User:Green Giant/sandbox/Rough Sketch
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These are rough sketches for sections which might add to the article on Pakistan. Suggestions and amendments are welcome.
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[edit] Climate
Pakistan has many different types of climate and scenery. Along the flat, southern coast, there are sandy beaches, lagoons, and mangrove swamps. At the opposite end of the country are the icy peaks of the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush mountain ranges, many of them over 7,000 metres high and covered in snow and glaciers. Linking these two areas and running down the middle of Pakistan is the Indus River and its many tributaries. To the west of the Indus are the dry, hilly deserts of Balochistan; to the east are the rolling sand dunes of the Thar Desert.
Pakistan’s climate varies as much as its scenery with very cold winters and hot summers in the north and a mild maritime-influenced climate in the south. The central part of the country has extremely hot summers, with temperatures rising to 45ºC (113ºF), followed by cold winters, often times in below freezing temperatures in the north.
All of Pakistan receives very little rain, ranging from less than 250mm to more than 1250mm, mostly brought by the south-westerly monsoon winds during the late summer. However, the monsoons are unreliable because in some years they bring a lot of rain and in other years very little rain. Much of the rain is lost through evaporation because it falls at the hottest time of the year. This results in a water shortage for crops; a problem Pakistan has solved by constructing many dams on the rivers to store water and release it when the farmers need it in the fields. In many drier areas, water wells have been sunk to ease the water shortage problem.
[edit] Wildlife
The wide variety of landscapes and climates in Pakistan allows for a wide variety of wild animals and birds. In the south, there are crocodiles in the murky waters at the mouth of the Indus River whilst on the banks of the river, there are boars, deer, porcupines, and small rodents. In the sandy scrublands of central Pakistan, jackals, hyenas, wild cats, panthers, and leopards roam in search of food. In the north, some of the rarest animals in the world can be seen in the mountains and valleys. They include Marco Polo sheep and Urial sheep; Markhor and Ibex goats with long, curved horns; black and brown Himalayan bears; and the very rare Snow Leopard. The clear blue skies abound with hawks, falcons, and eagles.
In recent years the government has become concerned with the number of wild animals being killed for fur and leather trading. Some species of animals were in danger of being wiped out altogether because hunters had killed so many of them. In 1981, Parliament passed a law banning the hunting of wild animals and birds but many people ignored the law. Due to this negligence, the government has established several wildlife sanctuaries and game reserves where animals can live in safety from hunters. These special parks have towers and hideouts to enable people to observe the animals without disturbing or harming them.
Another rare species is the Indus River Dolphin, a blind cetacean which inhabits the area where the Punjab rivers meet the Indus. There are believed to be about 1,000 Indus Dolphins remaing and they are protected in two major sanctuaries.
References for this section include [1]
[edit] Holidays
Holidays and festivals in Pakistan tend to be of both, a secular nature or a religious nature. Amongst the secular holidays are Pakistan Day (March 23), Independence Day (August 14), Defence of Pakistan Day (September 6), the anniversaries of the birth (December 25) and death (September 11) of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Allama Iqbal Day (November 9). Labour Day (also known as May Day) is also observed in Pakistan on May 1.
Several important festivals are celebrated by the Muslims of Pakistan during the year. The main one is Ramadan, (the ninth month of the Islamic calendar), when people remember the month in which the Islamic prophet Muhammad first received God’s advice on how to lead a good life. Ramadan lasts for 29 or 30 days(depending on sighting of new moon), during which Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset. People say extra prayers and try to read the whole of the Qur’an. The end of Ramadan is marked by the festival of Eid ul-Fitr which starts with special prayers and is a time for feasting and visiting family and friends and for children to receive new clothes, presents, and sweets.
Every year, thousands of Pakistanis travel to Mecca to join other Muslims from across the world in performing the Hajj pilgrimage. Many of the pilgrims are assisted by the government, which provides free plane and ship tickets to Saudi Arabia. Closely associated with the Hajj is the festival of Eid ul-Adha, when Muslims sacrifice an animal in remembrance of the actions of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham). The meat is shared with friends, family, and less fortunate people. People wear their best clothes and go to the mosque for special prayers. Both Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha are public holidays, when schools, shops, and offices are closed.
A third Eid is the Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi, in the third month (Rabi' al-awwal) of the Islamic Calendar, which celebrates the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Christians of Pakistan also celebrate their own festivals and saints' days. Sikhs come from across the world to visit the shrine of Guru Nanak at Hassan Abdal in the Attock District of Punjab.
There are also several regional and local festivals, such as the Punjabi festival of Basant, which marks the start of spring and is celebrated by people flying kites.
[edit] Transport
More than half of Pakistan is mountainous terrain where railway tracks cannot be built and roads are frequently blocked by snow or landslides. Great distances separate the major towns and cities, especially between the cities in the north and Karachi in the south. These problems have been partially overcome by the development of a good air service across the country. The prices are kept as low as possible, especially in the mountainous areas, so that as many people as possible can use the planes. Mountain villagers can take cheap 45-minute flights to Islamabad instead of uncomfortable 20-hour bus journeys. The air services are provided by a number of domestic airlines including PIA, Shaheen Air International and Aero Asia.
However, for many people, flying is a luxury they cannot afford, so they must rely on the use of more traditional, slower means of travel. In the mountains, people and luggage can be carried up steep tracks by four-wheel drive jeeps and tractors. In the flatter parts of the country, it is common to see bicycles and carts drawn by horses, donkeys, bullocks or camels. In the cities the bicycles and carts must jostle for space in the streets with motorbikes, motorised rickshaws, large and small buses, taxis, and cars, vans and trucks - all honking and hooting impatiently. Traffic jams are common, and pollution from vehicle exhausts is becoming a problem.
The major cities and towns are linked by good, tarmacked roads including seventeen major inter-provincial highways, motorways and strategic roads which total almost 9,000 kilometres. These roads account for a small fraction of Pakistan’s road network but carry 80% of the commercial road traffic in the country. Some of the important roads include the Indus Highway following the right bank of the river Indus, the Karakoram Highway linking northern Pakistan with the Xinjiang region of China, and the new Makran Coastal Highway linking Karachi and Gwadar.
People can also travel cheaply between cities by the train network which carries more than (?) million passengers annually as well as (?) million tonnes of freight. Most trains are pulled by disel engines and their carriages have bunks for the long overnight journeys.
[edit] See also
[edit] Agriculture
The agricultural sector plays an important role in Pakistan despite the move towards a service-oriented economy. Approximately half of the population are employed in agriculture and the sector earns (?) % of export revenues. The main activity of Pakistani farmers is crop-growing, with most able to plant two crops annually. The first crop is planted in early summer just before the monsoon rains, for harvesting in autumn, while the second crop is planted in autumn, after the rains, for harvesting in early spring. The main crops are sugar cane, wheat, cotton, rice and maize, but fruits also grown in large quantities especially in Balochistan Province and in the valleys amongst the northern mountains. The fruit varieties include apples, apricots, grapes, oranges, peaches and plums as well as almonds and walnuts. In the warmer areas of the south, ther eis also farming of tropical fruits like dates, mangoes and papaya.
There are various problems which face the farmers of Pakistan, including diseases and pests like locusts which can harm crops badly. The damage is being reduced by the use of chemical sprays and the breeding of new varieties of plants. However, the biggest problem is the lack of water, because the monsoon winds bring rain only once a year and then sometimes not at all. To solve this problem, the government has constructed two large dams and thousands of canals and channels. The dams on the rivers Jhelum and Indus store water from the sumemr monsoon, which is then carried by the canals and channels to 3 million farms during the dry summer and winter months. This irrigation system, with its 63,000 kilometres of canals and 87,000 channels leading of them, is the largest in the world. It means that Pakistan can grow enough to feed its people and have some food left to export to other countries.
