Full country name: Islamic
Republic of Pakistan
Area: 803,940 sq km (310,400 sq mi)
Population: 15 million
Capital city: Islamabad (pop. approx. 901,000)
People: Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun, Baloch, Muhajir,
Pathan,Balti,Kashmiri
Language: Urdu (also Punjabi, English, Sindhi, and
regional dialects)
Religion: 97% Muslim, 3% Christian and Hindu
Government: Federal Republic
President: Gen. Pervez Musharraf
Environment
Pakistan's neighbours are an eclectic
and ornery bunch: Iran to the south-west; Afghanistan to
the west and north; China to the north-east; and India
stretching down its eastern side. The southern coast
abuts the Arabian Sea. The country is composed of
towering peaks in the north (including the second-highest
mountain in the world, 8611m/28,245ft K2), dry and
scrubby mountains in the west, an inhospitable plateau in
the south-west, barren deserts in the south-east and
alluvial plains everywhere else. These plains,
constituting about a third of the country, are Pakistan's
`heart', where most of its people live and most of its
food is grown. Coursing through all this tumult is the
Indus River, which falls from Tibet then travels 2500km (1550mi)
south before emptying through an immense delta into the
Arabian Sea.
Natural fauna in Pakistan's lowlands is
patchy - mostly scattered clumps of grass and stunted
woodlands. However, as the landscape rises, there are
quite large coniferous forests and carpeted slopes of
multicoloured flowers in the northern mountains. Fauna
includes bear, snow leopard, deer and jackal. Pakistan's
800km (500mi) of coastline teems with shark, shellfish
and sea turtle, while the Indus delta is home to the
marsh crocodile.
Pakistan has three seasons: cool (October
through February); hot (March through June); and wet (July
through September). There are, however, big regional
variations. In the south, the cool season brings dry days
and cool nights, while the northern mountains get drizzle
and plummeting night-time temperatures. The hot season
means suffocatingly hot and humid conditions in the south
but pleasant temperatures northwards. During the wet
season, the tail end of the monsoon dumps steady rain
mostly in the narrow belt of the Punjab from Lahore to
Islamabad. But further north, the high mountains block
all but the most determined clouds, which means
relatively little rain falls there (budding trekkers
please take note).
The first inhabitants of Pakistan were
Stone-Age peoples in the Potwar Plateau (north-west
Punjab). They were followed by the sophisticated Indus
Valley (or Harappan) civilisation which flourished
between the 23rd to 18th centuries BC. Semi-nomadic
peoples then arrived, settled down, and by the 9th
century BC were blanketed across northern Pakistan-India.
Their Vedic religion was the precursor of Hinduism, and
their rigid division of labour an early caste system.
In 327 BC Alexander the Great came over
the Hindu Kush to finish off the remnants of the defeated
Persian empire. Although his visit was short, some tribes
tell picturesque legends in which they claim to be
descended from Alexander and his troops. Later came the
heyday of the Silk Route, a period of lucrative trade
between China, India and the Roman empire. The Kushans
were at the centre of the silk trade and established the
capital of their Gandhara kingdom at Peshawar. By the 2nd
century AD they had reached the height of their power,
with an empire that stretched from eastern Iran to the
Chinese frontier and south to the Ganges River. The
Kushans were Buddhist and under King Kanishka built
thousands of monasteries and stupas. Soon Gandhara became
both a place of trade and of religious study and
pilgrimage - the Buddhist `holy' land.
The Kushan empire had unravelled by the
4th century and was subsequently absorbed by the Persian
Sassanians, the Gupta dynasty, Hephthalites from Central
Asia, and Turkic and Hindu Shahi dynasties. The next
strong central power was the Moghuls who reigned during
the 16th and 17th centuries. A succession of rulers
introduced sweeping reforms, ended Islam's supremacy as a
state religion, encourged the arts, built fanciful houses
and, in a complete volte-face, returned the state to
Islam once again.
In 1799 a young and crafty Sikh named
Ranjit Singh was granted governorship of Lahore. He
proceeded over the next few decades to parlay this into a
small empire, fashioning a religious brotherhood of `holy
brothers' into the most formidable army on the
subcontinent. In the course of his rule, Ranjit had
agreed to stay out of British territory - roughly south-east
of the Sutlej River - if they in turn left him alone. But
his death in 1839 and his successor's violation of the
treaty plunged the Sikhs into war. The British duly
triumphed, annexed Kashmir, Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit
and renamed them the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Thus,
they created a buffer state to Russian expansionism in
the north-west and, unwittingly, what would transpire to
be the subcontinent's most unmanageable curse. A second
war against the British in 1849 brought the empire to an
end, and the annexation of the Punjab and the Sind in the
1850s; these were ceded to the British Raj in 1857.
National self-awareness began growing
in British India in the latter stages of the 19th century.
In 1906 the Muslim League was founded to demand an
independent Muslim state but it wasn't until 24 years
later that a totally separate Muslim homeland was
proposed. Around the same time, a group of England-based
Muslim exiles coined the name Pakistan, meaning `Land of
the Pure'. After violence escalated between Hindus and
Muslims in the mid-1940s, the British were forced to
admit that a separate Muslim state was unavoidable. The
new viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, announced that
independence would come by June 1948.
British India was dutifully carved up
into a central, largely Hindu region retaining the name
India, and a Muslim East (present-day Bangladesh) and
West Pakistan. The announcement of the boundaries sparked
widespread killings and one of the largest migrations of
people in history. Kashmir (properly The State of Jammu
and Kashmir), though, wanted no part of India or Pakistan.
When India and Pakistan sent troops into the recalcitrant
state, war erupted between the two countries. In 1949 a
UN-brokered cease-fire gave each country a piece of
Kashmir to administer but who will ultimately control it
still remains unclear.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, a prime mover of
Muslim independence, became Pakistan's first governor
general but died barely a year into his new country's
independence. His deputy and friend Liaqat Ali Khan
replaced him but was assassinated three years later. What
followed was a muddle of quarelling governor generals and
prime ministers and a severe economic slump. In 1956
Pakistan finally produced a constitution and became an
Islamic republic. West Pakistan's provinces were
amalgamated into a single entity similar to that in East
Pakistan. Two years later President Iskander Mirza - fed
up with the bickering and opportunism that pervaded
Pakistani politics - abrogated the constitution, banned
political parties and declared martial law, a state
Pakistan has been in, in one form or another, ever since.
The next two decades saw Pakistan
racked by further war with India over Kashmir, civil war
between the east and west, and the declaration of
Bangladeshi independence, another war with India, and the
execution of one of its most charismatic prime ministers,
Z A Bhutto. In 1977 Bhutto's chief of staff, General
Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, took control, insinuated himself
successfully with the USA (thereby gaining valuable
foreign aid) and was widely feted as a hero of the free
world. His death in an air crash in 1988 opened the way
for Bhutto's daughter, Benazir to claim victory in the
next election, the first elected woman to head a Muslim
country. She was toppled soon after but was voted back
into power in 1993.
Benazir Bhutto travelled widely,
trumpeting Pakistan's investment potential and casting
herself, and her country, as role models for the modern
Muslim state. Her place in the hearts of her own people
though was endangered by a culture of official corruption.
She was dismissed as Prime Minister in November 1996 by
the president Farooq Leghari. Elections held in early
1997 returned her opponent Nawaz Sharif. After India
conducted nuclear tests in May 1998, Pakistan responded
in kind two weeks later, detonating five nuclear devices
in south-western Baluchistan. International condemnation
was widespread, and sanctions put intense strain on the
country's economy.
It was the 'ruined economy' that
General Pervaiz Musharraf cited as the main reason for a
bloodless coup that took place in October 1999. The
military stepped in, deposed Nawaz Sharif and then took
control of most of Pakistan's institutions. Musharraf
issued a thinly-veiled warning to India not to meddle in
their internal affairs and tension over nuclear
capabilities between the two countries, and the dispute
over Kashmir, was screwed up a notch.
GDP: US$270 billion
GDP per head: US$2000
Annual growth: 5%
Inflation: 7.8%
Major industries: textiles, food processing,
beverages, construction materials, clothing, paper
products, shrimp, cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits,
vegetables, milk, beef, mutton, eggs
Major trading partners: EU, US, Hong Kong, Japan,
China
The pleasures of Pakistan are old:
Buddhist monuments, Hindu temples, Islamic palaces, tombs
and pleasure grounds, and widely spaced Anglo-Mogul
Gothic mansions - some in a state of dereliction which
makes their grandeur even more emphatic. Scuplture is
dominated by Graeco-Buddhist friezes, and crafts by
ceramics, jewellery, silk goods and engraved woodwork and
metalwork.
Even Pakistan's flotillas of vintage
Bedford buses and trucks, mirror-buffed and chrome-sequinned,
are dazzling works of art. Traditional dances are lusty
and vigorous; music is either classical, folk or
devotional; and the most patronised literature is a mix
of the scholastic and poetic. Cricket is Pakistan's
greatest sports obsession and national players are
afforded hero status - unless, of course, they
proselytise young and wealthy English women, then marry
them.
Nearly all Pakistanis are Muslim and
Islam is the state religion. Reminders of their devotion
are many: the muezzin's call to prayer from the
mosques; men sprawled in prayer in fields, shops and
airports; and veiled women in the streets. Christians are
the largest minority, followed by Hindus and Parsees,
descendants of Persian Zoroastrians. Note that dress
codes are strictly enforced - to avoid offence invest in
a shalwar qamiz - a long, loose, non-revealing
garment worn by both men and women.
Pakistani food is similar to that of
northern India, with a dollop of Middle Eastern influence
thrown in for good measure. This means menus peppered
with baked and deep-fried breads (roti, chapattis,
puri, halwa and nan), meat curries, lentil
mush (dhal), spicy spinach, cabbage, peas and rice.
Street snacks - samosas and tikkas (spiced
and barbecued beef, mutton or chicken) - are delicious,
while a range of desserts will satisfy any sweet tooth.
The most common sweet is barfi (it pays to
overlook the name), which is made of dried milk solids
and comes in a variety of flavours. Though Pakistan is
officially `dry', it does brew its own beer and spirits
which can be bought (as well as imported alcohol) from
specially designated bars and top-end hotels.
Nationwide celebrations include Ramadan,
a month of sunrise-to-sunset fasting which changes dates
every year (as the Islamic calendar differs from the
Gregorian one); Eid-ul-Fitr, two to three days of
feasting and goodwill that marks the end of Ramadan; Eid-ul-Azha,
when animals are slaughtered and the meat shared between
relatives and the needy; and Eid-Milad-un-Nabi,
which celebrates Mohammad's birthday.
Visas: Visas are required by
nationals from most European and English-speaking
countries. A Pakistan visa allows you to enter the
country up to six months from the date you get it, and
stay up to three months from the date you enter. However,
if you stay longer than 30 days you are required to
register at a foreigners' registration office; these are
in the larger towns and cities.
Health risks: dengue
fever, hepatitis A, malaria and, in rural areas, Japanese
encephalitis.
Time: GMT/UTC plus five hours
Electricity: 220V, 50 Hz
Weights & measures: metric (see the conversion table.)
Tourism: 424,000 visitors
Currency: Pakistani rupee
Relative costs:
By staying in hostels or dorms and
eating like a local you can get by on as little as US$10-15
a day. If,however, you were looking for a moderate touch
of luxury you could spend as much as $30-40 a day which
could get you accommodation that included a satellite T.V.,
a desk, a balcony, and a spotlessly clean bathroom. As in
any place you can spend as much as you like to live in
the lap of luxury and stay in swanky hotels. It's worth
noting that rooms and food are cheaper in the north than
in the south.
Both travellers cheques and cash are
easy to change throughout the country, but commissions on
cheques can be high. Apart from top-end hotels most
places won't accept credit cards as payment although you
can often use them for cash advances at western banks.
Facilities for validation seem better for Visa then
Mastercard. Occasionally a tattered note will be firmly
refused as legal tender, and often in the smaller towns
the appearance of a 1000 or 500 rupee note will cause
consternation and an inability to provide change so make
sure you get some smaller notes when buying your rupees.
Baksheesh isn't so much a bribe
as a way of life in Pakistan. It can apply to any
situation and is capable of opening all sorts of doors,
both literal and metaphorical. Anything from a signature
on a document to fixing a leaking tap can be acquired
through the magic of baksheesh. Most top-end
hotels will automatically add a 5-10% service charge to
your bill so any extra tipping is entirely up to you.
Taxi drivers routinely expect 10% of the fare, and
railway porters charge an officially-set Rs 7. The only
time that a gratuity might not be welcome is in the rural
areas where it runs counter to Islamic obligation to be
hospitable.
If baksheesh is a way of life,
bargaining is a matter of style, particularly in the many
Pakistani bazaars. Unlike the western hesitancy for
bargaining, shopkeepers in Pakistani love to bargain as
long as it's done with style and panache. Bargaining
usually begins with an invitation to step inside for a
cup of tea followed by a little bit of small talk, a
casually expressed interest by yourself in a particular
item, a way-too-high price mentioned by the seller, a way-too-low
counter offer by yourself and eventually, after much
comic rolling of eyes, a handshake and mutual
satisfaction for both parties. Bargaining should always
be accompanied by smiles, good humour and an ability not
to get fixated on driving the price into the ground.
The best time for travelling to
Pakistan depends on which part of the country you intend
to visit. Generally speaking the southern parts of
Pakistan including Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab and southern
NWFP are best visited in the cooler months between
November and April. After that it gets uncomfortably hot.
The northern areas like Azad Jammu Kashmir, and northern
NWFP are best seen during May to October before the area
becomes snowbound. The weather may be a little stormy
during this time but the mountain districts are usually
still accessible.
Try and avoid Pakistan during Ramadan,
the Muslim month of fasting which usually occurs sometime
during the months of December to early January. You may
find yourself involuntarily joining in the fast because
activity is kept to a minimum and food is hard to find
during daylight hours.
The security situation in Pakistan
deteriorated through 1997, with areas previously
considered safe experiencing the same sort of violence
and crime as in the long-troubled Sind region. As well as
the danger of being caught up in sectarian skirmishes,
travellers have been the specific target of violence in
Karachi and Lahore.
Sind, the region in the south of
Pakistan which includes Karachi, was known as the
`Unhappy Valley' or the `Land of Uncertainties' by
ancient travellers. Switch to the present day and news of
curfews, foreign kidnappings and atrocities between the
two main ethnic groups - Sindhis, the province's
indigenous inhabitants, and the Mohajir, Muslim refugees
from India - suggests its former name is still not out of
place. With robbery, smuggling and gun-running amongst
Sind's biggest industries, the province remains a highly
dangerous place to visit.
Travel to Sind as well as to the North-West
Frontier Province, Punjab and Baluchistan should be
undertaken with caution and only after consulting a
national foreign affairs department prior to departure or
a consulate in Karachi for current information.
Some important places of Pakistan which are
worthseeing.
Karachi
Pakistan's commercial centre and largest city is a
sprawling place of bazaars, hi-tech electronic shops,
scurf-infested older buildings and modish new hotels. Its
sights are spread far and wide so a taxi or rickshaw is
necessary to travel between them.
A good place to start is the Quaid-i-Azam Mausoleum,
a monument to Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah
which can be charitably described as distinctive. More
impressive is the remarkable white-marbled Defence
Housing Society Mosque. The single dome, claimed to
be the largest of its kind in the world, will make your
gum cleave to the roof of your mouth. Above the mosque is
Honeymoon Lodge, birthplace of the Aga Khan. Other
sights include the Holy Trinity Cathedral and St
Andrew's Church (both good examples of Anglo-Indian
architecture), the city's zoo, and the Zoroastrian
Towers of Silence, hills where the dead are
traditionally exposed to vultures. South of the city is Clifton,
a former British hangout and now an exclusive coastal
corner for the local wealthy, the popular but rather drab
Clifton Beach, and Manora Island, a less-crowded
beach resort.
Saddar, the city centre, is the
main shopping area with thriving markets selling
carpets, fur coats, leather jackets, snake-skin purses,
silk scarves and the country's biggest range of
handicrafts. It also has a number of food stalls and
cheap restaurants and the majority of budget hotels.
Nightlife in Karachi is an oxymoron.
If travel outside of Karachi is
possible, then the archaeological site of Moenjodaro
- once a city of an Indus Valley civilisation - and the Chaukundi
tombs are well worth a visit.
Being the commercial and unofficial
capital of Pakistani, flights in and out of Karachi are
numerous but it's worth checking the ETA of your flight.
Karachi is at the epicentre of political and ethnic
tensions; a tension that is cranked up to knife edge
proportions when combined with rival drug gangs,
political assassinations, and terrorist bombings. If your
flight touches down in the middle of the night it would
be wise to wait until sunrise before catching a taxi. For
the same reason catching buses should be avoided for the
foreseeable future. Buy a train ticket instead: trains
run from Karachi to most major destinations.
The capital of Punjab is Pakistan's
cultural, educational and artistic centre and easily the
most visited city in the country. With its refuge of
shady parks and gardens, its clash of Moghul and colonial
architecture, and the exotic thrill of its congested
streets and bazaars, it's not hard to see why. A
collection of some of the city's attractions include: The
Mall, an area of parks and buildings with a decidedly
British bent; Lahore Museum, the best and biggest
museum in the country; Kim's Gun, the cannon
immortalised in Kipling's classic Kim; Aitchison
College, an achingly beautiful public school that
boasts Imran Khan as a former pupil; Lahore Fort,
filled with stately palaces, halls and gardens; and the Old
City, where a procession of rickshaws, pony carts,
hawkers and veiled women fill the narrow lanes. The city
has too many tombs, mosques and mausoleums too mention.
Lahore, 250km (155mi) south of
Islamabad, is serviced by a plethora of international and
domestic carriers. Long hauls overland can be done in the
comfort of reliable, air conditioned buses, and smaller
trips in the ubiquitous minibuses. Lahore lies on the
main national line between Peshawar and Karachi and there
are frequent direct services to all major destinations.
Punjab is Pakistan's most fertile
province, rich in both agriculture and ancient history.
It's also one of the more stable of the country's
regions, and travellers should have few of the problems
that are faced further south and in the north.
The prosperous and hospitable town of
Bahawalpur is a gentle introduction to the area.
From here you can journey into Cholistan - a sandy
wasteland dotted with nomadic communities and wind-swept
forts - or the Lal Suhanra National Park, an
important wildlife reserve. Further north is Harappa
which is, after Moenjodaro, the second most important
site of the Indus Valley civilisation.
Rawalpindi and the country's
capital, Islamabad, are twin cities. The former is
a patchwork of bustling bazaars while the latter is
subdued, suburban and still being built (construction of
the new capital didn't begin until 1961). From here you
can visit Taxila, an archaeological repository,
and Hasan Abdul, a place of holy pilgrimmage.
Bahawalpur is the most southerly town
in the Punjab. There are dialy flights from Islamabad
about 555km (344mi) away. Most of the major destinations
in the Punjab can be reached by bus, minibu, and train.
The capital and only place of any
size in the parched, barren province of Baluchistan may
be light on ancient monuments but it's fit to bursting
with a vigorous blend of peoples, wide tree-lined
boulevards and sterling British architecture. Even more
compelling, Quetta has a dramatic setting, with a
mountainous backdrop on all sides. And unlike Karachi,
most sights can be easily walked in a day. Don't miss the
impressive Archaeological Museum of Baluchistan,
the fort or the city's many colourful bazaars
- great places to pick up marble, onyx and some of the
finest carpets in Pakistan.
Just outside Quetta are the postcard-perfect
Hanna Lake, plenty of picnic spots in Urak
Valley, and the protected Hazarganji Chiltan
National Park. Also near Quetta is the refreshingly
cool hill station of Ziarat, which is both a
restful destination and a good base for walking or
mountaineering.
Quetta is a hefty distance from any
other major town and a whopping 1000km (620mi) from
Islamabad. The geographic obstacles, however, are not as
worrying as the frontier mentality that thrives in the
isolated conditions: general lawlessness, intertribal
frictions and guns make for a volatile mixture. Quetta
and the surrounding areas are safe, as are the main
highways, provided you don't divert from the main roads
or travel at night. Theoretically tourists are allowed to
travel anywhere but in practice local authorities cannot
guarantee your safety. You can avoid some of the problems
by flying into Quetta on a domestic flight. Failing that,
air conditioned buses and trains can be taken for the
long hauls, and minibuses for the shorter trips.
The main asset of the disputed
territories of Jammu and Kashmir is their natural beauty
- unfortunately, Pakistan's 16km (10mi) security zone
means most of the truly scenic parts are now off limits.
What's left is Neelum Valley, famous for fishing
and trekking, Jhelum Valley, site of hill stations
and more good walks, and forested highlands to the
south. However, even these areas may be out of bounds,
depending on the political climate at the time; make sure
to check restrictions before you travel.
There are flights daily from Islamabad
into Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot. Crossings into
Muzaffarabad by land are restricted to Bararkot in
Manshera, or Kohala in Murree. You can enter Rawalakot by
bus or wagon from Rawalpindi. Other more direct routes
are off limits to foreigners as they run close to the
government research centre in the Punjab.
Impenetrable mountains, intractable
people, and impossibly romantic cities are just some of
the reasons why the North-Western Frontier Province is
perhaps the most memorable of Pakistan's destinations.
Most visits begin in Peshawar,
the rough and ready provincial capital. The highlight
here is the Old City - a brawl of vendors selling
everything from tribal jewellery to leather pistol
holsters. Clopping horse-drawn tongas choke the streets
which are thick with fearsome-looking Pashtuns - members
of a vast tribal society - Afghans and Chitrali. A short
distance outside Peshawar (but a million miles away) is
the Smugglers Bazaar. It's definitely not what
you'd expect: turbanned merchants in tents have been
replaced by Westernised malls stocking the latest TVs,
VCRs and refrigerators. There's even a shop flogging
Marks & Spencer's merchandise. The fabled Khyber
Pass, sprinkled with tiny army forts, is nearby.
North of Peshawar is the district of Swat,
reckoned to have the loveliest scenery in Pakistan's
northern valleys, and Chitral, a relatively
unspoilt area of lush valleys, hot springs and great
walks. Vertigo sufferers should steer clear of Indus
Koshitan to the west, a land of colossal peaks and
bottomless canyons with more good walks.
You can get domestic flights from
Peshawar to any number of Pakistani destinations, as well
as direct flights to Qatar, Tashkent, Abu Dhabi, Dubai,
and Jeddah. Buses and minibuses go to and fro from Lahore
and Rawalpindi all day, although the train is as cheap,
and safer than, the buses. Peshawar is 150km (93mi) west
of Islamabad.
The Northern Areas see few travellers
but those that brave the unruly terrain normally end up
in Gilgit, the capital. There's not much in the
city, save a bazaar that's full of Central Asian traders,
but it's an excellent base for alpine walks, trout
fishing and pottering about for historical ruins in the
countryside. Baltistan, once an unexplored dead
end, is now privvy to world-class mountaineering, fine
treks and lovely scenery. More accessible and just as
striking - check out the irrigated terraces rippling down
the slopes - is the region of Hunza, Nagar & Gojal
towards the Chinese border.
Flying into Gilgit is possible if not
complicated. It's a fiendishly difficult balancing act
between the weather, prior cancelled flights, waiting
lists, timing, and a little bit of luck. Your star sign
and karma have nothing to do with it; it just seems that
way. Going by bus, minibus, or jeep, may be easier to
arrange but wont give you those spectacular bird's eye
views. Gilgit is nearly 330km (205mi) from Islamabad.
Little-visited Multan, in the lower Punjab, is
claimed to be the oldest surviving city on the
subcontinent, dating back some 4000 years. Once an
important centre of Islam, it has since attracted more
mystics, holy men and saints than you can shake a shalwar
qamiz at. Today Multan is dominated by their tombs and
shrines, a fort that affords superlative views over the
city, and one of the best bazaars in Pakistan - those not
converted by Anita Roddick might like to snap up the skin
potion, made from lizards, which is said to be an
excellent revitaliser.
It's a 570km (353mi) trek down to Multan from
Islamabad. Buses and minbuses descend on Multan from a
variety of destinations including Karachi, Lahore,
Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Hyderabad, dropping passengers
off at the chaotic general bus station. Trains (a more
comfortable way to travel) shuffle between Lahore,
Karachi, and Rawalpindi.
Kalash Valleys
Missionaries, anthropolgists and Duddley Do-rights
come to the Kalash Valleys, south of Chitral, for
one thing - to gawp at a non-Muslim tribe (yes, you read
correctly) that live there. The people refer to
themselves as Kalasha, live in solid houses made of wood,
stone and mud, and quietly go about their pastoral lives
raising grains and herding the odd goat. Amazingly, they
seem unfussed by all the attention and seem to welcome
interested Western observers.
Unless you walk, the only way into Chitral is by air (weather
permitting), or via one of two passes high up in the
altitudes and even these are closed during the winter.
And it's a long walk from Islamabad: 393km (245mi) to be
exact. Once in Chitral you can reach the Kalashi valley
by jeep, or by taking a bus part of the way and then
doing rest the hard way; on foot.
Beautiful
pictures of PAKISTAN
Nanga Parbat
The Nanga Parbat massif (the name means `Naked
Mountain' in Kashmiri), in the southernmost part of the
Northern Areas, has a 4500m (14,760ft) wall that is so
steep even snow refuses to stick. The same can be said of
a large number of climbers - they've been dropping from
the scene for years. Beside it is a stomach-churning
track that climbs up a valley and then over a pass. It
regularly claimed jeeps over the side until the route was
improved in 1987. Undaunted? Last one to the top is a
rotten egg.
First off you'll need to get to Gilgit (see Northern
Areas section) and from there catch a bus or get a jeep
to Astor. From Astor you can jeep it to several small
villages in the area and after that it's strictly the
hard yards on foot.
With some of the most magnificent mountain terrain in
the world, Pakistan is naturally enough a trekkers
rave. There are all types of trekking available, from
those organised by overseas companies to Pakistan-based
outfits. You can also make your own arrangements, which
will be cheaper but also more demanding. Popular trekking
routes which can stretch from a day to a month are found
mostly in Gilgit, Nanga Parbat, Balistan (from where
treks leave to K2) and Hunza, all in the country's north.
For something a little less demanding there are good one-day
hikes in the Ziarat Valley, near Quetta.
Other activities include cycling along the
Karakoram Highway (from Rawalpindi to the Khunjerab Pass),
Potwar Plateau (Islamabad to Peshawar) and the Margalla
and Murree Hills (north of Islamabad), mountain biking
from Gilgit to Chitral, and white-water rafting
along the Hunza, Gilgit and Indus rivers.
Most flights from European and Asian centres arrive in
Karachi, though a few also go to Islamabad, Lahore,
Peshawar, Quetta and Gwadar (Baluchistan). Much more
interesting is taking an overland route. A railway links
Lahore with the Indian railway system through Amritsar,
and another from Quetta crosses briefly into Iran. After
the Grand Trunk Road, the most famous road into Pakistan
is the Karakoram Highway, over the 4730m (15,514ft)
Khunjerab Pass from Kashgar in China; roads also run from
India and Iran. A bus service between Delhi and Lahore,
operating four times a week, is now up and running. Sea
passage is a possibility with cargo ships calling at
Karachi from either the Middle East or Bombay.
Getting around Pakistan is not always comfortable but
it's incredibly cheap. The state-owned Pakistan
International Airlines (PIA, sometimes referred to as
`Prayers in Air') has regular flights to 35 domestic
terminals and daily connections between the major centres.
One of the bonuses of flying is that some of the air
routes, especially to the northern areas and Chitral, are
spectacular. Buses go anywhere (the true meaning of the
term Inshallah - God willing - will soon become
apparent along some of the treacherous mountain roads),
anytime. Vans, wagons, pick-ups and jeeps are also a
popular form of road transport. Train travel is slower
and easier on the nerves but, unfortunately, there are no
routes into the mountains. If you're fit and unafraid of
feverish traffic, cycling is a particularly good way to
see the country. City transport is dominated by buses,
taxis, auto-rickshaws and two-wheeled, horse-drawn tongas.
- Brief but descriptive odysseys through Pakistan
can be found in The Great Railway Bazaar
by Paul Theroux and Danziger's Travels by
Nick Danziger. Other good travel narratives
include The Golden Peak: Travels in Northern
Pakistan by Kathleen Jamie, To the
Frontier by Geoffrey Moorhouse and Full
Tilt by Dervla Murphy.
- Pakistan's historical and cultural traditions get
a good going over in the excellent Every Rock,
Every Hill: A Plain Tale of the North-West
Frontier & Afghanistan by Victoria
Schofield and Words For My Brother by John
Staley.
- Less recent histories and more in the `Gripping
Yarns' vein are John Keay's When Men &
Mountains Meet, Sir George Robertson's Chitral,
The Story of a Minor Siege and Derek Waller's
The Pundits.
- For fiction, don't ignore Shame, Salman
Rushdie's engrossing tragi-comic fantasy about Z
A Bhutto and General Ziaul-Haq. Kipling's The
Man Who Would Be King and Kim provide
a British colonial perspective and a romping good
read.
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Off the Beaten Track
Activities
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Recommended Reading