Islamabad, Pakistan

According to abbreviationfinder, Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan, located on the Potwar Plateau in the north of the country. It was built during the 1960s as a planned city to replace Karachi as the Pakistani capital, its name in Urdu means: “Inhabited by Islam”.

History

The area where Islamabad is located has historically been part of the crossroads of Punjab and the Northwest Frontier.

The emergence of the city has its origins in 1946 when Pakistan became independent from India, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge in Karachi, which was the city chosen as the capital of the new country. Due to this, the population grew explosively and by 1950 its population had risen from half a million residents to two million.

The extraordinary growth of the population of this city brought about the clash between different ethnic groups for which the government of Pakistan under the leadership of President Ayub Jan decided that Karachi would not continue to be the capital of the country, since it had become a city too socially and politically unstable to install the government in it, they also stated that it was not located in a central point of the country and defined that the new capital of Pakistan would be called Islamabad, the “city of Islam “, which would be erected as a symbol of a Young and progressive Islamic State.

In the 1960s the city was built to replace Karachi as the Pakistani capital, for which the development of the country was concentrated in that city and President Ayub Jan wanted to establish a more equitable distribution. For its construction, an area was chosen next to the ancient city of Rawalpindi (a former capital), which was designated a temporary capital. Jan was interested in this location as Rawalpindi was a garrison city loyal to his government.

In 1965 the University of Islamabad and the Quaid-i-Azam University were built.

On October 26, 1966, the city came to life by occupying the city’s first office building.

In 1967 the city of Islamabad officially became the capital of Pakistan. Islamabad is a modern and clean city, especially when compared to other Pakistani cities.

Geography

The modern city is situated on the edge of the Porhohar Plain, south of the Margalla Hills and only 14 km northwest of Rawalpindi, showing the past and present of the country. The historical ruins of ancient Taxila are located 30 km northwest of the city.

Climate

The city has an extreme climate with hot summers with monsoon rains that occur in July and August, and rather cold winters that bring snow to the hills.

The microclimate of the area is regulated by three artificial lakes (Rawal, Simli and Janpur Dam).

Population

The city has a population of over 805,000 residents. See population of Pakistan.

Districts

The city is divided into eight zones or sectors depending on their usefulness, among which the following stand out:

The diplomatic and government zone, the residential area, the commercial district, the educational one, the industrial zone and the recreational areas where there are plenty of shops dedicated to leisure and parks.

Architecture

The city of presents features of both modern and ancient architecture, the Saudi-Pak Tower being a good example of this.

Other significant buildings in the city are the National Assembly building (designed by Louis I. Kahn), the Pakistan House, where the president resides, and the botanical gardens. The most notable, representative and famous monument or building in Islamabad is the huge Faisal Mosque, known for its unique architecture and enormous dimensions. The cost of construction was covered by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan

Government and politics

Although it was officially declared a federal republic, in October 1999 General Pervez Musharraf overthrew the civilian government led by Nawaz Sharif and assumed executive power. Local government elections were held in 2000. Musharraf declared himself president in 2001. A new parliament was elected in 2002 and Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a faithful follower of Musharraf, was appointed prime minister. After more than a year of political bickering in the bicameral legislature, Musharraf made a compromise with some of his parliamentary opponents, giving his followers two-thirds of the majority vote required to amend the constitution in December 2003.. Constitutional reforms approved some of Musharraf’s decrees and retroactively legitimized his presidency by freeing him from the requirement of being elected to office.

Despite intermittent democratic periods, Pakistan has a long history of military dictatorships, including those of General Ayub Khan in the 1960s, General Zia Ul Haq in the 1980s, and General Pervez Musharraf from 1999 onwards. the elections of the 6 of October of 2007, Pervez Musharraf had promised to resign as head of the army and carry out a civilian government. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to the country days later after several years in exile, hoping for a gradual return to democracy. However, on November 3 there was a self-coup, overturning the promises of opening and starting a new military dictatorship with Musharraf at the head. On December 27 of that same year, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in an attack.

The 18 of August of 2008 Pervez Musharraf resigned to avoid impeachment by the National Assembly was to vote for the next day by the parties that were supporting the government. He was replaced on an interim basis by Muhammad Mian Soomro, president of the Senate, as envisaged by the constitution until the election of a new president. In the presidential elections held on September 6, Asif Ali Zardari was elected president.

Political-administrative organization

Pakistan is a federation of four provinces

• Baluchistan.
• Northwest Frontier.
• Punjab.