4. CAPITAL CITY.

The capital of Pakistan is Islamabad. This city is the tenth largest city in Pakistan with an estimated population of 673,766 inhabitants in 2009. The third largest city in Pakistan is The Rawalpindi/Islamabad Metropolitan Area, with a population of 4.5 million inhabitants.
Islamabad is located in the Pothohar Plateau in the north of the country. Islamabad was built during the 1960s to replace Karachi, which was capital at that moment. However, this city doesn't move directly to Islamabad. It was first shifted to Rawalpindi and then to Islamabad after all the developmental works were finished.
Islamabad is one of the greenest and most well-planned cities of South Asia. According to a survey, Islamabad is considered the cleanest city in Pakistan. The city is well-organized and divided into different sectors and zones. Islamabad was ranked as a Gamma world city in 2008. The city is home to Faisal Mosque, and this is the largest mosque in South Asia and the sixth largest mosque in the World. Islamabad has the highest literacy rate in Pakistan. One of the most important educational institution is the Quaid-i-Azam University, which is located in Islamabad. In adition, the top two engineering universities in Pakistan, Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences and National University of Sciences and Technology are also located in the capital. The world's second largest university by enrollment is Allama Igbal Open University, in Islamabad.























History

Panoramic view of 15th century Pharwala Fort near Islamabad beside the Swaan River
The region is preceded by thousands of years of history. Islamabad Capital Territory, located in the Pothohar Plateau, is regarded to be one of the earliest sites of human settlement in Asia. The plateau has revealed evidence of a prehistoric culture. It is known that a Buddhist town once existed in the region. Relics and human skulls have been found dating back to 5000 B.C. that show this region was home to Stone Age people who used the banks of Swaan River as their settlement. The Stone Age people developed small communities in the region at around 3000 BC, leading to the early roots of civilization here. Situated at one end of the Indus Valley Civilization, this area was the first habitation of the Aryan community from Central Asia. The civilization flourished here between the 23rd and 18th centuries BC. Some of the earliest Stone Age artefacts in the world have been found on the plateau, dating from 500,000 to 100,000 years. The crude stones recovered from the terraces of the Soan carry the account of human grind and endeavours in this part of the world from the inter-glacial period. Items of pottery and utensils dating back to prehistory have also been found.
Islamabad was one of the routes though which the armies from the north and northwest passed to invade the Indian Subcontinent. Many great armies such as those of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Timur and Ahmad Shah Durrani have used this route on their way to Indian Subcontinent. Modern Islamabad is based on the old settlement known as Saidpur. The region later became a Sikh town and became an important trading centre. The British seized the region from the Sikhs in 1849 and built Asia’s largest cantonment in the region.