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Pakistan
Index
Pakistan is divided into three major geographic areas:
the
northern highlands; the Indus River plain, with two major
subdivisions corresponding roughly to the provinces of
Punjab and
Sindh; and the Balochistan Plateau. Some geographers
designate
additional major regions. For example, the mountain ranges
along
the western border with Afghanistan are sometimes
described
separately from the Balochistan Plateau, and on the
eastern
border with India, south of the Sutlej River, the Thar
Desert may
be considered separately from the Indus Plain.
Nevertheless, the
country may conveniently be visualized in general terms as
divided in three by an imaginary line drawn eastward from
the
Khyber Pass and another drawn southwest from Islamabad
down the
middle of the country. Roughly, then, the northern
highlands are
north of the imaginary east-west line; the Balochistan
Plateau is
to the west of the imaginary southwest line; and the Indus
Plain
lies to the east of that line
(see
fig. 5).
The northern highlands include parts of the Hindu Kush,
the
Karakoram Range, and the Himalayas. This area includes
such
famous peaks as K2 (Mount Godwin Austen, at 8,611 meters
the
second highest peak in the world), and Nanga Parbat (8,126
meters), the twelfth highest. More than one-half of the
summits
are over 4,500 meters, and more than fifty peaks reach
above
6,500 meters. Travel through the area is difficult and
dangerous,
although the government is attempting to develop certain
areas
into tourist and trekking sites. Because of their rugged
topography and the rigors of the climate, the northern
highlands
and the Himalayas to the east have been formidable
barriers to
movement into Pakistan throughout history.
South of the northern highlands and west of the Indus
River
plain are the Safed Koh Range along the Afghanistan border
and
the Sulaiman Range and Kirthar Range, which define the
western
extent of the province of Sindh and reach almost to the
southern
coast. The lower reaches are far more arid than those in
the
north, and they branch into ranges that run generally to
the
southwest across the province Balochistan. North-south
valleys in
Balochistan and Sindh have restricted the migration of
peoples
along the Makran Coast on the Arabian Sea east toward the
plains.
Several large passes cut the ranges along the border
with
Afghanistan. Among them are the Khojak Pass, about eighty
kilometers northwest of Quetta in Balochistan; the Khyber
Pass,
forty kilometers west of Peshawar and leading to Kabul;
and the
Baroghil Pass in the far north, providing access to the
Wakhan
Corridor.
Less than a one-fifth of Pakistan's land area has the
potential for intensive agricultural use. Nearly all of
the
arable land is actively cultivated, but outputs are low by
world
standards
(see Agriculture
, ch. 3). Cultivation is sparse
in the
northern mountains, the southern deserts, and the western
plateaus, but the Indus River basin in Punjab and northern
Sindh
has fertile soil that enables Pakistan to feed its
population
under usual climatic conditions.
The name Indus comes from the Sanskrit word
sindhu, meaning ocean, from which also come the
words
Sindh, Hindu, and India. The Indus,
one of
the great rivers of the world, rises in southwestern Tibet
only
about 160 kilometers west of the source of the Sutlej
River,
which joins the Indus in Punjab, and the Brahmaputra,
which runs
eastward before turning southwest and flowing through
Bangladesh.
The catchment area of the Indus is estimated at almost 1
million
square kilometers, and all of Pakistan's major rivers--the
Kabul,
Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej--flow into it. The Indus
River
basin is a large, fertile alluvial plain formed by silt
from the
Indus. This area has been inhabited by agricultural
civilizations
for at least 5,000 years
(see Early Civilizations
, ch. 1).
The upper Indus Basin includes Punjab; the lower Indus
Basin
begins at the Panjnad River (the confluence of the eastern
tributaries of the Indus) and extends south to the coast.
In
Punjab (meaning the "land of five waters") are the Indus,
Jhelum,
Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej rivers. The Sutlej, however, is
mostly
on the Indian side of the border. In the southern part of
the
province of Punjab, the British attempted to harness the
irrigation power of the water over 100 years ago when they
established what came to be known as the Canal Colonies.
The
irrigation project, which facilitated the emergence of
intensive
cultivation despite arid conditions, resulted in important
social
and political transformations
(see The British Raj
, ch.
1).
Pakistan has two great river dams: the Tarbela Dam on
the
Indus, near the early Buddhist site at Taxila, and the
Mangla Dam
on the Jhelum, where Punjab borders Azad Kashmir. The
Warsak Dam
on the Kabul River near Peshawar is smaller. These dams,
along
with a series of headworks and barrages built by the
British and
expanded since independence, are of vital importance to
the
national economy and played an important role in calming
the
raging floodwaters of 1992, which devastated large areas
in the
northern highlands and the Punjab plains
(see Irrigation
, ch. 3).
Pakistan is subject to frequent seismic disturbances
because
the tectonic plate under the subcontinent hits the plate
under
Asia as it continues to move northward and to push the
Himalayas
ever higher. The region surrounding Quetta is highly prone
to
earthquakes. A severe quake in 1931 was followed by one of
more
destructive force in 1935. The small city of Quetta was
almost
completely destroyed, and the adjacent military cantonment
was
heavily damaged. At least 20,000 people were killed.
Tremors
continue in the vicinity of Quetta; the most recent major
quake
occurred in January 1991. Far fewer people were killed in
the
1991 quake than died in 1935, although entire villages in
the
North-West Frontier Province were destroyed. A major
earthquake
centered in the North-West Frontier Province's Kohistan
District
in 1965 also caused heavy damage.
Data as of April 1994
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