Pakistan or Pakistan4 (in Urdu: پاكستان, Islāmī Jumhūriya'eh Pākistān, in English: Islamic Republic of Pakistan), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a sovereign state of South Asia. With a population that exceeds 180 million people, it is the sixth most populous country in the world. It is located at a crossroads between the strategically important regions of the south, central and eastern Asia. It has 1046 km of coastline towards the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in its southern part. In addition, it has borders with India in the east, with Afghanistan in the west and north, with Iran in the southwest and with China in its extreme northeast. It is also separated from Tajikistan by the Wakhan corridor, which belongs to Afghanistan, and shares a maritime border with Oman.

The territory of present-day Pakistan was once home to a variety of cultures, such as the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Indus Valley culture of the Bronze Age. It was also the object of invasions and settlements by Hindus, Persians, Indo-Greeks, Muslims, Turkish Mongols, Afghans and Sikhs. All that region was governed by numerous empires and dynasties such as the Maury Empire, the Achaemenid Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Durran Empire, the Sikh Kingdom and the British Empire. As a result of the efforts of the movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Indian independence movement, in 1947 Pakistan gained independence and became the nation of Muslims who lived in the eastern and western regions of India, where they were the majority. . Initially Pakistan was a British domain, but in 1956 the country passed a constitution and became an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which was renamed Bangladesh. Pakistan's post-independence history has been characterized by periods of military rule, political instability and conflict with neighboring India, another country with nuclear weapons, for control of Kashmir. The country continues to face major problems such as terrorism, poverty, illiteracy and corruption.