Islamabad Capital Territory in the context of "Pothohar Plateau"

The Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area, commonly referred to as Islamabad–Rawalpindi or the Twin Cities, is the fourth-largest metropolitan area of Pakistan, after Karachi, Lahore, and Faisalabad. With a population of over 5.7 million, it is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the Punjab region, the largest in northern Punjab, and fourth in the entire country. It consists of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi; administratively within the Islamabad Capital Territory and the province of Punjab.

The area includes the Pothohar Plateau in northern Punjab, with and the colonial-era city of Rawalpindi, as well as the modern planned city of Islamabad. The region received a major boom with the construction of Islamabad as the capital city of Pakistan in the 1960s.

Islamabad (/ɪzˈlɑːməbæd/ ; Urdu: اسلام‌آباد, romanised: Islāmābād, lit. 'City of Islam', [ɪsˈlɑːmɑːbɑːd] ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Built as a planned city in the 1960s and established in 1967, it replaced Karachi as Pakistan's national capital. Islamabad is located north of the city of Rawalpindi, with which it forms a metropolitan area of over 5.7 million inhabitants.

The Greek architect Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis developed Islamabad's master plan, in which he divided it into eight zones; the city comprises administrative, diplomatic enclave, residential areas, educational and industrial sectors, commercial areas, as well as rural and green areas administered by the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation with support from the Capital Development Authority. Islamabad is known for its parks and forests, including the Margalla Hills National Park and the Shakarparian. It is home to several landmarks, including the country's flagship Faisal Mosque. Other prominent landmarks include the Pakistan Monument and Democracy Square.

This is a list showing the most populous cities in Pakistan as of the 2023 Census of Pakistan. City populations found in this list only refer to the population found within the city's defined limits and any adjacent cantonment, if exists (except for Gujranwala and Okara). The census totals below come from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics for the four provinces of Pakistan and the Islamabad Capital Territory, and from the Planning and Development Department of Azad Jammu Kashmir (PND AJK) for cities of Azad Kashmir.

As of the 2023 Pakistani census, there are two megacities, ten million-plus cities, in Pakistan. Overall 127 cities of the country, have a population of over 100,000. Of these 127 cities, 81 are located in the country's most populous province, Punjab, 22 in Sindh, 13 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 8 in Balochistan, two in Azad Kashmir, and one is the Islamabad Capital Territory itself. It is unknown whether Gilgit-Baltistan has any city with over 100,000 people or not, as 2017 census results issued by the Government of Gilgit–Baltistan do not give figures for the population of cities in Gilgit–Baltistan. As in the previous census in 1998, the largest city of Gilgit-Baltistan was Gilgit, with 56,701 inhabitants.

Punjab (/pʌnˈdʒɑːb/ pun-JAHB; Punjabi, Urdu: پنجاب, pronounced [pəɲˈd͡ʒaːb] ) is a province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the most populous province in Pakistan and the second most populous subnational polity in the world. Located in the central-eastern region of the country, it has the largest economy, contributing the most to national GDP in Pakistan. Lahore is the capital and largest city of the province. Other major cities include Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Multan.

It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-west, Balochistan to the south-west and Sindh to the south, as well as Islamabad Capital Territory to the north-west and Azad Kashmir to the north. It shares an international border with the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab to the east and Indian-administered Kashmir to the north-east. Punjab is the most fertile province of the country as the Indus River and its four major tributaries Ravi, Jhelum, Chenab, and Sutlej flow through it.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, commonly abbreviated KP or KPK and formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest province by population. It is bordered by Balochistan to the south; Punjab, Islamabad Capital Territory, and Azad Kashmir to the east; and Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and northeast. It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a varied geography of rugged mountain ranges, valleys, rolling foothills, and dense agricultural farms.

The history of the present province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is characterized by frequent invasions by various empires, largely due to its geographical proximity to the historically important Khyber Pass. It was the site of the ancient Gandhara, and was historically a stronghold of Buddhism. Islam became dominant in the region after the 11th-century conquest of the Hindu Shahi kingdom by the Ghaznavids. The predecessor of the present province was constituted in 1901, under the British Raj, when the North-West Frontier Province was created by bifurcating the northwestern districts of the erstwhile Punjab Province.

The Government of Pakistan (abbreviated as GoP; constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre) is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, consisting of four provinces and one federal territory. The territories of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir are also part of the country but have separate systems and are not part of the federation.

Under the Constitution, there are three primary branches of a government: the legislative, whose powers are vested in a bicameral Parliament; the executive, consisting of the president, aided by the Cabinet which is headed by the prime minister; and the judiciary, with the Supreme Court.

Pakistan is administratively divided into four provinces, one federal territory, and two disputed territories: the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan; the Islamabad Capital Territory; and the administrative territories of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan. As part of the Kashmir conflict with neighbouring India, Pakistan has also claimed sovereignty over the Indian-controlled territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh since the First Kashmir War of 1947–1948. It also has a territorial dispute with India over Junagadh, but has never exercised administrative authority over either regions. All of Pakistan's provinces and territories are subdivided into divisions, which are further subdivided into districts, and then tehsils, which are again further subdivided into union councils.

The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI; Urdu: بلدیہ عظمی اسلام آباد) is a municipal authority for the Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan. It was established under the ICT Local Government Act 2015. The Corporation is one of three local government bodies in the Capital Territory; the other two are the ICT Administration (ICTA) and the Capital Development Authority (CDA).