Pakistan

B

Music and Film

The classical music tradition in Pakistan traces its roots to the 13th-century poet and musician Amir Khosrow, who composed the earliest ragas, the traditional rhythmic form. To play the ragas, Muslim musicians invented the sitar, a long guitar-like stringed instrument, and the tabla, a small pair of hand drums.

Qawwali, a form of devotional song, arose as part of the Sufi (Islamic religious sect) tradition. This rich vocal tradition is based on melodic and free-rhythmic song-poems and classical musical forms. It is traditionally performed at the shrines of Sufi saints, but today qawwali singers also perform for major secular events. Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan won international popularity in the late 20th century by infusing qawwali performances with new form and style. Other traditional musical forms—including the Punjabi bhangra, the Sindhi juhumar, and the Pashtun khattack—have also acquired new forms and continue to be popular for dancing. Punjabi, Pashto, and Sindhi folk songs are popular in rural Pakistan. Modern Pakistani musical groups and singers have introduced new forms of pop music based on traditional melodies.

Most Pakistanis prefer and enjoy songs from Pakistani and Indian movies. These songs are commonly played on radio and television. A synthesis of musical scores from movies, traditional folk music, and popular Western music is gaining popularity.

The film industry of Pakistan, known as Lollywood, is concentrated in Lahore. Most Pakistani movies are long, melodramatic love stories with plenty of songs. The film industry is often regulated and censored by the government. Films must follow the conventions of Islamic law, and the showing of physical contact such as kissing is prohibited. In the mid-1970s the industry produced about 150 movies a year, but since then the number has declined. In the 1980s the market for Pakistani films shrunk as a result of restrictions imposed by the military regime of Muhammad Zia ul-Haq and the availability of smuggled videotapes of Indian and Western movies.

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Television became a major cultural influence in Pakistan in the 1980s, when the state-controlled network, Pakistan Television, attained national reach. It aired both Pakistani and American shows. In recent years satellite and cable television services have significantly increased access to international networks offering many different cultural and political perspectives.

C

Architecture

Pakistan has inherited a combination of Mughal and British colonial architectural forms. Mughal architects combined the Muslim preferences for large domes, slender towers, and archways with the Hindu use of red sandstone, white marble, and inlaid jewels. Mughal artists decorated the monuments with verses from the Quran, the sacred text of Islam. The best example of this architecture is the Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Fort, built between the 1580s and 1670s in Lahore by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Other examples of Mughal architecture include Shalimar Gardens (laid out in 1641), in Lahore; the Shah Jahan Mosque (17th century), in Thatta, Sind Province; and the mid-18th-century tomb of the great Sindhi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, in Bhit Shāh, near Hyderābād.

Pakistan’s most notable example of modern architecture is the Faisal Mosque in Islāmābād. One of the largest mosques in the world, it was completed in 1986 as a gift from Saudi Arabia. Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay designed the mosque to resemble an Arab desert tent, with an eight-sided prayer hall supported by four towering minarets. The interior contains the mosaics and calligraphy of the celebrated 20th-century Pakistani artist Sadequain.

D

Libraries and Museums

Karāchi is the seat of some of the most important libraries in Pakistan; these include the Liaquat Memorial Library (1950), the Central Secretariat Library (1950), and the University of Karāchi library. Also of note are the National Archives of Pakistan, in Islāmābād, and the Punjab Public Library (1884), in Lahore.

The National Museum of Pakistan (1950), in Karāchi, is noted for its archaeological material from the Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa sites in the Indus Valley. Important materials from this ancient civilization are also found at the Institute of Sindhology, in Jām Shoro, and the Hyderābād Museum. The Lahore Museum (1864), the country’s largest museum, and the Peshāwar Museum (1906) also have exhibits on the rich cultural history of the region. The Industrial and Commercial Museum, in Lahore, contains exhibits on the manufactures of Pakistan. The National Museum of Science and Technology is a participatory science center in Lahore.

V

Economy of Pakistan

Like most developing countries, Pakistan has been confronted with the problems of rapid population growth, chronic budget deficits, and heavy dependence on foreign aid and loans. Over the years Pakistan has accumulated a sizable foreign debt. The economy is also strained by the maintenance of a large military establishment. Debt repayment, defense spending, and general administrative expenditures tend to consume a large portion of Pakistan’s annual budget. The social sector is underdeveloped.

In 2005 Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) was $110.7 billion. The government budget in 2005 included $16 billion in revenues and $14.2 billion in expenditures.

A

Economic Development

After East Pakistan seceded to become the independent nation of Bangladesh in December 1971, the elected government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto tried to pick up the pieces of a truncated Pakistan. It devised economic policies that led to a drastic devaluation of the Pakistani currency, thereby boosting agricultural exports. To ease unemployment pressure the government encouraged the export of Pakistani labor to the Middle East. It also embarked on the nationalization of industries, banks, and agriculture-based industries. This expansion of the public sector ultimately shook private-sector confidence so that investment plummeted. The annual growth rate declined, averaging between 2.7 percent and 3.7 percent during most of the 1970s.

During the 1980s the country’s economy grew an average rate of 6 percent annually. This high growth rate was largely created by three factors: aid from the United States, the influx of foreign exchange from Pakistanis working abroad, and high crop yields. First, Pakistan received an average of $600 million per year in economic and military aid from the United States from 1981 to 1989, largely because of Pakistan’s support for anti-Soviet forces in the Soviet-Afghan War. (During this decade Pakistan was the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid, after Israel and Egypt.) Second, Pakistan received $2.5 billion in remittances from Pakistanis working abroad in the Persian Gulf States and other countries. Third, good weather conditions produced bumper cotton and wheat crops.

At the same time, the government did little to devise policies to boost the confidence of private investors or promote the welfare of Pakistani citizens. The negative fallout of the Afghan war on Pakistan was an expansion of the black market (the illicit sale of commodities) and the proliferation of portable weapons and violence. Despite the high economic growth rate, the economy remained largely agricultural, and socioeconomic disparities between the rich and poor widened. Also during the 1980s, the military regime increased defense spending to such an extent that the fiscal deficit rose to 10 percent of the GDP. In addition, public debt ballooned from less than 40 percent of the GDP to more than 80 percent.

The economy of Pakistan slowed to an average annual growth of 3.8 percent during the 1990s. Factors contributing to the sluggish growth included corruption and mismanagement at the highest levels of government and the rise of ethnic and sectarian violence in Karāchi and other urban centers. These factors shook investor confidence.

The economic performance of the 1990s was also related to the structural adjustment programs (SAPs) of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Loans from these international lending agencies were subject to conditions on Pakistan’s national economic policies. Pakistan received its first formal loan in 1988. In Pakistan the primary focus of the IMF-sponsored program was to lower the budget and current-account deficits. These objectives were to be achieved by reducing public expenditures and broadening the tax base. In addition, in 1992-1993 the IMF further insisted that Pakistan reduce defense expenditures, impose an agricultural tax, and improve methods of tax collection. These reforms were never fully implemented, however, and the IMF-sponsored program did not achieve the desired result. Inflation rose from 8 percent in the 1980s to 11 percent in the 1990s, although a nominal reduction in the budget deficit was visible. Direct foreign investment did not improve and the export sector remained sluggish.

A high-powered Privatization Commission was created in 1990 to encourage privatization of public-sector industries, economic deregulation, and other reforms designed to boost confidence in the principles of a free-market economy. However, the commission was slow to implement its privatization program.

After Pakistan exploded a nuclear device in May 1998, it faced the imposition of international sanctions. In September 2001 the United States lifted most of the economic sanctions it had imposed, brightening prospects for Pakistan’s economy.