General Knowledge and Pakistan Studies
General Knowledge and Pakistan Studies
This section rewards factual recall about Pakistan's land, people and freedom movement, plus a thin layer of world general knowledge such as capitals, currencies and organisations. Questions are one-line facts, so precision - exact numbers and dates - is what scores.
Pakistan facts that repeat
- Area 796,096 km²; four provinces - Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan - plus Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
- Capital Islamabad; largest city Karachi; national language Urdu.
- National symbols: markhor (animal), chukar (bird), jasmine (flower), deodar (tree), mango (fruit).
- Rivers: the Indus is the longest; the five rivers of Punjab are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas.
- K2 at 8,611 m is the highest peak in Pakistan and the second highest in the world; the Khyber Pass links Pakistan with Afghanistan.
- Thar Desert lies in Sindh, Thal in Punjab; Balochistan is the largest province by area.
Freedom movement
- Allama Iqbal's Allahabad address, 1930; the name Pakistan proposed by Chaudhry Rahmat Ali in 1933; Lahore Resolution, 23 March 1940.
- Independence on 14 August 1947, with the Radcliffe Award boundary announced on 17 August 1947; Quaid-e-Azam became first Governor-General and Liaquat Ali Khan first Prime Minister.
- Pakistan joined the UN on 30 September 1947; the Objectives Resolution was passed in 1949; the first constitution came in 1956.
Worked example
Who was Pakistan's first Governor-General? Do not answer Liaquat Ali Khan - he was the first Prime Minister. The first Governor-General was Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the first President under the 1956 constitution was Iskander Mirza. Separate the three offices in your mind before ticking.
Traps
Mixing first President with first Governor-General, 23 March 1940 with 14 August 1947, and highest peak with highest pass. Read the whole question: largest by area and largest by population have different answers.