National Capital
Islamabad has been the capital of Pakistan since the 1960s, succeeding the coastal city of Karachi, which had been selected as the capital in 1947 by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan. The legislature was based in Dacca in the province of East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan). Karachi was and still is the largest city and economic capital of Pakistan. It remained the seat of government until 1959, when the military president, Ayub Khan, decided to build a new capital in the north of Pakistan, near the general headquarters of the Pakistani Armed Forces at Rawalpindi. The main reasons for the new location were that the new capital city would reflect the diversity of the Pakistani people, it would be separated from the business and commercial activity of Karachi, and also it would be easily accessible from all parts of the country. The move to Islamabad was not completed until the late 1960s and for some years several government ministries were based in nearby Rawalpindi.
Read more about this topic: List Of Capitals In Pakistan
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or capital:
“All men are lonely. But sometimes it seems to me that we Americans are the loneliest of all. Our hunger for foreign places and new ways has been with us almost like a national disease. Our literature is stamped with a quality of longing and unrest, and our writers have been great wanderers.”
—Carson McCullers (1917–1967)
“Mr. Whistler always spelt art, and we believe still spells it, with a capital “I.””
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)