anybody from pakistan on yahoo! answers?

Question

i'm only one-eighth (or more) pakistani. you see, i've only been told that i had pakistani blood a few years ago. before then i didn't know. the shame is that i don't know anything about my pakistani heritage. my family doesn't know either. all they know is that i am part pakistani. so, those who are from pakistan, could you tell me anything about your country? the culture, perhaps? lifestyle? anything, really...

Answer 1

Pakistan History & Culture

In ancient times, the area that now comprises Pakistan marked the farthest reaches of the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was also the home of Buddhist Ghandaran culture. It was not until 1947 and the independence of India, that Pakistan acquired nationhood. Under pressure from Indian Muslims led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah – considered to be the ‘father of the nation’ – the British created a separate Muslim state. Originally, it consisted of two parts, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now a single unitary state), separated from each other by 1600km (1000
miles) of Indian territory. Jinnah, the leading Muslim inside the Indian Congress party that led the independence struggle (see India section), became the new country’s first president.

In contrast to India, democracy failed to take root and Pakistan suffered prolonged periods of military rule. The first of these came in 1958, when martial law was declared and political parties abolished. The martial law ‘co-ordinator’, General (later Field Marshall) Ayub Khan, became President in 1960. He was replaced in 1969, by the Commander-in-Chief of the army, General Agha Muhammed Yahya Khan, who resisted demands for autonomy by the eastern region of the country, where civil war broke out in 1971. The intervention of the Indian army on the side of the secessionists eventually secured an independent Bangladesh, leaving a truncated Pakistan in the west. Democratic civilian Government followed the defeat and President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto took over as President from the discredited military regime.

In 1977, however, the military again took power in a coup and re-established martial law under General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. Bhutto was executed in 1979. Military rule continued until the death of General Zia in a plane crash in 1988, after which a democratic constitution and civilian Government were re-instituted.

A decade of revolving-door civilian politics followed in which the main participants were Ali Bhutto’s daughter Benazir, and Mohammed Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA). The IDA was essentially a military creation, designed to maintain their influence as far as possible over national politics. Benazir Bhutto took over the leadership of her father’s old party, the Pakistan People’s Party. Sharif and Bhutto contested four elections – all tainted by extensive political violence - during the next 10 years, winning two each. Both Bhutto Governments and the first Sharif Government were dismissed by presidential decree for the same reasons: incompetence, nepotism and corruption. Little if any headway was made in tackling Pakistan’s huge political and economic problems. The second Sharif administration also came to a premature end but this time it was the military who intervened after having stood on the sidelines in increasing frustration for the previous 10 years.

The trigger was Pakistan’s controversial nuclear weapons program. This had begun in 1971, after Pakistan’s defeat by India, and progressed steadily with Chinese assistance thereafter. Pakistan is now believed to possess at least a handful of nuclear warheads and the means of delivery. In 2004, the head of the program, Abdul Qadir Khan, was revealed to have organized the sale of nuclear technology and expertise to several other countries, including Iran and Libya. This has caused a crisis in relations with the West at a sensitive time: Pakistan is a vital ally in the American-led "war on terror".

The original motivation for the nuclear program was ensuring parity with India, which has also developed its own nuclear weapons. The Indo-Pakistan conflict is a central feature of Pakistani politics, particularly with regards to the attitude and posture of the military. At its heart is the long-running dispute over the status of Kashmir which, although it has a majority Muslim population, became part of India (rather than Pakistan) in the 1947 partition. There have been regular small-scale engagements between the Indian and Pakistani armies in the border region, as well as frequent attacks by guerrilla forces (variously backed by either side). The two sides have almost come to war on several occasions. Given the possible consequences, urgent high-level diplomacy, usually involving the USA or the Russian Federation, has been deployed to force the antagonists to back down. More recently the two sides have been talking and in February 2004 agreed on a "road map" which has hopefully began the process towards a path to a final settlement. No resolution has yet been found but both Governments have pledged their commitment to peace. A proposed bus route that would link the disputed territory is the latest initiative in the drive for peace.

The most recent period of serious tension between Pakistan and India occurred in 1998-99 and culminated in the end of the second Sharif Government. Sharif had authorized the military to carry out a series of nuclear tests. International reaction was swift and vehement; wide-ranging, crippling sanctions followed. The army, however, was determined to adopt a more aggressive stance towards India. Over the next 12 months, Sharif came under intense diplomatic and economic pressure to bring the army to heel. In August 1999 he conceded. This triggered a series of clashes between Sharif and his army chief of staff, General Pervez Musharraf. In October 1999, with the army’s patience exhausted, Musharraf led a coup against the Sharif Government.

Unusually for a senior Pakistani general, Musharraf is a Mohajir, the name given to the descendants of refugees from India who moved to Pakistan after partition. The coup was generally popular among the people and, despite routine condemnation from abroad and suspension from the Commonwealth, Musharraf was given time to stabilize the country and try and tackle the endemic corruption and chronic mismanagement. Then, in 2001, events in neighboring Afghanistan – Pakistan’s other major foreign policy interest – put Pakistan at the center of the world stage and provided an unexpected political and economic opportunity.

The 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in the USA drew an immediate and massive response from the US Government. Its targets were the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda (The Base) organization and its host, the Taleban regime. Pakistan had been intimately involved with the creation of the Taleban (roughly ‘students of Islam’), most of whom had fled from Afghanistan and enrolled in Government-backed mudrassas (Islamic colleges). The graduates were recruited into the mujahidin guerrilla formations fighting the Soviet invaders. These veterans, who had since relocated into the southern provinces of Afghanistan, formed the core of the Taleban movement. Moreover, the Pathans of Pakistan, who are especially well represented in the military, are closely linked to the Pashtun, Afghanstan’s largest ethnic group, who also made up most of the Taleban.
The US demand for assistance in deposing the Taleban thus put the Pakistani Government in something of a quandary, although General Musharraf quickly decided to back the USA. The decision paid immediate economic dividends in the lifting of the 1998 sanctions and the promise of a substantial financial aid package. Senior officers suspected of active sympathy for the Taleban were edged out. Within weeks, the Taleban had been driven from power.

At home, the Musharraf Government sought to establish its popular legitimacy by holding elections for the National Assembly, as well as a referendum on his Presidency, in October 2002. These returned General Musharraf – now partially reinvented as a civilian President – while his supporters took control of the national assembly. However, his pro-American stance has made him extremely unpopular among parts of Pakistani society. In the last two years he has been the target of at least a dozen assassination attempts. Otherwise, his position appears reasonably secure for the time being. Until the emergence of a plausible untainted civilian political leader, Musharraf is probably the best that Pakistan can expect.

Government
Executive power is in the hands of President Pervez Musharraf who took power in a military coup October 1999. His Presidency was endorsed by national referendum in 2002. The legislature is the bicameral Majlis-I-Shura, comprising the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly has 342 members elected for a five-year term: 272 members are elected in single-seat constituencies; the remaining 70 are reserved for women and national minorities and are chosen by the political parties in proportion to their share of the directly elected seats. The Senate has 100 members selected by each of the four provincial parliaments, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the federal capital.

Economy
About half of the Pakistani labor force works in agriculture and about 28 per cent of the land is under cultivation and watered by one of the largest irrigation systems in the world. Wheat, rice, sugar cane and cotton are the main products. Cotton is by far the country’s most important export, accounting for almost 60 per cent of revenues. Textiles and leather goods are significant export earners. Pakistan has some reserves of graphite and limestone, as well as gypsum, silica, coal, copper and manganese. It also has a small oil industry, but most of its needs must be imported: together with chemicals and machinery, this accounts for nearly three-quarters of Pakistan’s import expenditure. Established manufacturing industries include textiles, food processing and building materials.

The overriding economic problem for the Pakistani economy is its huge foreign debt burden, which is over 90 per cent of GDP and consumes over half of government revenue to meet interest payments. The situation has been made more difficult by the history of poor relations between Pakistan and the international financial community generally. Sanctions were imposed following Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998, coinciding with the fall-out from the 1997 financial crisis that engulfed the major economies of East Asia. Yet despite these factors, the regional crisis centered on Afghanistan and Iraq, and domestic political instability, the Pakistani economy has performed steadily in the last five years. Both annual economic growth and inflation have been in low single figures for the last few years: the 2004 figures were 5.5 and 5.9 per cent, respectively; unemployment was at a record 7.7 per cent, with a high level of underemployment amongst the workforce. In the first half of 2005 inflation was a concern, rising above the lows of the previous year. In general, economic policy has been determined by the need to comply with conditions laid down by the IMF. An economic reform program has gradually been implemented, with several major privatizations in recent years.

http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Pakistan/History

some useful links
http://www.tourism.gov.pk/
http://www.infopak.gov.pk/

Answer 2

I am from Pakistan.
What would you like to know ?

I guess you must be hearing too much about pakistan in the media these days.

rich in culture,
diverse.

total population: 17 billion
education: 30%
main products: agriculture
urban population : 30%
rural population : 70%
language: urdu, sindhi, punjabi, balochi, seaiki, pushto.
national language: urdu
provinces: 4 - punjab, sindh , balochistan , nwfp
neighbours: indian , china, afghanistan , iran
main industry: garments / textile

culture is rich.
you can find the modern culture in the urban population .
modern , western

more diverse culture in the interior province.

i mean , there is so much i can tell.

try encarta.com


Population: 161.1 million (UN, 2005)
Capital: Islamabad
Area: 796,095 sq km (307,374 sq miles), excluding Pakistani-administered Kashmir (83,716 sq km/32,323 sq miles)
Major languages: Urdu (official), Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and English
Major religion: Islam
Life expectancy: 63 years (men), 63 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 Pakistani Rupee = 100 paisa
Main exports: Textile products, rice, cotton, leather goods
GNI per capita: US $600 (World Bank, 2005)
Internet domain: .pk
International dialling code: +92

Answer 3

Hey! I am pure blooded Pakistani. Come to the skyscrapercity dot com forums. They have an excellent section for Pakistanis and I am very active there as SwerveUT.

Get it touch if u d like to know more!

Answer 4

Pakistan is a country located in South Asia sub-continent. It has a thousand-kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea in the south and borders Afghanistan and Iran to the west, India to the east and the People's Republic of China in the far northeast.[

Answer 5

Hey girl. I dont live in pakistan but i am a pakistani. Um well . . .there's a lot to know about pakistan. well we speak Urdu and we are quite traditional. Our food is really good, mostly like Indian food though. Our outfit is Shalwar Kameez. We are nice people and if you go to pakistan, they are VERY considerate.
oh yeah, if you live in pakistan, EVERYONE knows everything about each other. but that's only if you live there.
we also die over bout what people think of us. we want a good reputation in society. that's wat its all about.
hmm i can't really think of anything since most of the other people already answered everything else.
oh yeah, pakistan and india - NOT GOOD FRIENDS, but im sure you already know that.
if you want to know anything else you can email me.
khuda hafiz (bye in Urdu)
= )

Answer 6

i am pakistani
every one had told you about pakistan's geo graphy
but i may also tell you that there are every type of people in pakistan i mean if you want to live in spanish culture you will be living in that culture if you like amarican culture you will be given amarican culture and if you need indian culture you will be living in indian.

Answer 7

Im Indonesian.. not from Pakistan

Answer 8

No...sorry..

Answer 9

not me are you

Answer 10

Not me, UK.