45 Interesting Facts About Pakistan

1. Pakistan is a country in South Asia. It is the 5^th most populous in the world.
2. Pakistan shares land borders with China, India, Afghanistan, and Iran. It also has a maritime border with Oman.
3. Islam is the dominant religion in the country, as there are nearly 97% of Muslims in Pakistan. It has the 2^nd largest Muslim population after Indonesia.
4. Indus valley civilization in the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh is the most extensive among the three earliest civilizations. It was discovered in 1921 in Punjab and in 1922 in Sindh province. Mohenjo-Daro in Sindh was included in the UNESCO World Heritage in 1980. (Source)
5. Mehrgarh in the Balochistan province of Pakistan is an ancient Neolithic site that emerged before Harappa. It was a continuously inhabited place from 7000 to 2600 BC. (Source)
6. Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) in Pakistan is the world’s largest contiguous irrigation system. It runs over 90,000 km of watercourses and irrigates more than 2.5 million acres of land. (Source)
7. Kutiah Glacier in Pakistan is famous for the fastest glacial surge. In 1953, it advanced 12 km in 3 months. (Source)
8. Biafo Glacier in Pakistan is the 3^rd largest non-polar glacier in the world. Two other Pakistani glaciers (Baltoro Glacier and Batura Glacier) are the 5^th and 7^th largest glaciers. (Source)
9. Shandur Top in northern Pakistan has been hosting an annual polo festival since 1936. It is famous as the world’s highest polo ground due to its elevation of 12,200 feet.
10. Darra Adam Khel in northwestern Pakistan is the largest illegal firearm market in the world. This market is more than a century old, where buyers can find weapons from pistols to missiles. (Source)
11. Two Pakistani brothers created the first-ever PC virus (Brain) in 1986. The purpose of this creation was to protect their software from illegal copies.
12. The Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world’s 3^rd largest ship-breaking yard. At the end of the 1980s, it was the world’s largest graveyard for ships. (Source)
13. Pakistan gained independence in 1947 after the partition of the Indian subcontinent by British rulers. Initially, Pakistan had eastern and western parts. The eastern part became Bangladesh in 1971 after a civil war.
14. Islam arrived in Pakistan during the 8^th Century. Raids from Arab and Turkish armies and the teachings of scholars and saints played a significant role in spreading Islam in this area.
15. Pakistan hosts the fourth-largest refugee population in the world. There are around 1.4 million refugees in the country. (Source)
16. Edhi Foundation in Pakistan is the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network. This service has more than 1,800 ambulances across Pakistan. (Source)
17. The ATM (automated teller machine) at the highest elevation is at Khunjarab Pass, Pakistan. The National Bank of Pakistan established this ATM in 2016 at an altitude of 4693m (15,396 ft.). (Source)
18. Khewra Salt Mine is the oldest and second-largest salt mine in the world. It was discovered in 320 BC during the era of Alexander the Great. According to estimates, the mine has up to 600mt of salt with 99% purity. (Source)

    

    Khewra salt mine is the oldest and the second-largest salt mine

    
    
19. Pakistan has the 6^th largest armed forces by the number of active military personnel. It is the largest military in a Muslim-majority country. 
20. Pakistan is one of the 8 declared nuclear powers. According to estimates, this only Muslim atomic power has 165 nuclear warheads.
21. During the 1965 War, PAF pilot MM Alam shot down 5 Indian jet fighters in less than a minute. This record is still unbeaten. (Source)
22. Pilots from PAF (Pakistan Air Force) took part on a limited scale during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. These pilots shot down at least 4 Israeli planes; 3 in 1967 in Jordan and Iraq and 1 in 1974 in Syria. One PAF pilot received military awards from Jordan and Iraq. (Source)
23. Pakistan is the only Muslim-majority country that allows females to take major military roles, like fighter pilots. (Source)
24. Soviet failure in Afghanistan during the 1980s resulted in the elimination of the USSR and the independence of several countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Pakistan played a vital role in the defeat of the Soviet Union by organizing the Afghan guerilla war.
25. Pakistan’s 60% area consists of mountainous terrain, including the plateaus of Potwar in the north and Balochistan in the south. The remaining is a level plain, especially the Indus River Plain.
26. K2 on the Pakistan-China border is the world’s second-highest mountain and the highest mountain in the Karakorum Range. Pakistan has 5 out of 14 mountains higher than 8,000 meters.
27. During the partition of the Indian subcontinent, around 14 million people migrated from India to Pakistan and vice versa. It is known as one of the largest human migrations in history.
28. Karachi is the largest city and the initial capital of Pakistan. Islamabad became its capital city on August 14, 1967.
29. A city in northern Pakistan produces nearly 70% of the world’s soccer balls. More than 1,000 factories in Sialkot manufacture these balls. Some of these factories are more than a century old. (Source)
30. Pakistan is the only country that does not recognize Armenia’s independence. The purpose is to show solidarity with Azerbaijan. 
31. Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani citizen, is the youngest person to receive a Noble Peace Prize. She won that award in 2014 at the age of 17. (Source)
32. There are 6 UNESCO world heritage sites in Pakistan. All of them are cultural sites, while most are in the northern part of the country. (Source)
33. Benazir Bhutto was the first female Prime Minister of a Muslim country. She became the PM of Pakistan in 1988. (Source)
34. Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory between Pakistan and India. The conflict started in 1947 and remained unresolved. Both countries control parts of this territory (Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan) and have fought several indecisive wars over this conflict.
35. Pakistani girl Areesh Fatima became the youngest Microsoft-certified professional after passing the exam at four years. (Source)
36. Tarbela dam in Pakistan is the largest earth-filled dam and the 5^th biggest dam by volume. The surface area of the Tarbela reservoir is 250 sq. km.

    

    Tarbela dam is the world's largest earth-filled dam

    
    
37. Former Pakistan player Jahangir Khan is known as the greatest-ever squash player. He won the World Squash Championships 6 times and the British Open Squash Championships 10 consecutive times.
38. In 1994, Pakistan simultaneously held world cup titles for four games: the 1992 Cricket World Cup, Men’s Hockey World Cup (1994), 1994 Men’s World Open Squash, and IBSF World Snooker Championship (1994).
39. Field hockey is the national game of Pakistan. The country has won the highest number (4) of world cup titles in this game. Former Pakistani player Sohail Abbas has scored the highest number of goals (348) in field hockey.
40. Changa Manga, in Pakistan’s largest province Punjab, is one of the largest man-grown forests. It was planted in 1890 and covers an area of 12,000 acres (48.6 sq. km). (Source)
41. A Pakistani judge Muhammad Ilyas is the world’s youngest civil judge. He became a civil judge at 20 years and nine months in 1952. (Source)
42. In 1962, PIA (Pakistan International Airline) established a new record for the fastest flight from London to Karachi. This record is still unbroken after 60 years. (Source)
43. The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was one of the deadliest earthquakes of the 21^st Century. This 7.6 magnitude earthquake took the lives of more than 87,000 people in Pakistan.
44. American forces killed Al Qaeda’s founder Osama bin Laden in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad in 2011.
45. Pakistan is the world’s biggest importer of tea, jute and other textile fibers, metallic yarn, and scrap nickel. (Source)