Pakistan’ is derived from the word ‘Pak’ a Persian word denoting pure or clean and ‘Istan’ a  Hindi word which refers to place.  As such, Pakistan means the ‘Pure Place’ or ‘Pure Land’.

BACKGROUND

The modern history of Pakistan was shaped by the British who arrived as traders with the British East India company in the 18th century. This period of imperialism was a time of great violence and gave way to Indian Uprisings against the British oppressors.

Demands were made for both independence and the creation of a Muslim state, to which Britain acceded prior to their withdrawal in 1947. 

The process of departure was not straightforward however and the ensuing bloodshed was greatly due to the poor management of the carving up of the region in to India and Pakistan by a UK based civil servant who had never previously visited the region.

LANGUAGE IN PAKISTAN

Although Urdu is the only official language of Pakistan, English is the lingua franca of the Pakistani elite and most of the government ministries, so it is not uncommon for companies to use English as their internal business language. 

Urdu is closely related to Hindi but is written in an extended Arabic alphabet rather than in Devanagari. Urdu also has more loans from Arabic and Persian than Hindi has.

Many other languages are spoken in Pakistan, including Punjabi, Siraiki, Sindhi, Pashtu, Balochi, Hindko, Brahui, Burushaski, Balti, Khawar, Gujrati and other languages with smaller numbers of speakers.