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PAKISTAN


Location
Southern Asia, bordering Afghanistan 2,430 km, China 523 km, India 2,912 km, Iran 909 km


Capital
Islamabad


Population
159,196,336 (July 2004 est.)


Ethnic Make-up
Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun (Pathan), Baloch, Muhajir (immigrants from India at the time of partition and their descendants)


Religions
Muslims 97% (Sunni 77%, Shi'a 20%), Christian, Hindu, and other (inc. Sikh) 3%


Languages

Urdu is the only official language of Pakistan. Although English is generally used instead of Urdu in this regard. English is the lingua franca of the Pakistani elite and most of the government ministries.
Urdu is closely related to Hindi but is written in an extended Arabic alphabet rather than in Devanagari. Urdu also has more loans from Arabic and Persian than Hindi has.
Many other languages are spoken in Pakistan, including Punjabi, Siraiki, Sindhi, Pashtu, Balochi, Hindko, Brahui, Burushaski, Balti, Khawar, Gujrati and other languages with smaller numbers of speakers.