Inzibat 2018-19

Salaam to All, In 1992 some 35 million Pakistanis , or about 30 percent of the population, were unable to afford nutritionally adequate food or to afford any nonfood items at all. Of these, 24.3 million lived in rural areas, where they constituted 29 percent of the population. Urban areas, with one-third of the national population , had a poverty rate of 26 percent. Between 1985 and 1991 , about 85 percent of rural residents and 100 percent of urban dwellers had access to some kind of Western or biomedical health care; but 12.9 million people had no access to health services. Only 45 percent of rural people had safe water as compared with 80 percent of urbanites, leaving 55 million without potable water. Also in the same period, only 10 percent of rural residents had access to modern sanitation while 55 percent of city residents did; a total of 94.9 million people hence were without sanitary facilities. In the early 1990s, the leading causes of death remained gastroenteritis, respi...

Salaam to All, The most visible groups of non-Muslim minorities are Hindus and Christians . Hindus are found largely in the interior of Sindh and in the vicinity of Quetta in Balochistan. Christians, representing almost all West European dominations, are found throughout the country; many are engaged in menial work. Other minorities include Zoroastrians ( also called Parsis ), largely concentrated in Karachi , and members of groups relatively recently designated as non-Muslim, notably the Ahmadiyyas. The various religious minority groups have secured separate representation in national and provincial assemblies but still have limited influence on national policy. They finally united around a common issue in October 1992 when the government of Nawaz Sharif decreed that religious affiliation would be indicated on identity cards. These cards were needed for a range of activities, including attending school, opening a bank account, registering to vote, casting a vote, and obtaining a pas...

Salaam to All , From the outset, politics and religion have been intertwined both conceptually and practically in Islam. Because the Prophet established a government in Medina, precedents of governance and taxation exist. Through the history of Islam, from the Ummayyad (661-750) and Abbasid empires ( 750-1258 ) to the Mughals ( 1526- 1858 ) and the Ottomans (1300-1923), religion and statehood have been treated as one. Indeed, one of the beliefs of Islam is that the purpose of the state is to provide an environment where Muslims can properly practice their religion. If a leader fails in this, the people have a right to depose him. In 1977 the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto outlawed alcohol and changed the " day off " from Sunday to Friday, but no substantive Islamic reform program was implemented prior to General Zia's Islamization program. Starting in February 1979, new penal measures based on Islamic principles of justice went into effect. These carried considerabl...

Salaam to All , Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan . Pakistan has been called a " global center for political Islam ". About 97.0% of Pakistanis are Muslims. Pakistan has the second largest number of Muslims in the world after Indonesia. The majority are Sunni (75–95%) while Shias make up between 5–20% and Ahmadis (considered by the constitution of Pakistan to be non-Muslims) are 1–2%.   Islam was brought to the South Asian subcontinent in the eighth century by wandering Sufi mystics known as pir. As in other areas where it was introduced by Sufis, Islam to some extent syncretized with preIslamic influences, resulting in a religion traditionally more flexible than in the Arab world. Two Sufis whose shrines receive much national attention are Data Ganj Baksh in Lahore (ca. eleventh century) and Shahbaz Qalander in Sehwan , Sindh (ca. twelfth century). The Muslim poet-philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal first proposed ...

Salaam to All , WHEN BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGIST Sir Mortimer Wheeler was commissioned in 1947 by the government of Pakistan to give a historical account of the then new country, he entitled his work 5 Thousand Years of Pakistan . Indeed, Pakistan has a history that can be dated back to the Indus Valley civilization (ca. 2500-1600 B.C.), the principal sites of which lay in present-day Sindh and Punjab provinces. Pakistan was later the entryway for the migrating pastoral tribes known as Indo-Aryans, or simply Aryans, who brought with them and developed the rudiments of the religio-philosophical system of what later evolved into Hinduism . They also brought an early version of Sanskrit, the base of Urdu , Punjabi , and Sindhi languages that are spoken in much of Pakistan today. Hindu rulers were eventually displaced by Muslim invaders, who, in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, entered northwestern India through the same passes in the mountains used earlier by the Indo-Aryans. The c...

Salaam to All , A preface (/ˈprɛfɪs/) or proem (/ˈproʊɛm/) is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a foreword and precedes an author's preface. This edition supersedes the second edition of Pakistan: A Country Study, published in 1983 under the editorship of Richard F. Nyrop . Like its predecessor, the present book is an attempt to treat in a compact and objective manner the dominant historical, social, economic, political, and national security aspects of contemporary Pakistan. Sources of information included scholarly books, journals, and monographs; official reports and documents of governments and international organizations; foreign and domestic newspapers and periodicals; and interviews with individuals with special competence in South Asian affairs . Relatively up-to-date economic data were available from several sources, but the sources were not always in agreement. Most d...

Salaam to All , The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of the writers of the 1983 edition of Pakistan: A Country Study, edited by Richard F. Nyrop . Portions of their work were incorporated into this volume. The authors are also grateful to individuals in various United States government agencies and diplomatic and private institutions who shared their time, research materials, and expertise about Pakistan. Special thanks are owed to the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington ; to Anne T. Sweetser for her helpful comments on Pakistani society and culture; and to Mustapha Kamal Pasha at the American University and Barbara Leitch LePoer at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, for their insightful comments on various parts of the manuscript. Thanks are also given to Ralph K. Benesch, who oversees the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program for the Department of the Army. The authors also wish to thank members of the Federal Research Division staff who contrib...

Salaam to All, At independence, Pakistan had a poorly educated population and few schools or universities. Although the education system has expanded greatly since then, debate continues about the curriculum, and, except in a few elite institutions, quality remained a crucial concern of educators in the early 1990s. Adult literacy is low, but improving. In 1992 more than 36 percent of adults over fifteen were literate, compared with 21 percent in 1970. The rate of improvement is highlighted by the 50 percent literacy achieved among those aged fifteen to nineteen in 1990. School enrollment also increased, from 19 percent of those aged six to twenty-three in 1980 to 24 percent in 1990. However, by 1992 the population over twenty-five had a mean of only 1.9 years of schooling. This fact explains the minimal criteria for being considered literate: having the ability to both read and write (with understanding) a short, simple statement on everyday life. Relatively limited resources hav...