Description
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the world’s sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 212.7 million people. In the area, it is the 33rd-largest country, spanning 881,913 square kilometres (340,509 square miles). Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre (650-mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China to the northeast. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor in the northwest and also shares a maritime border with Oman. Its capital is Islamabad.
The national flag of Pakistan was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, just three days before the country’s independence, when it became the official flag of the Dominion of Pakistan. It was afterwards retained by the current-day Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The flag is a green field with a white crescent moon and five-rayed star at its centre and a vertical white stripe at the hoist side. Though the green colour is mandated only as ‘dark green’, its official and most consistent representation is Pakistan green, which is shaded distinctively darker. The green represents the Muslim majority in Pakistan and the white stripe represents religious minorities. The crescent represents progress and the five-pointed star represents the Five Pillars of Islam. The flag symbolises Pakistan’s commitment to Islam and the rights of religious minorities. The Pakistan Flag is based on the original flag of the Muslim League, which itself drew inspiration from the flag of the Sultanate of Delhi, the flag of the Ottoman Empire and the Flag of the Mughal Empire.