When Did Pakistan Become a Country?

Pakistan is a country found in the Southern part of Asia. The country is formally known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is one of the most populated countries in the world with a land area of around 881,913 square kilometers supporting approximately 200,813,818 people as of 2018. This statistic ranks Pakistan as the sixth worldwide in terms of population. It borders India in the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest and China to the northeast, along with a coastline of about 650 miles along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Its capital city is Islamabad.

Pakistan celebrates its independence on 14th August 1947, representing the day when it was dissociated from India, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Being a Muslim nation, this holiday is also the 27th of Ramadhan in 1366 as per the Islamic Calendar

Brief History

The colonization of the Indian subcontinent was initiated by the visit of the British East India Company in the 1700s. The company initially intended to trade with the East Indies but ended up taking political control of the majority of the region and trading with China. At the time of its formation in 1600, the company only had a few hundred soldiers. There was a great expansion a century and a half later with the numbers rising to approximately 3,000 in 1750, 26,000 troupes by 1763, and 67,000 troupes by 1778. The largest recruitment workforce were the Indians, who were trained in the British system.

The peace treaty and diplomatic relations between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company were broken in the 1840s, resulting in the first Anglo – Sikh war between 1845 and 1846. This was a result of a move by Sikhs to move into what they considered to be their possession. A move that was considered hostile making them to declare war. This together with the Sind war in 1843 helped the British East India Company to expand their territory to Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

After World War I, the Muslim League and Indian leaders both rallied against the British East India Company to grant Southern Asia its independence. In the 1930s Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, proposed the formation of an independent nation for the Muslim community. He recommended that this Muslim nation be called “Pakistan”, interpreted in Urdu to mean “land of the pure”.

After World War II in 1945, the British granted South Asia its independence. On August 1947, the British allowed partitioning between India and Pakistan into separate independent states. There was however renewed conflict between India and Pakistan regardless of the partition. This strife resulted in the war over Kashmir in 1948. Pakistan claimed superiority over the territory because most of its residents were Muslim, while the Indians claimed it was part of India. The war was halted by the United Nations in 1949. Later on in 1956, Pakistan was made a republic. Major General Iskander Mirza was elected to be the first president.