GEOGRAPHY
Size: Total land area estimated to be 796,095 square kilometers.
Topography: Three major geographic areas: northern highlands,
Indus River plain, and Balochistan Plateau.
Climate: Generally arid; hot summers, cool or cold winters; wide
variations of temperature in given locale and between coastal area on Arabian
Sea and glacial regions of northern areas; little rainfall.
TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Roads: Road system extends approximately 180,000 kilometers in
1992; asphalt roads about 51 percent of total. Work on four-lane 339-kilometer
highway between Lahore and Islamabad began January 1993. Number of motor
vehicles estimated at nearly 2 million in 1992, including 932,000 motorcycles,
454,000 automobiles, 220,000 tractors, 157,000 trucks and vans, and 37,000
buses.
Railroads: 8,775 kilometers total; 7,718 kilometers broad gauge,
445 kilometers 1-meter gauge, and 610 kilometers less than 1-meter gauge;
1,037 kilometers broad-gauge double track; 286 kilometers electrified;
most government owned.
Civil Aviation: International airports at Karachi, Islamabad,
Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta. Pakistan International Airlines national
carrier.
Ports: Karachi, Port Muhammad bin Qasim, Gwadar, and Pasni.
Telecommunications: Telegraph and telephone systems government
owned; more than 1.6 million telephone connections in March 1993. Radio
and telephone dominated by government corporations; Pakistan Broadcasting
Corporation had monopoly on radio broadcasting with home service of 270
hours daily in twenty languages and world service of ten hours daily in
two languages in 1995; nineteen AM, eight FM broadcasting stations. Governmentcontrolled
Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) transmits daily; privately owned
People's Television Network transmits on eight channels; twenty-nine TV
broadcast stations; more than 2 million TV sets in use in 1995.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Government: Has shifted among various forms of parliamentary,
military, and presidential governments in pursuit of political stability.
The 1973 constitution, as amended in 1985, provides for parliamentary system
with president as head of state and popularly elected prime minister as
head of government. Bicameral legislature, Majlis-i-Shoora (Council of
Advisors), consists of Senate (upper house) and National Assembly (lower
house).
Politics: Return of democracy and open political debate after
death of General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq in 1988; politics characterized by
varied and volatile mix of ethnic, and regional alliances. Provincialism
and ethnic rivalries continue to impede progress toward national integration.
Major political parties include Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Pakistan
Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif faction), Muhajir Qaumi Mahaz (MQM), Awami
National Party, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Islam (JUI), Jamiat-ul-Ulama-e-Pakistan
(JUP), and Solidarity Movement (Tehrik-i-Istiqlal).
Judicial System: Supreme Court, provincial high courts, and other
lesser courts exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction. Federal Shariat
Court decides if a civil law is repugnant to injunctions of Islam.
Administrative Divisions: Four provinces--Balochistan, North-West
Frontier Province, Punjab, Sindh; one territory--Federally Administered
Tribal Areas; one capital territory--Islamabad Capital Territory; and Pakistaniadministered
portion of disputed Jammu and Kashmir region--Azad (Free) Kashmir and the
Northern Areas.
Foreign Relations: Member of United Nations, Commonwealth of
Nations, Economic Cooperation Organization, South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation, and numerous other international organizations. Relations
with United States historically close but turbulent. Acrimonious relations
with India and fallout from Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-89)
have been defining factors in recent foreign policy.
The Army
The key holder of power in the armed forces and, along with the president
and the prime minister, one of the triumvirate that runs the country is
the chief of the army staff (COAS)--formerly called the commander in chief.
In 1994 this post was held by General Abdul Waheed. The COAS operates from
army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. From this position, both
Ayub Khan and Zia seized power. Other senior staff positions, at the lieutenant
general level, include a chief of general staff, who supervises army intelligence
and operations; the master general of ordnance; the quartermaster general;
the adjutant general; the inspector general for evaluation and training;
and the military secretary. The headquarters function also includes the
chief of the Corps of Engineers, the judge advocate general, and the comptroller
of civilian personnel, all of whom report to the vice chief of the army
staff.
The army is organized into nine corps: First Corps at Mangla; Second
Corps at Multan; Fourth Corps at Lahore; Fifth Corps at Karachi; Tenth
Corps at Rawalpindi; Eleventh Corps at Peshawar; Twelfth Corps at Quetta;
Thirtieth Corps at Gujranwala; and Thirty-first Corps at Bahawalpur. There
is also the Northern Area Command, headquartered at Gilgit, directly responsible
to army general headquarters.
Active army strength in 1994 was 520,000. In addition, there were 300,000
reserve personnel. Reserve status lasted for eight years after leaving
active service or until age forty-five for enlisted men and age fifty for
officers.
In 1994 major weapons included nearly 2,000 tanks (mainly Chinese but
also 120 M-47s and 280 M-48A5s of United States origin), 820 M-113 armored
personnel carriers, 1,566 towed artillery pieces, 240 self-propelled artillery
pieces, 45 multiple rocket launchers, 725 mortars, 800 Cobra, TOW, and
Green Arrow antitank guided weapons, eighteen Hatf surface-to-surface missiles,
2,000 air defense guns, and 350 Stinger and Redeye missiles and 500 Anza
surface-to-air missiles. The army's combat aircraft inventory consisted
of twenty AH-1F airplanes equipped with TOW missiles .
Paramilitary organizations, which were mainly of symbolic importance,
included the 185,000-member National Guard, comprising the Janbaz Force--locally
recruited militia mainly charged with air defense--and two programs similar
to the United States Reserve Officers Training Corps, the National Cadet
Corps and the Women Guard. The Women Guard, unlike the National Cadet Corps,
included individuals trained in nursing, welfare, and clerical work. There
were also some women in the Janbaz Force, and a very small number of women
were recruited into the regular service in limited numbers to perform medical
and educational work.
Paramilitary internal security forces were organized on the provincial
level but were subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and were commanded
by seconded army generals. These forces were in effect an extension of
the army for internal security duties. The Pakistan Rangers, headquartered
in Lahore, dealt with unrest in Punjab, while the Mehran Force performed
similar functions in Sindh. In 1994 their strengths were 25,000 and 24,000,
respectively, divided into "wings" of approximately 800 men each. The Frontier
Corps, with a strength of 65,000, was based in Peshawar and Quetta with
responsibility for the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan. The
corps was responsible to both the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions
and to army headquarters. The corps was divided into twenty-seven local
units--fourteen in the North-West Frontier Province and thirteen in Balochistan--and
included the Chitral Scouts, the Khyber Rifles, the Kurram Militia, the
Tochi Scouts, the South Waziristan Scouts, the Zhob Militia, and the Gilgit
Scouts. There was also a Coast Guard, subordinate to the Ministry of Interior
and staffed by army personnel.
In times of natural disaster, such as the great floods of 1992, army
engineers, medical and logistics personnel, and the armed forces played
a major role in bringing relief and supplies. The army also engaged in
extensive economic activities. Most of these enterprises, such as stud
and dairy farms, were for the army's own use, but others performed functions
beneficial to the local civilian economy. Army factories produced such
goods as sugar, fertilizer, and brass castings and sold them to civilian
consumers.
Several army organizations performed functions that were important to
the civilian sector across the country. For example, the National Logistics
Cell was responsible for trucking food and other goods across the country;
the Frontier Works Organization built the Karakoram Highway to China; and
the Special Communication Organization maintained communications networks
in remote parts of Pakistan.
DEFENSE INDUSTRY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Pakistan began with virtually no military production capability, and,
because of its limited economic means and lack of foreign markets, there
is little prospect of the country's ever developing industrial facilities
that could cover its equipment needs. However, it has taken a series of
partial steps in some of the most crucial fields and aspired to become
selfsufficient , at least in such basic areas as aircraft overhaul and
modernization and tank and helicopter sales. Symbolic of Pakistan's determination
to move to a degree of self-sufficiency was the creation of the Ministry
of Defence Production in September 1991.
The Ministry of Defence Production has been responsible for promoting
and coordinating a patchwork of military production facilities that have
developed since independence. The oldest of these facilities is the Pakistan
Ordnance Factory at Wah Cantonment, near Rawalpindi, established in 1951,
to produce small arms, ammunition, and explosives. During the period of
reliance on United States supply, there was little attention given to domestic
production, but after the assistance cutoffs in 1965 and 1971, Pakistan--with
China's help--set about expanding its facilities, including the modernization
of Wah. The Heavy Industries at Taxila was established in 1971 as an equipment
rebuilding facility, followed in 1973 by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex
at Kamra, north of Islamabad. The air force assembled Chinese F-6s and
French Mirages; produced the Mushshak trainer, which was based on the Swedish
SAAB Safari/Supporter; maintained radar and avionics equipment; and in
the mid-1990s was in the process of developing the Karakorum jet trainer
in a joint project with China.
The ministry also includes seven other specialized organizations devoted
to research and development, production, and administration. Total personnel
strength in 1993 was more than 50,000, including 2,600 professionals. The
government estimated annual production in the early 1990s at US$500 million
including about US$30 million in exports. For example, Mushshaks were provided
to Iran as light trainers and observation aircraft. Exports ranked high
among the ministry's goals.
The navy is supported mainly by a facility at the Karachi Shipyard,
which has limited production capacity and in 1994 had to its credit only
an 831-ton tanker and a prototype 200-ton coastal patrol vessel. In 1987
development of a submarine repair and rebuild facility at Port Qasim was
begun.
Pakistan's nuclear program is shrouded in secrecy, but there is little
doubt that nuclear weapons have been produced or at least have reached
the developmental stage of a final "turn of a screw"; and, although the
program is believed to have been technically arrested in 1992, the capability
to produce weapons exists. Estimates put the inventory at between seven
and fifteen weapons, at least some of which are deliverable by airdrop
from C-130 or F-16 aircraft. Although F-16s supplied by the United States
had the electronic wiring removed (necessary for launching nuclear weapons),
some United States observers reported that Pakistanis could easily overcome
this technological obstacle.
In the early 1990s, Pakistan was also engaged in a missile development
program, for which it had received substantial Chinese assistance. The
Hatf-1 surface-to-surface missile, which can carry a payload of up to 500
kilograms as far as eighty kilometers, was introduced in 1992; the Hatf-2,
which could be in service by 1995, also carries a 500 kilogram payload
but has a 300 kilometer range. In 1994 there were unconfirmed reports of
a longer range Hatf-3 missile under development.
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