1.
Lahore
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Lahore is the capital city of the Pakistani province of Punjab. It is the second most populous city in Pakistan and the 32nd most populous city in the world, the city is located in the north-eastern end of Pakistans Punjab province, near the border with the Indian state of Punjab. Lahore is ranked as a world city, and is one of Pakistans wealthiest cities with an estimated GDP of $58.14 billion as of 2014. Lahore is the cultural centre of the Punjab region, and is the largest Punjabi city in the world. The city has a history, and was once under the rule of the Hindu Shahis, Ghaznavids, Ghurids. Lahore reached the height of its splendour under the Mughal Empire, the city was contested between the Maratha Empire and Durrani Empire, then became capital of the Sikh Empire, before becoming the capital of the Punjab under British rule. Following the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Lahore became the capital of Pakistans Punjab province, Lahore is one of Pakistans most liberal and cosmopolitan cities. It exerts a strong influence over Pakistan. Lahore is a centre for Pakistans publishing industry, and remains the foremost centre of Pakistans literary scene. The city is also a centre of education in Pakistan. Lahore is also home to Pakistans film industry, Lollywood, and is a centre of Qawwali music. The city is much of Pakistans tourist industry, with major attractions including the old Walled City. Lahore is also home to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Lahore Fort, the etymology of Lahore is uncertain, but according to legend the city was once known as Lavapura, in honour of Prince Lava of the Hindu epic poem, the Ramayana. Lahore Fort also contains a vacant Lava temple, dedicated to the founder of the city. Lahore was called by different names throughout history, to date there is no conclusive evidence as to when it was founded. Lahore is described as a Hindu principality in the Rajput accounts, keneksen, the founder of Suryavansha, is believed to have migrated out from the city. The Solanki tribe, belonging to Amukhara Pattan, which included the Bhatti Rajputs of Jaisalmer, Lahore appears as the capital of the Punjab for the first time under Anandapala – the Hindu Shahi king who is referred to as the ruler of –after leaving the earlier capital of Waihind. Few references to Lahore remain from before its capture by Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznavi in the 11th century, the sultan took Lahore after a long siege and battle in which the city was torched and depopulated
2.
Punjab, Pakistan
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Punjab, is Pakistans second largest province by area after Balochistan, and its most populous province with an estimated population of 101,391,000 as of 2015. It is bordered by Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as the regions of Islamabad Capital Territory and it also shares borders with the Indian states of Punjab, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir. The provincial capital of Punjab is the city Lahore, a centre of Pakistan where the countrys cinema industry. Punjab has been inhabited since ancient times, the Indus Valley Civilization, dating to 2600 BCE, was first discovered at Harappa. Punjab features heavily in the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, in 326 BCE, Alexander the Great defeated King Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes near Mong, Punjab. The Umayyad empire conquered Punjab in the 8th century CE, Punjab was later invaded by Tamerlane, Babur, and Nader Shah. Punjab reached the height of its splendour during the reign of the Mughal Empire, following a successful rebellion, Sikh-led armies claimed Lahore in 1759. The administration of the Sikh Empire was based out of Lahore, the province was formed when the Punjab province of British India was divided along religious boundaries in 1947 by the Radcliffe Line after Partition. Punjab is Pakistans most industrialised province with the industrial sector making up 24% of the gross domestic product. Punjab is known in Pakistan for its prosperity, and has the lowest rate of poverty amongst all Pakistani provinces. Punjab is also one of South Asias most urbanized regions with approximately 40% of people living in urban areas and its human development index rankings are high relative to the rest of Pakistan. Punjab is known in Pakistan for its relatively liberal social attitudes, the province has been strongly influenced by Sufism, with numerous Sufi shrines spread across Punjab which attract millions of devotees annually. The founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak, was born in the Punjab town of Nankana Sahib near Lahore, Punjab is also the site of the Katasraj Temple, which features prominently in Hindu mythology. Several UNESCO World Heritage Sites are located in Punjab, including the Shalimar Gardens, the Lahore Fort, the excavations at Taxila. The region was known to the Greeks as Pentapotamia, meaning the region of five rivers. The word Punjab was formally introduced in the early 17th century CE as an elision of the Persian words panj and āb, thus meaning the five rivers, similar in meaning to the Greek name for the region. The five rivers, namely Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, flow via the Panjnad River into the Indus River, of the five great rivers of Punjab, four course through Pakistans Punjab province. Due to its location, the Punjab region came under constant attack and witnessed centuries of invasions by the Persians, Greeks, Kushans, Scythians, Turks
3.
Pakistan
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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on the crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people, in terms of area, it is the 33rd-largest country in the world with an area covering 881,913 square kilometres. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistans narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries in that it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and it is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic, an ethnic civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The new constitution stipulated that all laws were to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran. Pakistan has an economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector. The Pakistani economy is the 24th-largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is backed by one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing middle classes. The post-independence history of Pakistan has been characterised by periods of military rule, the country continues to face challenging problems such as illiteracy, healthcare, and corruption, but has substantially reduced poverty and terrorism and expanded per capita income. It is also a member of CERN. Pakistan is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the name Pakistan literally means land of the pure in Urdu and Persian. It is a play on the word pāk meaning pure in Persian and Pashto, the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan, the earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Vedic Civilization, characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of education in the world. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled this region, the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, which, under Dharampala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711 AD, the Pakistan governments official chronology identifies this as the time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Nasreddin Murat-Khan
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Nasreddin Murat-Khan TI was a Russian-born Pakistani architect and civil engineer. He is remembered most for designing the monument, the Minar-i Pakistan. He was also the architect of the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore and several notable buildings. Murat-Khan was born in 1904 in a Turkic Muslim family, in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan located in the Russian Empire, in 1930, he obtained his degree of civil engineering from the Institute of Architects, Town Planners and Civil Engineers at Leningrad State University. Later, he obtained degrees of architecture and town planning from the same university. Murat-Khan was keen to free the Muslim Caucasus region from Soviet control, as a result, he had to flee from Dagestan—for the fear of his life—to Germany where he landed sometime in 1944. He stayed as a refugee in one of the established by the UNRRA in Berlin, later moving to Mittenwald where he married Hamida Akmut. After the six-year-long exile in West Germany, Murat-Khan migrated with his family to Pakistan, Murat-Khan died of a heart attack on 15 October 1970. In 1930, Nasreddin held a variety of posts in Dagestan and he later served as Chief Engineer and Director of the North Caucasian Project Trust in Woroschilowsk, Ukraine, till August 1942. Murat-Khan planned and designed buildings of the Soviet Union, which includes a Lenin Memorial. In 1950, after his migration to Pakistan, he was hired as Executive Engineer for PWD at Wah Ordinance Factory and he then was reassigned in 1951 as Special Architect, B&R Deptt. PWD, where he designed the buildings of the Nishtar Hospital, Murat-Khans most notable and memorable work is his design of the Minar-i Pakistan monument, located at Minto Park in the walled city of Lahore. The foundation stone of Minar-i Pakistan was laid at Minto Park on 23 March 1960, Murat-Khan was very keen on the supervision of the construction and the design. He frequently visited the site to inspect building material, construction quality and he did not take his prescribed fee of Rs.250,000 and instead donated the amount to the fund created for financing the construction of the Minar-i Pakistan. The construction of the tower took eight years and by 31 October 1968, in recognition of Murat-Khans services, the then President of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan, conferred on him the Tamghah-yi Imtiyaz in 1963. Murat-Khan was of the view that each body should have a chief architect of its own. He was also a proponent of Islamic architecture, advocating the retention of a character in Pakistani architecture. 30–31, retrieved 13 January 2014, Mr. Nasreddin Murat Khan wondered why there were no chief architects or separate architects for corporations and major municipal committees
6.
Urdu
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Urdu is a persianized standard register of the Hindustani language. It is the language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, hyderabad, Rampur, Bhopal and Lucknow are noted Urdu-speaking cities of India. Urdu is historically associated with the Muslims of the northern Indian subcontinent, apart from specialized vocabulary, Urdu is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi, another recognized register of Hindustani. Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani, Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech. Around 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit, Urdu words originating from Chagatai and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ta marbuta changes to he or te, nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the Turkish language, but from Chagatai. Urdu and Turkish borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu, Arabic influence in the region began with the late first-millennium Arab invasion of India in the 7th century. The Persian language was introduced into the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties including that of the Delhi Sultanate. With the advent of the British Raj, Persian was no longer the language of administration but Hindustani, still written in the Persian script, the name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century Urdu was commonly known as Hindi, the language was also known by various other names such as Hindavi and Dehlavi. The communal nature of the language lasted until it replaced Persian as the language in 1837 and was made co-official. Urdu was promoted in British India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian and this triggered a Brahman backlash in northwestern India, which argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script. At independence, Pakistan established a highly Persianized literary form of Urdu as its national language, English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localized wherever it is spoken, similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects like Dakhni of South India, and Khariboli of the Punjab region since recent times. Because of Urdus similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can understand one another if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. The syntax, morphology, and the vocabulary are essentially identical. Thus linguists usually count them as one language and contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons
7.
All-India Muslim League
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The All-India Muslim League was a political party established during the early years of the 20th century in the British Indian Empire. Its strong advocacy for the establishment of a separate Muslim-majority nation-state, Pakistan, the party arose out of a literary movement begun at The Aligarh Muslim University in which Syed Ahmad Khan was a central figure. Sir Syed had founded, in 1886, the Muhammadan Educational Conference, at its December 1906 conference in Dhaka, attended by 3,000 delegates, the conference removed the ban and adopted a resolution to form an All Indian Muslim League political party. Its original political goal was to define and advance the Indian Muslims civil rights and to provide protection to the upper, after the partition and subsequent establishment of Pakistan, the Muslim League continued as a minor party in India where it was often part of the government. In Bangladesh, the Muslim League was revived in 1976 but it was reduced, furthermore, it was the only party to have received votes from both East and West Pakistan during the elections held in 1970. During the successive periods of Pakistan, the Muslim League continued to be a party in the different periods of Pakistan. Since 1985, the Pakistan Muslim League split into various factions, however, the PML-N remains to be influential faction than others, and has been in power during the elections held in 1990 and in the 1997. As of current of 2013 elections, the PML-N remains to be a party of Pakistan. The All-India Muslim League was formed with the help from the reformist Syed Ahmad Khan and his strong advocacy for British education and political activism had inspired upper class Muslims to support the cause for the AIML. Originally hosting the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference in 1886 in a vision to uplift the cause for the British education especially science and literature, in turn this new awareness of Muslim needs helped stimulate a political consciousness among Muslim elites that went on to form the AIML. The formation of a Muslim political party on national level was seen as essential by 1901, the first stage of its formation was the meeting held at Lucknow in September 1906, with participation of representatives from all over India. The decision for re-consideration to form the all Indian Muslim political party was taken, meanwhile, Nawab Salimullah Khan published a detailed scheme through which he suggested the party to be named All-India Muslim Confederacy. That was headed by both Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk and Nawab Muhasan-ul-Mulk, in which he explained its objectives and stressed the unity of the Muslims under the banner of an association, the political party was established at the end of the conference. The name All-India Muslim League was proposed by Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi, Sir Agha Khan III was appointed its first president. Fifty eight delegates from all over the Subcontinent were the members of League. The Leagues constitution was framed in 1907 in Karachi, in 1910, Nawaab Syed Shamsul Huda selected as the president of the party. Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah was appointed the first Honorary President of the Muslim League, the headquarters were established at Lucknow. There were also six vice-presidents, a secretary and two joint secretaries initially appointed for a term, proportionately from different provinces
8.
Lahore Resolution
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Although the name Pakistan had been proposed by Choudhary Rahmat Ali in his Pakistan Declaration, it was not until after the resolution that it began to be widely used. According to Stanley Wolpert, this was the moment when Muhammad Ali Jinnah, within the Muslim League Working Committee, various sub-committees were established, numerous proposals were presented with the final decision resting with the British. However, when the British saw that their objectives could not be met, I have already sent it to your attention. I have also asked him for further clarification, which, he says, is forthcoming and he is anxious, however, that no one should find out that he has prepared this plan. He has, however, given me the right to do with it what I like, copies have been passed on to Jinnah, and, I think, to Sir Akbar Hydari. The welcome address was made by Sir Shah Nawaz Khan of Mamdot, the resolution text unanimously accepted the concept of a united homeland for Muslims on the grounds of growing inter-communal violence and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state. After the presentation of the report by Liaquat Ali Khan. Fazlul Huq, the minister of undivided Bengal, and was seconded by Choudhury Khaliquzzaman who explained his views on the causes which led to the demand for partition. In the same session, Jinnah also presented a resolution to condemn the Khaksar massacre of 19 March, in 1946, it formed the basis for the decision of Muslim League to struggle for one state for the Muslims. It is landmark document in history of Pakistan, abdul Hashim of the Bengal Muslim League interpreted the text as a demand for two separate countries. However, it was opposed by Lord Mountbatten, the Muslim League, the Congress, although there were and continue to be disagreements on the interpretation of the resolution, it was widely accepted that it called for a separate Muslim state. Opposing opinions focus on the independent states claiming this means Muslim majority provinces, i. e. Punjab, Sindh. They ignore the phrase geographically contiguous units and they also rely on the claims of certain Bengali nationalists who did not agree with one state. They accuse their opponents of diverting the spirit of the resolution, the majority of the Muslim League leadership contended that it was intended for not only the separation of India but into only 2 states. Therefore, it is indeed a statement calling for independence and one Muslim state, eventually, the name Pakistan was used for the envisioned state. The Sindh assembly was the first British Indian legislature to pass the resolution in favour of Pakistan, a key motivating factor was the promise of autonomy and sovereignty for constituent units. This text was buried under the Minar-e-Pakistan during its building in the Ayub regime, in this session the political situation was analysed in detail and Muslim demanded a separate homeland only to maintain their identification and to safeguard their rights. Pakistan resolution was the landmark in the history of Muslim of South-Asia and it determined for the Muslims a true goal and their homeland in north-east and north-west
9.
Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco
10.
Presidencies and provinces of British India
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Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of British India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in the subcontinent. Collectively, they were called British India, in one form or other they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods. During 1612–1757, the East India Company set up factories in several locations, mostly in coastal India and its rivals were the merchant trading companies of Holland and France. By the mid-18th century, three Presidency towns, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta had grown in size, during the period of Company rule in India, 1757–1858, the Company gradually acquired sovereignty over large parts of India, now called Presidencies. However, it increasingly came under British government oversight, in effect sharing sovereignty with the Crown. At the same time it gradually lost its mercantile privileges, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Companys remaining powers were transferred to the Crown. In the new British Raj, sovereignty extended to a few new regions, increasingly, however, unwieldy presidencies were broken up into Provinces. In 1608, the English East India Company established a settlement at Surat, and it was followed in 1611 by a permanent factory at Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast, and in 1612 the company joined other already established European trading companies in Bengal. Company rule in Bengal, however, ended with the Government of India Act 1858 following the events of the Bengal Rebellion of 1857 and these rulers were allowed a measure of internal autonomy in exchange for British suzerainty. British India constituted a significant portion of India both in area and population, in 1910, for example, it covered approximately 54% of the area, in addition, there were Portuguese and French exclaves in India. Independence from British rule was achieved in 1947 with the formation of two nations, the Dominions of India and Pakistan, the latter also including East Bengal, present-day Bangladesh. The term British India also applied to Burma for a time period, starting in 1824, a small part of Burma. This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma commenced being administered as a separate British colony, British India did not apply to other countries in the region, such as Sri Lanka, which was a British Crown colony, or the Maldive Islands, which were a British protectorate. It also included the Colony of Aden in the Arabian Peninsula, the original seat of government was at Allahabad, then at Agra from 1834 to 1868. Bombay Presidency, East India Companys headquarters moved from Surat to Bombay in 1687, the East India Company, which was incorporated on 31 December 1600, established trade relations with Indian rulers in Masulipatam on the east coast in 1611 and Surat on the west coast in 1612. The company rented a trading outpost in Madras in 1639, meanwhile, in eastern India, after obtaining permission from the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to trade with Bengal, the Company established its first factory at Hoogly in 1640. Almost a half-century later, after Emperor Aurengzeb forced the Company out of Hooghly, by the mid-18th century the three principal trading settlements, now called the Madras Presidency, the Bombay Presidency, and the Bengal Presidency were each administered by a Governor. After Robert Clives victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in 1772, the Company also obtained the Nizāmat of Bengal and thereby full sovereignty of the expanded Bengal Presidency
Pakistan
