Pakistan enjoys a central and pivotal position in Asia and the world where the cultures of the Middle East and South Asia meet. Here the cultures are rich and of various kinds.History exerts a profound influence over the psychology and behavior of the people. Religion and nationalism are two major culture forming forces uniting the society to common feelings and shared values. Pakistan is blessed with unique geographical features from gushing rivers, tying mountains, sea coast and deserts to green and fertile plains.

The northern mountains of the Himalayas, the Karakorams, the Hindu Kush range and the Sulaimans form the northern and western borders of Pakistan. Eight of the world's ten highest peaks are to be found here, including Mount Godwin-Austen-K2 -which, at 28,250 feet (8,610 metres), bows only to mighty Everest in earth' s struggle to reach up to the skies. The passes or gateways on the western frontier; Kurram, Tochi, Gomal and Bolan Passes and Khyber, were destined to enter into human history and to inspire poets and philosophers, soldiers and kings.It was through these routes the greatest conquerers entered these areas to be followed by saints and sufis who spread Islam in this region.

The Indus River, rises in Tibet from a spring known as 'The Mouth of the Lion'. It flows down through the Karakoram Mountains to enter the northern areas of Pakistan. Downwards it continues its 2,8 8 0-kilometre journey southwards and westwards through the heart of the country. Flowing through the centre of Pakistan it irrigates the land and is undoubtedly considered to be the rejuvenating river of Pakistan.

Pakistan is a country with a population close to eighty-four million and a vibrant Gross National Product. It has a rapidly-expanding economy. The agricultural sector, including forestry and fishing, is the largest single source of employment for the Pakistani population. The province of Punjab where almost 75 per cent of the land-area planted to wheat, cotton and rice can be found. Wheat and rice are the principal food crops and rice is also one of the largest earners of foreign exchange amongst the visible exports. Cotton is the principal non-food crop. Over two million acres, again mainly in the Punjab, are planted to cotton, which provides the raw material for Pakistan's 1174 textile mills.Oil and natural gas production is also on the increase, most of the natural gas fields so far discovered are in Sui in Baluchistan province.

Pakistanis are a nation with their own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions and aspirations that have roots deep in their history and their religion and culture.

In Pakistan there is a variety of life styles to be seen. There are metropolitan cities of Karachi and Lahore on the one hand, and on the other hand there is to be found an extreme wilderness where in astonishing desert mirages, a posse of horsemen gallops suddenly out of nowhere along a silent railway line before striking off at an angle, apparently to nowhere else.

Pakistan has rich and vibrant culture and values. It is the expression of the great heritage of the Muslim civilisations including the Arabs, Turks and the Moughals.It is a passion for its people who cannot deny their unending love for their mother land.