PAKISTAN

Brief history of Pakistan

 The history of Pakistan encompasses the region of the Indus Valley, which
spans the western expanse of the Indian subcontinent and the eastern Iranian
plateau. The region served both as the fertile ground of a major civilization
and as the gateway of South Asia to Central Asia and the Near East.

Situated on the first coastal migration route of Homosapiens out of Africa,

the region was inhabited early by modern humans. The 9,000-year history of
village life in South Asia traces back to the Neolithic(7000–4300 BCE) site
of Mehrgarh in Pakistan, and the 5,000-year history of urban life in South
Asia to the various sites of the Indus Valley Civilization, including Mohenjo
Daro and Harappa.
 The ensuing millennia saw the region of present-day Pakistan absorb many
influences—represented among others in the ancient Buddhist sites
of Taxila, and Takht-Bahi, the 14th-century Islamic-Sindhi monuments of
Thatta, and the 17th-century Mughal monuments of Lahore. In the first
half of the 19th century, the region was appropriated by the East India
company, followed, after 1857, by 90 years of direct British rule, and
ending with the creation of Pakistan in 1947, through the efforts, among
others, of its future national poet Allama Iqbal and its founder, Muhammad
Ali Jinnah.

Since then, the country has experienced both civilian-democratic and military
rule, resulting in periods of significant economic and military growth as well
those of instability; significant during the latter, was the Bangladesh
Liberation war, in 1971, of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh.
 Pakistan Government
Pakistan has a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan
where the Prime Minister of Pakistan is the executive head-of-government.

Prime Minister's Secretariat in Islamabad

 Religion in Pakistan
• The state religion in Pakistan is 
Islam, which is practiced by 96.28%
   Islam (state religion) (96.28%) of the population. Freedom of religion
   Hinduism (1.85%) is guaranteed by the Pakistani 
constitution, which established a
   Christianity (1.59%)
fundamental right of Pakistani
   Ahmadis (0.22%) citizens, irrespective of their religion,
to equal rights. The remaining 4%
   Other Religions (0.07%)
practice Hinduism, Christianity, 
Ahmadis, Sikhismand other religions.

 Muslims comprise a number of 
sects: the majority practice
practice Sunni Islam, while 5–
15% Shias Islam. Nearly all
Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong
to the Hanafi Fiqh
 Islamic law school. The majority
of Pakistani Shia Muslims belong
to the Twelver Islamic law school,
with significant minority groups
who practice Ismailism, which is
composed of Nizari (Aga Khanis), 
Mustaali, Dawoodi Bohra,  As per the census in 1998, there were less than 2.5
Sulaymani, and others.
Religious minorities in Pakistan often face
significant discrimination, subject to issues such as
violence and misuse of the blasphemy law. It is
claimed that since 1947, religious minorities went
from 23% to 3.7% of the population, due to violence
and discrimination they have faced, however the
reason of decline has more to do with mass
migration of nearly 5 million Hindus and Sikhs to
India in 1947and separation of East Pakistan (now 
Bangladesh) in 1971 which contained nearly 22% of
minorities of Pakistan leaving behind approximately
1.6% of minorities in West Pakistan. 
million Hindus in Pakistan. The Pakistani Hindu
council puts the population at an estimated 8 million
as of Oct 2019.
Historical places in Pakistan
Pakistan’s top 10 famous poets
  “The poet of the East” is none other than
Allama Iqbal (November 9, 1887 – April 21,
1938). He is one of the most famous poets of
Pakistan. He did his Masters in philosophy and
started poetry in both Persian and Urdu
language. His first book of poetry was “Asrar
-e- Khudi” in Persian language. The main work
of Iqbal was to enlighten the thinking of
Muslims so that they can live independently.
He is also known as “the nation poet of
Pakistan”.
 Books: Asrar e Khudi, Zarb e Kaleem, Bang e
Dara, Payam e Mashriq, Bal e Jibril
 Other than this, he wrote many books outside
of poetry and the best example is “The
1. Allama Muhammad Iqbal Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”.
  One of the top famous poets of Pakistan is
Meer Taqi Meer (September 1723 – 21
September 1810). His real name was “Meer
Muhammad Taqi” and also known as”Khuda-
e-Sukhn”, which means the “God of poetry”.
He has his own style of poetry and ghazals
and also has been praised by other famous
poets and literature critics. Moreover,
“Deewane-e-meer” is the completion of his
verses, which is available in every corner of
the world.
2. Meer Taqi Meer
  He is also known as one of the famous
poets of Pakistan (14th January, 1990 – 21
December 1982). He was so famous to
support the ideology of Allama Iqbal to
form a new state and to aware the
Muslims. Hafeez Jullundhri has written
the lyrics of Pakistani National Anthem
and known as the monumental Urdu poet.
His poetry is romantic, religious and
consists of natural themes. He was
awarded with the Hilal -e- Imtiaz and
pride of performance awards for the
amazing patriot poetry. He got a very high
fame with the help of narration of Islamic
3. Hafeez Jullundhri history in verse, known as “Firdowsi’s
Shahnama”.
  Born on 27th December 1797 and died on
15th February 1869, Mirza Ghalib is
among the most famous poets of Pakistan.
His real name was Mirza Asadullah Baig
Khan, was a classical Urdu and Persian
poet. Mirza Ghalib wrote many Ghazals in
his life, and many people have given him
tribute by singing his Ghazals in different
ways. He is one of the most influential
poets in South Asia for his command on
Urdu language.

4. Mirza Ghalib
  The famous and noticeable poet from Pakistan
was Ehsan Danish like other many poets. His
life revolves round himself, who has less than
primary education, has worked as laborer for
years, but finally he became an astonishing
poet. He has written more than 80 books and
many articles on poetry, philology,
autobiography, prose, linguistics and the famous
interpretation of “Diwan-e-Ghalib”. It is very
surprising to know that only 5% of his works
are published till now and the remaining are in
the form of manuscript.

5. Ehsan Danish
  The lady whose name is written in the
golden words among the list of famous
female poets of Pakistan is none other than
Syeda Parveen Shakir. She was born on
24thNovember, 1952 – 26th December 1994
and a talented female poets of the era. She
has done many works for Urdu literature
and academia and was also a teacher. Her
first romantic poetry album was
“Khushbu”, which was released in 1976.
Later on, her number of ghazals, plays and
6. Parveen Shakir nazams were published and she was
awarded with the “Pride of Performance”.
  The famous poet, drama writer and lyricist
Amjad Islam Amjad (4th August, 1944) is a
renowned name in the history. He has won
“Sitara-e-Imtiaz” and “Pride of Performance”
for his poetry and literature work. Amjad Islam
Amjad is originally belonged to Sialkot, but he
migrated to Lahore, Pakistan during the
partition of British India and Pakistan. He
started his career as a lecturer in Government
MAO College, Lahore, and then become the
director of the Pakistan TV Corporation.
 His famous books are
 Us Par
7. Amjad Islam Amjad  Barzakh
 Fisher
 Sehar Aasar
  Khawaja Mir Dard was born in 1721 and
died in 1785. He is known as one of the
famous poets of Pakistan. His biggest
achievements were in Urdu Ghazal and
classical Urdu Ghazals. He has lots of sufi
couplets and considered to be the greatest
poet, who has amazing command in Urdu
poetry. You can see his works, which are full
of Sufi thoughts.
 His famous example of kalam is,
 ‫زندگی ہے یا کوئی طوفان ہے‬
 ‫ہم تو اس جينے کے ہاتھوں مر چلے‬
8. Khawaja Meer Dard
  Born in 13th February, 1911 and died in
20thNovember, he is the famous poet of Pakistan,
named as Faiz Ahmed Faiz. He has done the
intellectual work in Urdu literacy and has also been
awarded for Nobel Prize of literature four times. Not
only in Urdu, his work has spread over in Punjabi,
Persian, English and Russian. Faiz Ahmed Faiz was
the member of progressive writer’s movement and
an acknowledged Marxist. Moreover, he has also
won the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union.

9. Faiz Ahmed Faiz

  Ahmed Faraz is considered as one of
the greatest and modern Urdu famous
poets of Pakistan of the last century.
Faraz is his pseudonym “Takhallus”
and his real name is Syed Ahmad
Shah. He has studied Urdu and
Persian from the Peshawar University
and later he became the lecturer in the
same university in Pakistan.
10. Ahmed Faraz
List Of Top 10 Pakistani Famous Writers
  Ex-Major Aftab Ahmad is a writer
who hails from Kharian city,
District Gujrat. He is a graduate of
Islamia College, Lahore.

Among his books is General! I Accuse You – a 300 paged testimony in Attock Fort against General Zia’s military
regime for restoration of democracy and human rights; Uss Lashkar KoJaanPyaariThi, telling his personal experiences
in 1971 war; Akhri Salaam, a personal account of civil war in East Pakistan; 11veen Salebi Jang where he depicts how
the USA as a superpower has been exploiting the Muslim World, in particular, Pakistan; General Kay Qilay Say
Malika Ki Jail Main, where he discusses how Benazir got him arrested without trial for his struggle for human rights
against state oppression; and nowadays he is working on his autobiography which is in pipe. Major Aftab Ahmad has
also rendered some works from other languages to English. He did an English translation of Seerat Un Nabi
(S.A.W.W.) a biography of Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon him -originally written by Talib Hashmi, rendered
TehminaDurrani’s book Blasphemy into Urdu language, and translated a Turkish book on Royal Haram Empire into
Urdu called Kaneez.
 TEHMINA DURRANI
Her other books are: A Mirror to the Blind
(1995), Blasphemy (1998), and Happy
Things in Sorrow Times (2013) and an
upcoming coffee table book of paintings and
poetry called A Love Affair.
She is one of the top Pakistani writers,
women and children’s rights activist, an
artist and a humanitarian. Tehmina
Durrani was born in a very influential
Pakistani family and brought up in
Lahore’s privileged milieu. This woman
of substance became the talk of the town
when she debuted her first book 
My Feudal Lord in 1991.
MOHSIN HAMID
 A Lahore born author, he has composed
four novels namely: The Reluctant
Fundamentalist in which Meesha Shafi
marked her Hollywood Debut, Moth
Smoke, Exit West, How to Get Filthy Rich
in Rising Asia. Mohsin Hamid has also
written a book of essays called Discontent
and Its Civilizations. Hamid’s literary works
have been translated into approximately 35
languages and also made to various
bestseller lists.
KAMILA SHAMSIE  Kamila was born in the industrial city
of Karachi and one of the best Pakistani
novelists. She has written over eight
novels which include Burnt Shadows.
Burnt Shadows made it to the
international scene by getting
shortlisted for the Orange Prize. It also
got translated to over 20 languages of
the world. Kamila also has a non-
fiction novel called Offence: The
Muslim Case. Shamsie’s A God in
Every Stone was shortlisted for the
Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction as
well as for Walter Scott Prize in 2015.
DANIYAL MUEENUDDIN
 A Los Angeles-born Pakistani writer,
Daniyal graduated from Yale Law
School and Dartmouth. He is known
for his 
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders – a
short story collection which got
rendered into over sixteen languages,
won the Commonwealth Writer’s
Prize, The Story Prize as well as
critical acclaim and honours.
MONI MOHSIN
 This Pakistani writer is from
Lahore. She moved to England
at the age of sixteen to pursue
her studies at a boarding school
and later on graduated from
Cambridge University. Years
later, she came back to Pakistan
and began writing. Moni is the
founder of Pakistan’s first nature
magazine. Her novels include
Duty-Free, The End of
Innocence and The Diary of a
Social Butterfly.
SABYN JAVERI

 This Pakistani novelist is a

graduate of the University of
Oxford and a Ph.D. from the
University of Leicester. She
wrote a number of short stories
in international literary journals.
Her debut novel Nobody Killed
Her has been a bestseller,
awarding her with the Oxonian
Review Short Story Award and
shortlisting her for the first Tibor
Jones Award.
  Umera Ahmed is one of the leading Pakistani
novelists. She was born in Sialkot city, Pakistan.
UMERA AHMED Her debut novel known as Zindagi Gulzar Hai got
published in a monthly digest for women. It got
adapted into a screen script and later on made into
a drama serial. She got lauded on her work as it
was always creatively composed sprinkled with
wonderful romantic stories and lore.
 She received the Best Writer Award in Lux Style
Awards ceremony for screenwriting a drama serial
Meri ZaatZare-e-Benishan. Among Umera’s
famous romantic Urdu novels are Lahasil, Haasil,
Uraan, Man-o-Salwa, Amar Bail, Aabe-Hayat,
Emaan Umeed aur Muhabbat, Pir-e-Kamil,
Kankar, Sauda, Koi Baat Hai Teri Baat Main. She
also wrote scripts for movies like Laal, Behadd,
and EkThiMarium.
FARHAT ISHTIAQ
 Farhat Ishtiaq’s romantic Urdu novels
became a mark of fame for her. She is a
very diligent Pakistani writer and
screenwriter. Farhat received the Best
Writer Award for her phenomenal drama
serial aired on television called Humsafar,
in 1st HUM Awards Ceremony held in
2013. Her most read and top rating novels
and drama scripts are Humsafar, whose 
ost is still evergreen in Pakistan, Mata-E-
Jaan Hai Tu, Mere Humdum Mere Dost,
Diyar-e-Dil and Bin Roy Ansoo.
  Musharaf Ali was born in Hyderabad, a city
located in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. He
is an author, folklorist, founder and editor of
the Urdu Thesaurus, and a storyteller. He has
penned down seven fictional novels in both
English and Urdu languages. Musharraf
received critical acclamation for his The Story
of a Widow and Between Clay and Dust. He
has also rendered translations for various
poetry books and Urdu novels that include: The
Adventures of Amir Hamza, Selected Poetry of
Afzal Ahmed Syed, NumberdarkaNeela, and
Tilism e Hoshruba

MUSHARRAF ALI FAROOQI

 Exit West Background
 Exit West is Mohsin Hamid's 2017 follows a young couple, Saeed and Nadia, who live in a
city in the midst of a civil war. Fearing for their safety, they are finally forced to flee the
city through a series of doors that lead to other parts of the world, where they discover
immense poverty and great wealth throughout the country. In the novel, we see the effect
migrants have on native-born populations and the effects of migration in general.
Nevertheless, after a while, Saeed and Nadia fall out of love. Fifty years later, the two
meet up and Saeed offers to take Nadia to see the stars in Chile. It explores themes of
emigration and refugee problems.
 Upon release, Exit West was met with very solid reviews. On Amazon, it has a very
respectable rating of 4 out of 5 stars. On book review aggregator site Goodreads.com, it
holds a solid albeit unspectacular rating of 3.81 out of 5 stars. Omar El Akkad of The
Globe and Mail called it ""a masterpiece of humanity and restraint." It was selected for
the 2017 Man Booker prize shortlist. In 2017, former President Barack Obama called the
novel one of the best he had read that year. The New York Times also named it one of the
ten best books of 2017.
 In 2017, it was announced that the Russo brothers, directors of a number of famous
 Exit West Summary

In an unnamed city Saeed and Nadia find themselves in a classroom together. They fall in

love, despite their differences. Saeed lives at home with his parents, which is common in their
culture. Nadia, however, has chosen to live alone, which is not the norm. Her parents does not
speak to her because of it.
 
The city is full of refugees, but still relatively calm. As time goes by, things gets worst.
The city is getting closer and closer to war. Saeed’s mother is shot. It is unsafe for Nadia to
live alone, therefore she moves in with Saeed and his father, despite her disliking of it, but it
is not perfectly safe there either. The war breaks out fully and the government has no longer
control of the city. Violence fights and death is now a part of everyday life for the citizens.
 Whispers starts spreading in the town, whispers about doors. Doors that can lead to a
different world, a new beginning. The doors are heavily guarded. Saeed and Nadia have to
take a chance. They open a door through bribing a guard, and they walk into an uncertain
future. Saeed’s father chose to not come, but before they left he made Nadia promise to
never leave Saeed.
They get to Mykonos. The place is filled with refugees just like them. A young Greek
girl is able to get Saeed and Nadia through another door, which leads to a nice home in
London. Many migrants come to London and the relationship between the newcomers and
London’s citizens are becoming worse by the minute. The refugees are forced into ghettos.
The city decides to build a better relationship with the refugees and put them to work.
Nadia and Saeed are not so close anymore. The two of them walks through another door
which takes them to California.
Here the two of them split up and live their own lives. The two of them meets up in their
home country fifty years late.
 Characters
Saeed
 Saeed lives in a country at the brink of destruction. Religious militants are trying to take over the
government, and the once peaceful country is now in delirium. Saeed lives in a chaotic part of the
country, which was once an upper-class estate. He works with selling advertisement, though he
attends business class in the evenings. He falls in love with his co-student, Nadia. Saeed is not very
religious, but he finds praying important, as it connects him with his maker.
 Nadia
 Nadia is a strong-minded woman. She lives in the same country as Saeed, and they fall in love after
Saeed ask her out on a date during the business classes they have together in the evenings. Nadia
uses the cultural and religious aspects of the society for her own good. Even though she isn’t
religious at all, she decides to wear the most religious garments she can find, to protect herself. She
enjoys traveling and sees the joy in the small things in life.
 Saeed’s father
 Saeed’s father is strongly in love with Saeed’s mother, and they love each other
fiercely. He works as a professor at a university and is at the age of retirement though
he chooses to continue working, because of financial lack. He is not confident in his
choice of work, as he wishes that he could do more for his family than he currently is,
and he tries his best to keep his family and friends as close to himself as possible,
hoping to take care of them.
 Theme
 Romance
 This story features two young people, Saeed and Nadia, who fall in love with each other. The story follows
their relationship throughout their journey. The author also describes how they grow away from each other and
decides to separate, which is not the fairytale ending most books have. In this book, we can see a pure and
realistic relationship and feel the romance that two people share despite the fact that there is war around them.
 War and running from war
 This book’s main characters, Saeed and Nadia, are running from a war, immigrating to other countries. The
book follows them through a difficult and dangerous journey. The author describes how a war can challenge
people and their relationship. We can also see how a war changes people’s lives in every shape and form.
 Refugee’s settlement
 The book describes how Saeed and Nadia, who are refugees, have to settle down in a completely new place
along with many other refugees. The book tells a story about how it is to come to a new place and how
different places treat the refugees quite differently. It explores the challenges within it, both for the refugees and
for the people who already live in the city or place.
 Irony
 Nadia's living alone
 Nadia lives alone and her parents disown her. This is an interesting detail, because it means that her
own people have rejected her because of her independence. When the war breaks out, her parents
don't reach out to see how she is doing. Instead, Saeed's family adopts her, more or less. This brings
the reader's attention to how firmly Nadia's family rejected her. And for what? For being
independent and thoughtful. This is a subtle indication that something is very wrong in the culture.
 The first refugees
 When the community members talk about the refugees who have been coming into town lately from
nearby nations, there is a dramatic irony, because they don't know that the ones of them who are
lucky enough to escape will become refugees themselves in only a few weeks or months. This irony
creates a drama that shows how quickly instability can spiral out of control. As soon as gunshots
and bombs are the norm, there is no limit to how out of hand the troubles can become.
 The ironic romance
The novel plays on the idea of a romance between Saeed and Nadia. They are in love, it seems, during
their classroom days, and although one might expect that supporting one another and sharing so much
struggle through their journey westward—one might expect that that would bring them together, but
instead it disturbs them to a point where romance is completely irrelevant. By the time they finally
separate from each other, the novelist has made it clear through irony what the main purpose of the
novel is. What consolation is a romantic relationship when parents have been shot and killed by
terrorists, when one's home is gone forever, when one has to make a new life in a random place as a
foreigner whom people automatically resent?
The ghettos
When the young refugees finally arrive somewhere new, whether it be Mykonos or London, they tend
not to find a community with arms wide open, happily accepting influxes of new people. They tend to
be sequestered away in ghettos. The irony is that they aren't exactly safe and happy in the ghettos
either. That many people in such a confined space with such few resources—it is the breeding ground
for more problems, so they find themselves having to keep traveling until the population of refugees is
dispersed enough that they actually have a shot at a new life.
 The oath
The novel underscores the irony of this couples breakup in California with an oath. Saeed's
father makes Nadia swear an oath to stay with him, which she does, until it is clear that
they are safe to make new lives for themselves. She breaks the oath by leaving him, but
they agree that it is best, because their relationship has sustained a lot of strain and
emotional frustration. The oath seems only to have applied to that "life" they used to live
together. In light of their drastic changes, they don't feel like they are in the same "life"
anymore.