Country Brief: Pakistan

Enjoy, little brief of Pakistan.





Pakistan

Important Dates:

August 14, 1947 - Indian Independence Act was passed by The British Parliament. As a result, Pakistan and India were born.

October 1947 - First Pakistan - India War. (Reason for War: Pakistan invaded Kashmir). The territorial dispute over Kashmir, has not been resolved yet. (conflict started 62 years ago, and still they're unable to solve it.) It's time to move on.!
learn more about the conflit @:
Kashmir


1971 - East Pakistan broke from Pakistan, to became Bangladesh (independent state).


Government

Pakistan is on the edge of becoming a failed state. However, according to Richard Holbrooke (U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan)
Pakistan Not A Failed State


He argues that the weak gov't of Pakistan, needs US help ($$$) to fight Talibans. Therefore with US dollars Pakistan would not become a failed state.
But wait, as far as I remember, US gave Pakistan $10 billion !!! since 2001. Where did it go? Well, when you give $$$ to the corrupt gov't, it can't be good. One, can't blame Pakistan's officials for taking this aid. US (under Bush), could at least track such large amount of cash, and see if it was used properly. Not this time !.

$6 billion in aid to Pakistan poorly tracked



Geography

Population: ~ 172 mln.

Divided into four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and North West Frontier Province.
- they fight constantly over ownership and distribution of revenues from oil and gas resources.

Punjab province is the largest, (55% of the population lives there)

largest ethnic group: Punjabi (44.7)

Muslim Population: Sunni (85%), Shia (12%)



Military

Army size: over 500000 soldiers

Military of Pakistan supports extremist organizations.

Nuclear arsenal: 80 - 100 weapons.

Pakistan conflict map

According to BBC, 38% of the North Western Pakistan remains under full government control, the rest 62% is controlled by guess who the TALIBANS!.

The UN estimates that about 1.4 million people have been displaced since fighting in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) started at the end of April.

Politcs / Economy

Current President: Ali Zardari

GDP per capita: ~ $2000

GDP $454.2 billion

Sources:

CFR
BBC
NPR
CNN