pakistan,

Pakistan (Urdu: پَاکِسْتَان [ˈpaːkɪstaːn]), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (ISO: اِسْلامی جَمْہُورِیَہ پَاکِسْتَان, islāmi jamhūriyāh pākistān), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of 241.5 million people, and has the world's largest Muslim population as of 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre, followed by Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Peshawar and Hyderabad. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country in the world by area and the second largest in South Asia, spanning 881,913 square kilometres (340,509 square miles). It has a 1,046-kilometre (650-mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China to the northeast. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a maritime border with Oman.