Country Information

The country of Pakistan borders Iran, Afghanistan, China and India. The capital city is Islamabad, though Pakistan’s largest city and main port is Karachi, with a population of 12 million people. The last country census (2005) calculates the total population at just over 159 million people, less than 3.3 million of whom reside in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir earthquake-affected regions.

Punjabi is the largest ethnic group in Pakistan. Other groups include Sindhi, Pashtun, Baloch, and Muhajir. Urdu is the official language. Punjabi (48%), Sindhi (12 %), Pashto (8%), and Bloch and Mujahir are also spoken. Ninety-seven percent of Pakistanis are Muslim: of these, 77 % are Sunni and 20% are Shi’a. The remaining 3% are Hindus, Christians, and other religions.

Political and Economic Environment

Pakistan is a federal republic government. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan was founded on August 14, 1947 as part of the partition of India at the end of the British colonial period. At its founding Pakistan included present day Pakistan and Bangladesh. In 1971, Eastern Pakistan seceded and Bangladesh became a nation. General Pervez Musharraf, the current President, seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and upon restoration of the Constitution became President on October 31, 2002. General Musharraf’s term in office was extended by referendum until 2007. Pakistan is a secular state, but several parts of the country are dominated by political and religious movements seeking to push the country towards becoming a state governed by Islamic religious law.

Relations between Pakistan and India have been strained since the founding of the two countries, complicated by the fact that both possess nuclear weapons and are involved in the struggle surrounding the identity of Kashmir. These tensions have led Pakistan to devote a good deal of its resources to its military. Pakistan has the 8th largest army in the world and often contributes troops to UN peacekeeping efforts. Pakistan and India have not yet resolved their political differences, but it is possible that enhanced regional cooperation during the recent humanitarian disaster could improve relations.

Pakistan is also a heavily indebted, underdeveloped country. Its main industries are textiles, food processing, construction materials, and clothing. The economy is heavily dependent on remittances from overseas labor. Child labor is widely used in Pakistan.

Humanitarian Situation

In the 1990s Pakistan hosted more than four million Afghan refugees on its territory. While many of these refugees return after the fall of the Taliban in the winter of 2001, there are still around two million Afghans in Pakistan. In September 2005, Pakistan suddenly announced the forced repatriation of these refugees for ‘security reasons’ to curb militancy in tribal areas along the Afghan border.

This ‘repatriation’ project had to be put on hold with the recent earthquake that has devastated the Northern areas of Pakistan. Humanitarian agencies and the Pakistani military are delivering critical relief supplies and creating distribution points in higher elevations to ensure that affected populations can survive the brutal Himalayan winter, but it is still unclear whether supplies will reach all of those in need. Delivering relief supplies throughout the earthquake affected areas is a logistical nightmare, particularly in higher elevations. Even before the earthquake, particularly in higher elevations, many areas were inaccessible by road. Coordination of the various actors providing emergency relief has been problematic. A new approach at delivering aid, called the cluster response, is being applied for the first time in Pakistan, even though it was intended for use in responding to conflicted-related emergencies rather than natural disasters.

Updated January 2006