List of capitals in Pakistan

This is a list of capital cities of Pakistan and its current and former provinces, territories, and states.

National capital

Islamabad officially became the capital of Pakistan on 14 August 1967, exactly 20 years after the country's independence.[1] The first capital of Pakistan was the coastal city of Karachi in Sindh, which was selected by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. [1] Karachi was and still is the largest city and economic capital of Pakistan. It remained the seat of government until 1959, when the military president, Ayub Khan, decided to build a new capital, Islamabad in the north of Pakistan, near the general headquarters of the Pakistani Armed Forces which is in Rawalpindi. During this process, Rawalpindi was the interim capital.[1] The name of Islamabad was influenced from the Mughal name of the Bengali port city of Chittagong which was Islamabad.[2]

In 1962, Dhaka was made the legislative capital of the country due to East Pakistan's high population.[3]

The reasons for relocating the capital from Karachi are that it would reflect the diversity of the Pakistani people, it would be separated from the business and commercial activity of Karachi, and also it would be easily accessible from all parts of the country.[4] The move to Islamabad was not completed until the late 1960s and for some years several government ministries were based in nearby Rawalpindi.

Regional capitals

The capitals of the provinces and territories of Pakistan have remained the same since the 1970s when the current administrative structure was established. All four provincial capitals are the largest cities of their respective provinces. Pakistan has a total population of 207,774,520 according to the 2017 census estimate.[5]

Subdivision[6]StatusCapital[7]Population
(1998 census)[8]		Population
(2011 estimate)[9]
Azad Jammu and KashmirAutonomous ProvinceMuzaffarabad725,000960,000
BalochistanProvinceQuetta565,1371,162,222
Gilgit–Baltistan[10]Autonomous ProvinceGilgit216,760548,588
Islamabad Capital TerritoryFederal territoryIslamabad529,1801,151,868
Khyber PakhtunkhwaProvincePeshawar3,690,13531,349,742
PunjabProvinceLahore5,143,49591,379,615
SindhProvinceKarachi9,339,02355,245,497
Location of Capitals

Former provincial capitals

See also

References
  1. McGarr, Paul (2013). The Cold War in South Asia: Britain, the United States and the Indian Subcontinent, 1945-1965. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107008151.
  2. Muslehuddin, ATM (2012). "Arabic". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  3. Pakistan Affairs. Information Division, Embassy of Pakistan. 1968. p. 19.
  4. "History of Islamabad". Capital Development Authority. Archived from the original on 2016-05-12. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
    linked from "Visit Islamabad: Islamabad the beautiful". Capital Development Authority. Archived from the original on 2014-10-12.
  5. Population shoots up by 47 percent since 1998
  6. "The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan". National Reconstruction Bureau, Government of Pakistan. Archived from the original on 2007-12-15. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  7. Gwillim Law. "Pakistan Provinces". Statoids.com. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  8. "Population size and growth of major cities". Population Census Organization, Government of Pakistan. Archived from the original on 2010-12-22. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  9. Stefan Helders. "Pakistan - largest cities and towns and statistics of their population". World Gazetteer. Archived from the original on 2013-02-09. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  10. "Kashmir and Northern Areas Division". Government of Pakistan. Archived from the original on 2006-12-10. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
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