Understanding Pakistan (Cultural Event #4)

            On Tuesday April 29^th I attended my fourth cultural event which took place in Holt hall room 170. The event was one that captured the many issues facing Pakistan. The issues of discussion included demographics, geography, history, politics, and current events. The speaker was a man by the name of Mahan Mirza, a teacher at Cal-State Chico. Professor Mirza was a very knowledgeable person on the subject and delivered his message in a well prepared manner.

            Professor Mirza began his presentation discussing the demographics and population of Pakistan to give the audience a better feel for the country of topic. Pakistan is located in West Asia in between India and Afghanistan. It experiences all types of weather since the country ranges from the Himalayas in the north to the Black Sea down south; it isn’t just a dry desert as most people believe. Within Pakistan there are 170 million people; most of which speak either Urdu or English. The capital is Islamabad and the ethnicities comprise mostly of Punjabis (45%), Pathans (13%), and Sindhis (17%). The main religion in Pakistan is Muslim which is practiced by more than 95%.

            Historically, Pakistan used to be a part of India; however in 1947 Pakistan became its own independent nation. A man by the name of Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the founder. It was believed that Muslims needed their own homeland, and that Muslims and Hindus could not live amongst one another, even though they had done so in India for a millennium. In any case 1947 brought the Muslim people their homeland. During the following years, the government switched back and forth repeatedly from being an Islamic Republic and back to a peoples Republic. This is perhaps the cause of the turmoil in Pakistan.

            Being that Pakistan is one of the poorest nations in the world, it is dominated by a military government that has fed its army to become the seventh largest in the world. In addition Pakistan became nuclear in 1998. Currently Pakistan has free media; and through this media they display their strong Islamic sentiment and their anti-American sentiment as well.

            All in all, this event was a very eye opening experience. I learned a great deal about a place and culture I still have not much knowledge about. I believe some of my pre-notions of Pakistan have been eliminated, being that I now understand their current position in their political and social state. More than half of Pakistan’s population is under thirty; and quite frankly I believe the younger generation is just searching for a change that will help the people of their surviving country.