A fools guide to Pakistan.

[Kaptaan]

Okay, Pakistan is a country and land often misunderstood. In this thread I will offer up the country in easy bitesized portions to help perhaps clear the confusion surrounding this country.

I begin by introducing the countries geography and the lay of the land. The most defining feature of Pakistan is the Indus River. Most people know that Egypt is gift of River Nile. Well Pakistan is even more the product of Indus River. Almost the entire country is wrapped around the length of Indus River. The river literally forms the spine of Pakistan as it flows along the length of the country from the lofy Karakorum Mountains in the extreme north to 1,000 miles south to discharging into the Arabian Sea.

Along it's 1,000 mile journey from high Karakorums to the Arabian Sea the Indus River flows through almost every climate zone with exception of tropics. From glaciers in Karakorum, to alpine zone in Kohistan, to Mediteranean in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, to semi desert in Punjab to dry as bone deserts in Sindh before flowing into the Arabia Sea.

However over the last 100 years Indus has become feeder for one of the largest irrigation systems in the world which has turned most of Punjab into fertile farmlands and the breadbasket of Pakistan. With out a doubt if Indus dried up Pakistan would be finished as water for cities and farms would dry up. If you look at satellite images of the Indus Basin you can see the green irrigated strip running along the Indus River all the way south to Arabian Sea with deserts on both sides.

Over the decades huge dams have been built on the Indus to store massive reservoirs that provide the water for the farms in lower Punab which is relayed to them by complex system of canals.

Tarbela Dam. with Indus River in the background.

 

[Kaptaan]

Now we will move to the recent political history of the Indus region. Before moving to the present [Pakstan] I want to look at yesterday [British Raj] and the day before yesterday [before British conquest]. The region has history going back to before Ancient Egypt but we will look at that later.

Before the British conquest this is how the Indus Basin looked like in 1840s. There were about four political entities ruling the region with the vast British Indian Empire to the east. The four entities which are antecedents of modern Pakistan were -

Map of Indus Basin in 1840 before British invasion. You can see the outlines of modern Pakistan. These entities would eventually form the composite Pakistan today.

1. Various Balochi khanates ruled by tribal khans which covered most of modern province of Balochistan.

2. Cabul Kingdom which was ruling from what is today Kabul and covered southern portion of modern Khyber Pakhtunkwa province.

3. Punjab which was then ruled by Sikhs based out of Lahore and was powerful empire. It covered all of modern Punjab Province of Pakistan and included northern portion of Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province.

Flag of Punjab.

4. Emirate of Sindh which covered all of modern province of Sindh. This emirate was ruled by the Mir of Talpur dynasty which had long history and would eventually be wiped out after the British invaded Sindh.

Flag of Emirate of Sindh.

Tombs of the Talpur Dynasty of Sindh.

However the British Empire had been eyeing the Indus region and in 1843 a large British Army led by Sir Charles Napier marched from India into Sindh at at Battle of Miani in 1843 defeated the gallant Sindhi's. Most of the Sindhi elite fought to death rather than become British slaves and part of 'INDIA'. It is important to note here Sindhi's did not choose to become Indians or part of India. British guns and bayonets forced them. Most of the Talpur ruling dynasty was wiped out by British to make sure there would be no threat to their rule of resurrection of independent Sindh.

British Army fighting the Sindhi Army at Battle of Miani 1843.

The memorial to Battle of Miani 1843 today erected by the British victors in honour of their dead.

Plaque on the memorial detailing General Charles Napier, British Army regiments involved and the dead. The battle was about Sindhi's not wanting conquered and to be integrated with India. By 1843 thus lower Indus region and Sindh had become British India.

A few years later the British turned their attention on Punjab and in 1849 a full scale invasion by a British Army was in progress. After few critical battles Punjab was defeated in 1849 and the entire norther Indus basin including all of modern Punjab Province, portion of Khyber Paktunkwa and most of Kashmir was under British rule and annexed into British India. Further minor battles took place as British army moved into Balochistan and defeated the tribal khans there. Thus by 1849 and this date is important - 1849 what is now Pakistan had come under British rule and annexed into British Indian Empire.

Graves of British soldiers in Punjab, Pakistan from 1849 where they fell in the Battle for Punjab.

Plaque to the British dead in Punjab, Pakistan today.

Monument to the Battle of Chillianwala, Pakistan in which this region fell under British rule.

 

[Kaptaan]

This is what the Indus Basin looked like before the British invasion of 1849 with it's various kingdoms etc.

This is what the Indus Basin looked like after the British conquest of 1849. Subsequently the British organized the region into 5 provinces/princely states - Punjab, NWFP, Kashmir, Sindh, Balochistan. It had all gone red and part of the vast British Indian Empire that went nearly 2,000 miles east and included Burma or modern Myanmar, Bangladesh, India within it's borders and was ran by a British viceroy from Calcutta.

Keep this date in mind please:

1849.

 

[Kaptaan]

A few decades after the British had annexed the Indus Basin a young student in Lahore by the name Rehmat Ali formed the organization Bazm-i-Shibili in 1915. Bazm-i-Shibli's vision was a independent Muslim state on Indus basin.

By 1933 Rehmat Ali now a student in Cambridge University along with four others [two Pakhtuns and two Punjabis] formed the Pakistan Movement and published the pamphlet 'Now or Never' which explained the acronym 'PAKSTAN' as follows.

Rehmat Ali has the distinction of having coined the name 'PAKSTAN' by simply using the names of the five Muslim provinces on the Indus basin as can be seen above. Thus PAKISTAN is a acronym as is NATO or UN etc and blueprint of the country that would become independent 98 years after the British conquest of the Indus in 1947. The British conquest of 1849 was undone in 1947.

NOTE:

• NWFP or Afghania is today renamed Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province. Kashmir is divided and subject of dispute with India.
• Five provinces of Pakistan have their own elected governments headed by Chief Ministers and analogous to US states.
• Five provinces have their own capitals; Punjab - Lahore. K-Pk - Peshawar. Kashmir - Muzafarabad. Sindh - Karachi. Balochistan - Quetta.
• All five provinces federate to form the federal government at Islamabad with Prime Minister to be chief executive of the state which looks after taxation, defence, central bank with most of other functions left to the provinces including police forces.

The present structure of the five unit as imagined by Rehmat Ali in his pamphlet 'NOW or NEVER' in 1933 with federal capital at Islamabad and River Indus forming the spine of the country.

Caveat: To keep it simple I have had to by neccessity reduce the content. As we move forward I will build up and refine the details. But I think this gives a good intro to the unitiated.

The four founders of the Pakistan movement along with Rehmat Ali.