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    Insight Guides Pakistan (Travel Guide eBook)
    Insight Guides Pakistan (Travel Guide eBook)
    Insight Guides Pakistan (Travel Guide eBook)
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    Insight Guides Pakistan (Travel Guide eBook)

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    Insight Guides Pakistan

    Travel made easy. Ask local experts. 
    Comprehensive travel guide packed with inspirational photography and fascinating cultural insights.

    From deciding when to go, to choosing what to see when you arrive, this guide to Pakistan is all you need to plan your perfect trip, with insider information on must-see, top attractions like Badshahi Mosque, the Karakoram Highway and Mohenjo-daro, and cultural gems like the breathtaking Lahore Fort, the eerie beauty of the Hunza valley and the bustling bazaars and buildings of Peshawar's Old City.

    Features of this travel guide to Pakistan:
    - Inspirational colour photography: discover the best destinations, sights and excursions, and be inspired by stunning imagery
    -Historical and cultural insights: immerse yourself in Pakistan'srich history and culture, and learn all about its people, art and traditions
    -Practical full-colour maps: with every major sight and listing highlighted, the full-colour maps make on-the-ground navigation easy
    - Editor's Choice: uncover the best of Pakistan with our pick of the region's top destinations
    -Key tips and essential information: packed full of important travel information, from transport and tipping to etiquette and hours of operation
    - Covers: (Sindh) Karachi; Lower Sindh and the Thar Desert; Up and down the Indus; Mohenjo-daro; (Punjab) Islamabad, Rawalpindi and the Murree Hills; The Grand Trunk Road to Attock; Taxila; The Grand Trunk Road to Lahore; Lahore; Around Lahore; South Punjab; (Balochistan) A tour of Balochistan; (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Peshawar and the Khyber Pass; Takht-e-Bahi; The Swat Valley; (The Karakoram to the Hindu Kush) Karakoram Highway to Hunza; Balitisan; To Chitral

    Are you also travelling to India? Check out Insight Guides India for a detailed and entertaining look at all the country has to offer.

    About Insight Guides: Insight Guidesis a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInsight Guides
    Release dateJan 1, 2020
    ISBN9781839052583
    Insight Guides Pakistan (Travel Guide eBook)
    Author

    Insight Guides

    Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

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      Pakistan’s Top 10 Attractions

      Top Attraction 1

      Badshahi Mosque. Though no longer the largest of Pakistan’s mosques, this icon of Lahore is the grandest and most treasured of Pakistan’s Mughal monuments. For more information, click here.

      Shutterstock

      Top Attraction 2

      The Karakoram Highway. Along this legendary route – from the lowlands to Gilgit and onwards to Kashgar on the old Silk Road – is some of the most impressive mountain terrain on the planet. It also links up with the even more dramatic Skardu Road. For more information, click here.

      Getty Images

      Top Attraction 3

      Baltistan. Once known as Little Tibet, this remote region is a trekker’s and mountaineer’s dream, home to the Baltoro Glacier, K2 and other giants of the Karakoram. For more information, click here.

      Shutterstock

      Top Attraction 4

      Mohenjo-daro. The most impressive remains of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which flourished in the region between 3,000 and 1,500 BC. The city had a grid layout of streets, brick houses complete with plumbing, public baths, workshops and stores. For more information, click here.

      Getty Images

      Top Attraction 5

      Nanga Parbat. This awesome peak – dubbed Killer Mountain for being a particularly forbidding climb – marks the eastern end of the Himalayas, dominating the views from the idyllic Fairy Meadows. For more information, click here.

      Shutterstock

      Top Attraction 6

      Lahore Fort. One of the great Mughal forts, with splendid courtyards, pavilions and palaces, including Shah Jahan’s breathtaking Shish Mahal (Palace of Mirrors). For more information, click here.

      Getty Images

      Top Attraction 7

      Makran Coast. A place of sublime beauty, with bizarre, lunar landscapes and great hammerhead peninsulas dropping into the Arabian Sea. For more information, click here.

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      Top Attraction 8

      Peshawar’s Old City. Centring around the sensitively restored Bazaar-e-Kalan with its carved mansions, Peshawar’s old bazaars are among the most immersive in the country. For more information, click here.

      Alamy

      Top Attraction 9

      Mazar-e-Quaid. Surrounded by a beautifully kept garden complex, this imposing marble monument is where millions come to pay their respects to the nation’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. For more information, click here.

      Shutterstock

      Top Attraction 10

      Hunza. This valley has an almost eerie beauty, its tapestry of terraced fields and irrigation channels bespeckled with poplars and dominated by the snow-covered hulk of Rakaposhi. For more information, click here.

      Shutterstock

      Editor’s Choice

      Cathedral Spires on the Karakoram Highway.

      Getty Images

      Magnificent mosques

      Badshahi Mosque. Among Lahore’s most famous landmarks, built by Aurangzeb to accommodate up to 60,000 worshippers. For more information, click here.

      Wazir Khan Mosque. Also in Lahore, built during the reign of Shah Jahan and famous for its tilework. For more information, click here.

      Mahabat Khan Mosque. Peshawar’s finest example of Mughal architecture, this brilliant marble mosque lies in the Old City’s gold and silver bazaar. For more information, click here.

      Bhong Mosque. Built over a period of 50 years in the 20th century, this is an eclectic mix of techniques and styles. For more information, click here.

      Shah Jahan Mosque. Sindh’s outstanding contribution to Pakistan’s Mughal heritage, famous for its acoustics and calligraphy. For more information, click here.

      Shah Faisal Mosque. Islamabad’s beautiful modern mosque, with enormous tent roof and pointy minarets. For more information, click here.

      Shah Faisal Mosque, Islamabad.

      Shutterstock

      Mountain scenery

      Cathedral Spires. One of the most awesome sights along the Karakoram Highway (KKH), this row of jagged granite peaks can be seen from the tiny town of Passu. For more information, click here.

      Chitral. A hidden paradise in the far northwest, dominated by Tirich Mir, the highest mountain in the Hindu Kush. For more information, click here.

      Swat Valley. A scenic trip from the Vale of Peshawar up to Mingora and beyond. For more information, click here.

      Nanga Parbat. The Killer Mountain, breathtaking from all sides – though particularly so from its sheer vertical Rupal Face. For more information, click here.

      The Kirthars. Gorgeous sunsets overlook this barren and rugged range from the peaceful hill station of Gorakh. For more information, click here.

      Swat Valley stupa.

      Shutterstock

      Desert scenery

      Hingol National Park. These towering spires and deep, rugged valleys are reminiscent of the American West. For more information, click here.

      Salt Range. Jutting out of the Punjab plains, this is a fine place for walks and exploring Hindu ruins. For more information, click here.

      Thar Desert. Travel from village to village or fort to ruined fort, across sands hardly touched by tourism. For more information, click here.

      Katpana Desert. In stark contrast to its jagged mountain backdrop, the rolling dunes of Skardu Valley are touted as the world’s highest cold desert. For more information, click here.

      Skardu Valley.

      Getty Images

      Buddhist legacy

      Swat. The Swat Valley is sprinkled with dozens of Buddhist stupas and shrines, among them the recently restored Jahanabad Buddha, carved high into a cliff face. For more information, click here.

      Taxila. The remains of three ancient cities and numerous stupas, temples and monasteries dot the valley that was once the hub of Gandharan civilisation. For more information, click here.

      Takht-e-Bahi. Perhaps the most impressive Buddhist monastery complex in Pakistan, beautifully preserved and in a glorious location. For more information, click here.

      Peshawar Museum. While there are fascinating Gandharan exhibits in Taxila, Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi, the ancient Buddhist capital houses the most impressive collection. For more information, click here.

      Impressive forts

      Rohtas Fort. A fine example of Mughal military architecture just off the Grand Trunk Road south of Rawalpindi. For more information, click here.

      Baltit Fort. Dating back around 700 years, this Tibetan-style fort is defiantly perched on a strategic knoll overlooking the Hunza Valley. For more information, click here.

      Naukot. An astonishing brick-built edifice on the edge of the Thar Desert. For more information, click here.

      Rani Kot. In western Sindh beneath the Kirthar Range, this is claimed to be the largest fort in the world. For more information, click here.

      Bala Hisar. See the Changing of the Guard and the Regimental Museum in Peshawar’s historic bastion. For more information, click here.

      Rohtas Fort.

      Getty Images

      Shrines and tombs

      Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. This golden-domed shrine brings up to one million devotees to tiny Sehwan Sharif to honour the beloved saint and scholar. For more information, click here.

      Shah Jamal. Drummers doubling as dervishes perform at this shrine in Lahore every Thursday night until late. For more information, click here.

      Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Devotional music can be heard every night of the year at Bhit Shah’s glorious shrine of the revered poet. For more information, click here.

      Sheikh Rukn-e-Alam. The greatest shrine in that city of shrines, Multan. For more information, click here.

      Tomb of Bibi Jawindi. The most beautiful pre-Mughal building in Pakistan – despite half of it having been washed away. For more information, click here.

      Jahangir’s Tomb. At Shahdara in Lahore, this is an exquisite structure of red sandstone and marble. For more information, click here.

      Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

      Getty Images

      Best bazaars

      Peshawar. Each bazaar in the Old City is devoted to a product/trade: jewellery, meat, vegetables, brass and copper, leather, birds… and more. For more information, click here.

      Lahore. Saunter through the Kashmiri Bazaar (For more information, click here) and adjoining streets within the Old City; Anarkali (For more information, click here) is another fascinating place to browse.

      Hyderabad. Sindh’s second city has the longest bazaar in Pakistan, with congeries of alleys where almost anything may be purchased. Its clocktower was a British bequest. For more information, click here.

      Karachi. Another clocktower adorns Karachi’s covered Empress Market, which sells all manner of groceries. Zainab Market and Bohri Bazaar are also worth a visit. For more information, click here.

      Rawalpindi. Raja Bazaar is the bustling heart of Pindi’s Old City. For more information, click here.

      Faisalabad. Pakistan’s third-largest city centres around eight bazaars radiating outwards from another clocktower. For more information, click here.

      Spice seller in the iconic Empress Market, Karachi.

      Getty Images

      Rooms with a view

      Serena Shigar Fort. A beautiful heritage hotel in a magnificent location in the Karakoram, en route to K2. www.serenahotels.com.

      Hindu Kush Heights. The Chitral Valley’s most desirable place to stay, run by a descendant of the former rulers. www.hindukush.com.pk.

      The Raikot Sarai Fairy Meadows. Stay in cottages or tents in the glorious surroundings of Fairy Meadows beneath Nanga Parbat. For more information, click here.

      Eagle’s Nest. Offers nice rooms, good food and unrivalled views of the Hunza Valley. www.eaglesnesthotel.com.

      Pearl Continental. Top hotels in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Bhurban and Peshawar. www.pchotels.com.

      Memorable journeys

      Grand Trunk Road. So many sights to see along this historic highway. For more information, click here or click here.

      Khyber Pass. The famous pass can be visited by road, or aboard the Khyber Train Safari. For more information, click here.

      Islamabad–Gilgit flight. This takes just an hour, but the views of Nanga Parbat are stunning. For more information, click here.

      Biafo/Hispar Glacier Trek. This challenging 122km (75-mile) trek connects Baltistan with Hunza amid some awesome scenery. For more information, click here or click here.

      Bolan Pass by rail. Whether going to, or coming from Quetta, this is one of the world’s great railway journeys, criss-crossing over bridges and passing through numerous tunnels. For more information, click here.

      Makran Coastal Highway. The smooth highway from Karachi to Gwadar brings you to pristine beaches, lazy fishing villages and spectacular desert scenery. For more information, click here.

      Porter on the Biafo/Hispar Glacier Trek.

      Getty Images

      Culinary highlights

      Food Street. Lahore’s central Food Street has everything from kebabs to kulfi (ice cream) and Punjabi-style fish, along with views of Badshahi Mosque.

      Namak Mandi. Aromas of freshly barbecued meat billow up and down this famous Peshawar street, home to a number of Afghan restaurants.

      Seafood. Enjoy pomfret, king-sized prawns and other specialities served up in Karachi’s seafood restaurants.

      Apricots. Apricot soup (bateringe daudo) is just one of the specialities of Hunza; another is the meat-filled chapshuro.

      Dhabas. These are the truck drivers’ pull-ups. What is available in a dhaba may not be gracious living, but it is freshly cooked food.

      Posh restaurants. A bewildering choice along M. M. Alam Road in Lahore, at Zamzama, Edhi and Clifton in Karachi, and at all the top-end hotels. For more on food in Pakistan, click here.

      Kebabs in Lahore.

      Getty Images

      Shrine of Sachal Sarmast, the great Sufi poet, in Sindh.

      Getty Images

      A farmer crosses the Hussaini Hanging Bridge over the Hunza River in the Gojal Valley.

      Getty Images

      Temples near the town of Bilot Sharif.

      Getty Images

      Introduction: Land of the Indus

      An independent country since 1947, Pakistan is the inheritor of a long and varied history and rich cultural traditions.

      Up in the mighty Karakoram mountains in the north, the Indus river is still young as it cuts its way through some of the most forbidding country on earth. By the time it reaches the plains of Punjab it has matured, slowing right down to old age as it washes the banks of timeless Sindh before dying in the Arabian Sea. The journey ends but the flow is eternal. Since the beginning of time, the river has witnessed so much. Its blood-soaked sands have been the playground and burial place of some of the greatest imperialist adventurers – Iranian, Greek, Scythian, Turkish, Mughal and British. Alexander, Mahmud of Ghazni, Timur and countless warlords have furiously fought for imperial supremacy over the rugged land of the Indus Valley.

      Pakistan, the meeting place of many worlds, has not only provided the theatre for the ravages of invading armies. It has also been the abode of peace and prosperity for humanity on a very large scale. Ancient cities, some abandoned millennia ago and some still thriving in the modern age, are testimony to the fact that the Land of the Indus has provided for many of the world’s greatest civilisations.

      Since the Harappans, who built the world’s oldest advanced civic culture some 5,000 years ago, many have come and gone or come and stayed in and around the Indus Valley. From those early times, through the Vedic and Buddhist eras and on to the world of Islam, the Pakistanis of today are the common inheritors of some of the greatest cultural traditions of humanity.

      They are traditions that sail slowly along the river and plough the fields at the water’s edge and roll with the simple bullock cart along the endless track of time. They are traditions that have been written down in great epic poems or simply passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, which are now poured out in song and dance and music and verse. They sing of the call of the mountains and of love in the desert. They beat the drums and blow the bagpipes at the door of the holy man’s shrine.

      Emanating from the historical continuity of intensely human values, the cultural strength of the Pakistanis has grown not in spite of but because of the fact that so many people have chosen the Indus as a home, and even invaded it to fulfil their dreams.

      Tent pegging is still played in rural Punjab.

      Getty Images

      Mosque detail.

      iStock

      People

      It’s not easy to categorise the Pakistanis. They belong to different ethnic groups and different tribes, and they speak an array of different languages.

      Assuming that they have coped successfully with the culture shock induced in most Westerners by the sheer numbers of people to be seen on the busier streets of any Asian city, the first impression of Pakistanis likely to be gained by visitors to cities like Karachi, Lahore or Peshawar is of the variety of its inhabitants. Men in turbans with long flowing beards, dressed in all kinds of colourful regional attire, nudge against clean-shaven men attempting to get to the office, some dressed in suits and ties, but most in the more common salwar kameez (long shirt and baggy trousers). Women too, their faces often veiled, stride confidently through the bazaars.

      Cholistan farmer sitting with his camels.

      Getty Images

      Melting pot

      There are people from the country, people there to stay, people passing through. There will be youths jumping off fast-moving buses, stumbling across desert tribesmen selling their hand-knotted carpets in the market, where groups of other men with henna beards squat, chatting in a whole variety of languages and accents that nobody else in the vicinity understands. Nearby, on one side of the street, a man lights his water pipe behind his rows of spices, as the ladies return home with reams of new silk they have just bought from the same shop they always frequent. There are aristocratic-looking people milling around, whose ivory complexion indicates that they originate from Turkish or Iranian lands, while the poorer man selling his wares on the corner may have a much darker, South Indian complexion. There are people whose Caucasian features make them look remarkably European, and others who appear as direct descendants of Genghis Khan. From the tall and strapping to the slight and delicate, there is commonly such variety of people on the streets of a Pakistani city that the visitor may well ask himself the question, Who are the Pakistanis?

      Naran resident.

      Shutterstock

      Although this question has been endlessly posed in the debate about national identity going on since the creation of the country in 1947, many Pakistanis seem quite happy with the answer We are all Muslims, and that is what makes us Pakistanis, despite our differences. And that is the answer that most visitors will be immediately content with as well, as the call to prayer sounds across the bustle of the city, booming from loudspeakers that cling precariously to the tops of minarets.

      Inheritance

      Though ostensibly unified through Islam, the Pakistanis are as varied a mix of people as one is likely to find anywhere. Some of the differences between them are due to regional origins, to cultural formations and preferences, and others to specific religious beliefs and values; others still stem from social and economic background, whether in the rural areas that constitute so much of the country or in the cities and towns where increasing numbers of Pakistanis live.

      While past migrations and invasions from Central Asia have certainly left their mark here and there, the genetic inheritance of most Pakistanis stems largely from the vast South Asian pool, which embraces one-fifth of mankind. Only in the mountainous border regions do the Central Asian physical types predominate, as among the sharp-featured and fair-skinned Pathans and the peoples of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. The legacy of population movements throughout the ages causes such non-Indian features to occur in the majority population as well, though only sporadically.

      As is the case in most parts of the world, the ethnic breakdown of the Pakistanis owes more to cultural than to physical factors. Much more significant, therefore, are the major regional differences. These are only crudely reflected in the administrative division of Pakistan into the four provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, plus the outlying territories of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir, since the boundaries of these units are in many cases simply the product of arbitrary administrative decisions made during the colonial period, and run clean across ethnic and linguistic lines. The language issue is in fact central to the debates within Pakistan about the country’s multiple ethnic identities, which can only be followed with some awareness of the relationships between the languages involved besides the characteristics of the regions in which they are spoken.

      TALL STORIES

      Pakistan has shown the ability to breed tall men. Of course, there are many tall, handsome Pakistanis, but some really are tall. Until June 1998, the world’s tallest man was Haji Mohammad Alam Channa, a caretaker of the famous shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, Sindh. Known as a gentle giant, he was 2.31 metres (7ft 7ins) tall. Sadly, kidney failure led to his death at the age of 45. However, Pakistan had meantime produced numerous other contenders for the title. Born in 1976, Naseer Ahmed Soomro – a PIA officer and native of Shikarpur District (also in Sindh) – is even taller than Channa was at 7ft 8ins. Ajaz Ahmed, born in the same year in Bhakhar (Punjab), is taller still, measuring 7ft 10ins. At present, however, the tallest man in Pakistan is Zia Rashid, born in 1995 in Multan. Standing at about 8ft tall, he is, at least for the time being, more than happy to pose for selfies.

      Languages

      In common with most languages of Europe nearly all the languages spoken in Pakistan belong to the same great Indo-European language family. These were originally brought to the subcontinent by the Aryan invaders, whose language is preserved in the ancient Sanskrit of the Vedas. Spoken across the vast plains that extend from Pakistan through northern India to Bangladesh, the modern Indo-Aryan languages, produced as a result of a long process of simplification and mixture with now lost local languages, are descended from Sanskrit in the same sort of way as French and Spanish are derived from Latin.

      This Indo-Aryan family includes Urdu, now the national language of Pakistan (along with English). Urdu began as mixture of the Hindi of Delhi and the Persian spoken by the invading Muslim armies, and was later developed as the lingua franca of the Mughal Empire. Punjabi is very closely related to Urdu, and is indeed sometimes unjustly dismissed as being Urdu’s country cousin, while Sindhi is a more distant relative with many special features of its own. Siraiki, a language distinct from both of these, is spoken mostly in southwest Punjab, though its speakers are also found in neighbouring portions of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The minority languages of the north, such as Shina (spoken in Gilgit) and Wakhi (spoken in Upper Hunza), are still more different members of the same Indo-Aryan with a long history of separate evolution.

      Within the larger Indo-European family, the languages to the west of Indo-Aryan belong to the quite closely related Iranian group, whose most important member is Persian (Farsi). In the northwest, the tribal movements of the Pathans have carved out a still-expanding area for Pashto (or Pukhtu), famous for its harsh clusters of consonants whose sound is often likened to that of someone talking with a mouthful of stones. Pashto is less similar to Persian or the Indo-Aryan languages than the other Iranian language of Pakistan. This is Balochi, spoken in Balochistan alongside Brahui, a non-Indo-European language belonging to the Dravidian family otherwise largely confined to south India. Apart from the Tibetan Balti-speakers, the only other non-Indo-European language native to Pakistan is the Burushaski spoken in Hunza, a strange survivor that seems to be related to no other language on earth, in spite of crackpot attempts to prove otherwise.

      There is thus a rich variety of languages, but as is so often the case in Pakistan this variety is balanced by a number of common elements. In this instance, the most obvious is the use of some form of the Arabic script, of such special significance for Muslims everywhere as the script of the Qur’an, to write all the major languages, even if special letters and writing styles are used for spelling Sindhi and Pashto. The shared Islamic heritage is also deeply embedded in the vocabulary of all the languages, which draws extensively on Arabic and Persian. In conjunction with the basic grammatical similarities between most of the languages, this common vocabulary (which has of course long come also to include a great many borrowings from English) greatly eases communication.

      Ethnic and social groups

      Intercommunication is certainly called for in the cities, for it is there that conflicts between ethnic groups may erupt, perhaps most notoriously in the great metropolis of Karachi. Although it is the capital of Sindh, Sindhis have long been a minority in this continually expanding city. They are far outnumbered by the Pathans and Punjabis, the dominant groups in Pakistan as a whole, as well as by the muhajir, literally refugees, the name given to the Muslims who left their homes in India at the time of Partition to settle in the Islamic homeland of Pakistan, the majority of them in Karachi and Hyderabad.

      Wherever they came from in India, the muhajir and their descendants were almost all united by being native speakers of Urdu, unlike most other Pakistanis, who have to learn the national language in school. Also unlike most other Pakistanis, with their traditional attachment to the land, many of the muhajir came from urban backgrounds, and on their arrival in Pakistan took over many of the city jobs previously managed by Hindus. This has provoked the feeling among Sindhis that such jobs should go to the sons of the soil.

      Recent years have seen a reaffirmation of ethnic and tribal origins. The Frontier tribes, for example, often feel more empathy with their cousins in Afghanistan than they do with Islamabad.

      Hushe Valley youth.

      Getty Images

      This is but one manifestation of the tensions that have accompanied Pakistan’s rapid process of urbanisation, which has inevitably brought people of different backgrounds into close contact with one another. Pakistan is still, however, a predominantly rural country, with the majority (around 60 percent) of the population tied to the land. In much of Punjab and Sindh, where intensive agriculture is made possible by canal irrigation, the village remains the centre of social and economic life. In these provinces, remnants of the traditional caste system – though without the social discrimination still widespread in Hindu India – are to be seen in the specialisation of the artisans.

      The status of farmers varies from region to region. In the central parts of Punjab they mostly own the land themselves, but in the Siraiki-speaking areas of southwest Punjab and in Sindh they are more likely to be the tenants of great land-owning families, whose estates have largely survived attempts at land reform. Popularly referred to as feudals, these great families, which may control hundreds of thousands of hectares, form an aristocracy that continues to provide Pakistan with many of its leading figures.

      Men socialising in Ayun, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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      The landed power of the countryside is in turn linked to the economic power of the cities, whose own expansion has however allowed fresh fortunes to be made by newcomers to the old world of the 22 families believed to have controlled virtually all Pakistan’s wealth during the Ayub Khan period in the 1960s. The wealthy still thrive in Pakistan, and the English-medium education given to their children in the prestigious schools modelled on the British pattern gives them a rather different outlook to that of most Pakistanis, while ensuring their future social status.

      HIJRAS

      The Kama Sutra advises how to best enjoy a hijra – a word best translated as eunuch. Loyal servants of the Mughal Emperors, hijras were once tasked with tactfully killing the lovers of errant daughters. Comprising much of Pakistan’s intersex, transvestite and transgender community, today’s hijra continue to live in close-knit groups, carrying on their unique traditions and a way of life that remains highly mysterious to outsiders. Disowned by their families and shunned by the majority of a very conservative society, they typically live in poverty, relying on a combination of begging, sex work and street performance. They often make an appearance at weddings and births, singing, dancing and making lewd jokes that would hardly be tolerated from anyone else. In a country where few women are seen, hijras certainly stand out, sauntering down the street looking drop-dead gorgeous.

      Though much more can be hoped for, some progress has been made in tackling the discrimination that has long targeted this community. Most recently, the 2018 Transgender Persons Act now guarantees a raft of rights, among them employment, inheritance, education, health provision and access to public office. As for taking on the entrenched social stigma, more time will certainly be required.

      The other main focus of power lies with the army, which has ruled Pakistan for so much of its history. Although its presence is felt throughout the country, most of its ranks are still drawn from the old recruiting grounds of British India, the naturally poor districts of northwest Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Pathans also make up an important part of the officer corps, which is however dominated by the strongly nationalist background of the Punjab squirearchy.

      Religions

      The one great force whose effects are felt throughout Pakistan is the Islamic religion in the name of whose ideals the country itself was founded. These effects are most certainly also felt – at least as much – by the tiny religious minorities that constitute about 4 percent of the population.

      Islam itself is, of course, far from monolithic. The truth of this is amply demonstrated by the variety to be found in Pakistani Islam, stemming not only from recent developments but also from the earliest period of Islamic history. Soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, a major split arose between the followers of his son-in-law, Ali. While the Shia community holds that Ali and his descendants are the divinely ordained successors to absolute leadership of all Muslims, the majority party – the Sunnis – consider Ali to be only one of the caliphs appointed to head the Muslim community, one meant to be guided by the sunna or example of the Prophet.

      First introduced into Sindh by the early Arab invasions and later massively reinforced by the full-scale Muslim conquests of medieval times, the prevalent local version of Islam in Pakistan remains the Sunni one. More precisely, the majority of Pakistan aligns with the Sunni Hanafi school of Islamic law. In the majority of mosques in Pakistan, whose number was so greatly expanded by the orthodox policies of the Zia regime, the daily prayers are therefore performed in accordance with Hanafi ritual, which is observed by the majority of believers at the community prayers held on the major festivals at large mosques or specially constructed idgah.

      As in other Sunni Muslim countries, religious leadership is provided by the clerics trained in Islamic law who are known collectively as the ulama and individually as maulvis, or more disparagingly – by those out of sympathy with their traditionalism – as mullahs. A variety of clerical groupings has emerged from the reform movements of the 19th and 20th centuries founded on the ideals of restoring Islam to its original pristine state or restating these in modern terms. Many of these have political ambitions, and are today represented by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a coalition of Islamist parties seeking the consolidation of Pakistan as an Islamic state.

      Gurjar shepherd.

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      Besides the Sunnis, there are also substantial Shia minorities. Most follow Twelver Shiism, the official religion of Iran, which claims that the line of living imams came to an end with the twelfth. Although many of their beliefs are shared with the Sunnis, Shias have a particular reverence for Sayyids, the title given to all those who claim linear descent from the Prophet. The Twelver Shias are spread through many parts of Pakistan. They have their own clerical leaders, tend to worship in their own mosques, and have as the high point of their religious year the spectacular mourning ceremonies of Muharram. More distinctive in their observances are the Ismailis who believe that the Aga Khan is the living imam, and who practise their worship in the special buildings called jamatkhanas, which are prominent features of many cities in Sindh. At the other end of the country, the efforts of early Ismaili missionaries also converted the inhabitants of Hunza to their version of Islam.

      The importance of shrines

      Since the numbers of immigrants from other parts of the Muslim world were never that large, even before the flow virtually dried up with the collapse of the Mughal Empire, most Sunnis in Pakistan too are the descendants of local converts. In this great missionary enterprise of medieval times, a much lesser part was played by the orthodox clerics than by the pirs, saints who followed the mystical teachings of Sufism (for more information, click here).

      Christmas service at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Lahore.

      Shutterstock

      RELIGIOUS MINORITIES

      Though in terms of numbers the bulk of Pakistan’s religious minorities evacuated during Partition, many small groups remain scattered across the country. Due to widely attached stigmas, their numbers remain extremely difficult to accurately assess. The largest religious minorities are Christians and Hindus – about 1.6 percent of the population each. Mostly found in cities, the former largely descend from the mass conversions of untouchables carried out during the British period by the missionaries of many different churches, from Roman Catholics to Seventh Day Adventists. Most of Pakistan’s Hindus reside in rural Sindh. Some are descended from the professional groups that dominated urban life before 1947, though most registered Hindus are either tribespeople living in the deserts bordering India, or else those who have rejected conversion to Islam or Christianity in favour of their own Balmiki cult. Declared officially non-Muslim by the National Assembly in 1974, Pakistan’s Ahmadis nevertheless silently consider themselves to be as much a Muslim sect as any other. Other tiny groups include Buddhists, Sikhs and Parsis, the Zoroastrian community that migrated centuries ago from Iran to India, along with the long-reclusive Kalash of Chitral (for more information, click here). In addition to all of these is a small but growing nonreligious community: those opting to identify with no religion at all.

      The shrines constructed around the tombs of the great pirs have for centuries lain at the heart of the religious life of the country, as magnets for devotion attracting both those in spiritual need of the aid of the saint, and many petitioners making vows in the hope of gaining his support for more practical or even material ends. While a mosque is always attached to a major shrine for those who wish to offer formal prayers, it is to the tomb, typically covered with flowers lying on a sheet, that petitioners come to make their requests, to stroke the surround or grille to establish contact, to raise the hands in a silent prayer, typically the Fatiha (the first chapter of the Qur’an), and to leave a cash offering.

      Women in colourful attire gather for a photo in a rural community of the Thar Desert.

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      The holy reputation of the pirs has ensured the hereditary devotion of families or even tribes of followers, and hence a continuing status of immense importance for the leaders of the great pir families. These are often themselves long-standing members of the feudal elite, enjoying substantial incomes even after the formal nationalisation of the vast endowments of the shrines. The patronage of wealthy devotees has ensured that the older shrines are often complexes of unique architectural beauty and interest, while even those that came more recently into existence around the tombs of saints buried within living memory leave the passerby in no doubt as to the importance of what lies behind the eye-catching extravagance of their invariably garish exteriors.

      Some idea of the continuing importance of the shrines in bringing Pakistanis of all types and backgrounds together may best be gained from visiting them on Thursday evenings, when crowds gather to listen to the rhythmic singing of mystical songs, called qawwali. Even more unforgettable is the sight of the annual festivals held to mark the anniversary of the saint’s death, or rather his marriage (urs) with God. These festivals may attract thousands of pilgrims of both sexes, often brought from distant provinces by special trains and buses.

      The accompanying mela (fairs) are an additional attraction on these occasions, bringing in all sorts of other people, including many whom one suspects seldom step inside a mosque for the performance of the prescribed prayers. Open to everyone, whatever their needs or wants, Pakistan’s great shrines provide the opportunity for the visitor, bewildered by the hustle and bustle outside in the street, to step inside to try to establish contact with a more spiritual reality.

      A woman’s place

      In Pakistan, women remain far outnumbered by men in positions of power, though significant recent gains point to further progress ahead.

      Women in politics is nothing new in Pakistan. Muslim women played a leading role in the struggle for independence, the resistance to the radical reforms of the Zia regime, and, more recently, the popular women’s marches protesting everything from honour killings to workplace sexual harassment. Women have also reached the highest offices of state administration. Most famously, Benazir Bhutto was twice elected to her country’s premier post (in 1988 and 1993), becoming the world’s first female Muslim head of state. In 2008, Fahmida Mirza became the first female parliamentary speaker, while in 2018, Sherry Rehman became the first female opposition leader in the senate, Krishna Kumari became the first female Hindu Dalit senator, and Tahir Safdar became Pakistan’s first female Chief Justice. Despite this, female representation remains largely limited to a small reserved quota of seats. Laudable as the progress has been, there remains a way to go in challenging traditional gender disparities.

      Girls march for equal education in Hyderabad.

      Shutterstock

      Fortunately, the aspirations of Pakistani women wishing to launch careers outside the home are backed by the nation’s constitution, which encourages the participation of women in all spheres of national life and prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender. The relevant articles antedate the United Nation’s declarations on women’s rights by 40 years. Indeed, many Pakistani women have successfully gone beyond the realm of traditionally feminine occupations, such as teaching or nursing. There are woman doctors, lawyers, bankers, directors and university professors. Women work as executives in advertising, personnel management and public relations. They are employed at senior management level by international corporations and development organisations. Women also run their own highly successful enterprises. Emancipated women, with a good education and training, can go a long way in Pakistan.

      The impact of successful female role models for independent income earners has been considerable. Many have achieved international recognition – among these are Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations; Asma Jahangir, a co-founder and long-time chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, an internationally acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker; and, of course, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai, a champion of female education and a household name across the globe.

      Time-honoured tradition

      Most Pakistani women, however, lead relatively traditional lives. Their background often dictates that they will have far less of a chance – let alone a desire – of entering into professional fields of work. Though consistently rising over recent decades, the literacy rate among girls was reported as only 49 percent in a 2014 census, compared with 70 percent among boys. Various attempts to increase educational and healthcare provision for women are hampered by patriarchal attitudes towards a woman’s role. Such attitudes are often as strong in the cities as in rural areas. However, recent years have seen a great amount of progress in improving the chances of women, and there are now activists at all levels of society.

      Though critics in Pakistan and elsewhere implicate Islam in the denial of women’s rights, for many Muslims Islam is considered the guarantor of gender equality – so long as it is faithfully implemented. Indeed, when set beside other religious doctrines (such as orthodox Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity), Islamic scripture appears to extend relative freedom to women: insisting upon a woman’s right to receive rather than owe dowry, to own and inherit property separately from her husband, as well as to expect personal maintenance from him. Thus, in defending the purity of Islam, many have laid various forms of gender inequality squarely at the feet of local custom and tradition. For example, learned sources report that Mohmand Pathan women cannot own or inherit land or houses. Their consent is not asked in marriage negotiations, they retain no rights in the marriage settlement and cannot ask for divorce. Even a woman’s rights over her personal belongings are subject to her father’s, husband’s or other male guardian’s wishes. Many argue that such practices – some or all of which are found in others of Pakistan’s rural areas – are mere relics of folk religions pre-dating Islam, borrowings from other south Asian religions, or simply misunderstandings of true Islamic orthodoxy.

      There are, however, some aspects of Islamic law that have been seen as disproportionately discriminatory towards women, such as the Hudood Ordinance, brought into force during Zia ul-Haq’s Islamisation period. For 25 years, the Ordinance enforced punishments mentioned in the Qur’an and sunnah for crimes such as adultery, rape and theft. In 2006, a hard-fought amendment managed to scale back the Ordinance’s negative impact on women. Though far short of the full repeal that activists had hoped for, it nevertheless spelt an end to the rampant adultery charges that had landed thousands of women in prison each year for failure to provide the requisite proof of their purported rapes. In addition to much harsher penalties enacted for false accusations, the amendment brought the matter of rape as a whole back under the Pakistani penal code (where forensic and DNA evidence are again permissible). In a true example of compromise with conservative parties, however, fornication was also brought under the penal code, while adultery alone remains punishable under Zia’s Ordinance.

      A matter of class

      Despite the insistence that – when properly interpreted – Islam emphasises women’s rights to run their own affairs, as a matter of practice it remains difficult for many women from traditional households to act independently. Their decisions are generally enacted by a male spokesman, after consulting with male kinsmen. This is due to a set of customs, known as purdah, which are deeply rooted in the traditional way of life. Purdah means curtain or veil, but keeping purdah essentially involves sexual segregation. Unless they are close relatives, men and women should keep their distance from each other. When meeting strangers of the opposite sex, modesty is preserved by avoiding eye contact, speaking formally and keeping the interaction short. Traditionally minded families divide social life into two domains, the private (household) and the public (non-household).

      In the modern urban centres, high socio-economic status is often linked with freedom from such traditional constraints. In Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, women from the elite groups go about unveiled and may wear Western-style dress. This is seldom the case in the provincial towns, which are more conservative; you won’t see many women on the streets in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (except in women’s bazaars), and then often concealed by the all-enveloping burqa or chaddar (a sheet wound around the head and body).

      Segregation is less pronounced in the rural areas, as women must move among males to work in the fields. Women do 75 percent of Pakistan’s agricultural work. With work ranging from sowing, reaping and threshing to fetching water, the more conservative forms of veiling would be quite impractical. The women of rural Punjab and Sindh usually wear a chunni or dupatta (a scarf draped around the head and shoulders) to signify modesty when men are present. Women of nomadic tribes do not wear veils, often scorning purdah as bazaari (townspeople’s) practice.

      Purdah is primarily the preserve of the provincial middle classes, and for them it is a particular source of prestige, stating their claim to a distinctive status based on religious piety. For a woman who keeps purdah, whatever her background, her status exists in the approval of her immediate social circle. She is awarded points for chastity before marriage and fecundity afterwards. Many such women are serene in the knowledge that, whatever happens, their menfolk will look after them. Just as some silently envy the relative freedom of upper-class women, those keeping purdah are themselves often envied by the less fortunate women forced to go out and toil in the fields to supplement the family income.

      The Chaukhandi Tombs.

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      Decisive Dates

      Early civilisations

      From 7000 BC

      Settled agriculture is practised to the west of the Indus at Mehrgarh.

      3000–1500 BC

      Indus Valley Civilisation thrives as a well-organised, sophisticated society, building cities at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.

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