is a run-of-the-river project located near the town of Besham in the Shangla District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is situated on the Khan Khwar River, a right bank tributary of the Indus River. It is approximately 265 km from the federal capital of Islamabad and 350 km from the provincial capital of Peshawar.
Niranjan Das Gulhati was an Indian civil engineer, water resources consultant and writer, known for his mediation in the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 between India and Pakistan. His contributions were reported in the formation of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), a non governmental organization which promotes transfer of water sharing technologies between countries. An Alumnus of the Thomason College of Engineering, he was associated with the World Bank, International Development Association and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. He was the author of two books, Indus Waters Treaty: An Exercise in International Mediation and Data Of High Dams In India. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1961, for his contributions to society. His life story has been documented in a book, The Untiring Indian - Lifestory of Mr. N. D. Gulhati - A Visionary Water Resources Engineer, published in 2011. The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage has instituted an annual oration, N.D. Gulhati Memorial Lecture for International Cooperation in Irrigation and Drainage in his honor.
The Ministry of Energy is an executive ministry of the federal Government of Pakistan that is charged with implementation of the national energy policy and energy production and electricity transmission throughout the country.
The Ministry of Water Resources (Pakistan) Urdu: وزارت آبی وسائل, wazarat-e- aabi wasail (abbreviated as MoWR) is a Pakistan Government's federal and executive level ministry created on 4 August 2017 by then-Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. The ministry is headed by Pakistan Secretary of Water Resources. The ministry was created out of the Ministry of Water and Power, by depreciating the power division from the ministry, which was merged into the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and converted into the Ministry of Energy.
India and Pakistan had a dispute over the sharing of water rights to the Indus River and its tributaries in April 1948, about eight months after their independence. The East Punjab province of India shut off water running to the West Punjab province of Pakistan via the main branches of the Upper Bari Doab Canal as well as the Dipalpur Canal from the Ferozepur Headworks. It was resumed after five weeks when Pakistan agreed to attend an Inter-Dominion conference to negotiate an agreement. The critical nature of the Indian action caused deep apprehensions in Pakistan, which were eventually resolved only with the signing of the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960.
Indus River System Authority (IRSA) is a water regulator in Pakistan, established in 1992 as an act of Parliament.
