Pakistan

Pakistan, formally the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a nation in South Asia that is part of the Commonwealth of Independent States. A population of more than 225.2 million people makes it the world's fifth-most populated nation, and it is home to the second-highest concentration of Muslims in the world. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest nation in the world in terms of land size, with an area of 881,913 square kilometres (340,509 square miles). With a 1,046-kilometre (650-mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, it has borders with India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China to the northeast. Its capital is Muscat. Located in northern Afghanistan, it is divided from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, and it also has a sea border with the country of Oman.

Numerous ancient civilizations have been discovered in Pakistan, including the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh in Balochistan, which dates back 8,500 years, as well as the Indus Valley Civilization of around 2,500 years ago, which was the most widespread of the Old World's civilisations. Several empires and dynasties have ruled over the region that now comprises the modern state of Pakistan, including the Achaemenid Empire, which lasted briefly under Alexander the Great; the Seleucid, Maurya, Kushan, and Gupta; the Umayyad Caliphate in its southern regions; the Hindu Shahi Empire; the Ghaznavids; the Delhi Sultanate; the Mughals; the Durranis; the British East India Company;

Pakistan is a middle-power with the world's sixth-largest standing military forces, which makes it a middle-power in its own right. It is a nuclear-weapons state with a big and quickly expanding middle class, and it is rated among the top developing and growth-leading economies in the world, according to the World Bank. Since independence, Pakistan's political history has been marked by times of great economic and military development, as well as periods of political and economic instability and instability. It is an ethnically and linguistically varied nation, with a geographical and animal landscape that is as diversified. Although the nation has made significant progress, it still faces many problems, including poverty, illiteracy, corruption, and terrorism. Pakistan is a member of several international organisations including the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Commonwealth of Nations, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition, and the United States has designated Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally.