Punjab, Pakistan in the context of "Indus Valley Civilization"

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.

Punjabi literature, specifically literary works written in the Punjabi language, is characteristic of the historical Punjab of present-day Pakistan and India and the Punjabi diaspora. The Punjabi language is written in several scripts, of which the Shahmukhi and Gurmukhī scripts are the most commonly used in Western Punjab and Eastern Punjab, respectively.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Urdu: آزاد جموں و کشمیر, romanised: Āzād Jammū̃ o Kaśmīr, lit. 'Free Jammu and Kashmir'), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir (/ˌɑːzæd kæʃˈmɪər/ AH-zad kash-MEER), is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity and constituting the western portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. On its eastern side, Azad Kashmir is separated from the Indian–administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir by the Line of Control (LoC), which serves as the de facto border between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. Azad Kashmir borders with the Pakistani–administered Gilgit–Baltistan to the north; it shares borders with the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the south and west, respectively. Geographically, it covers a total area of 13,297 km (5,134 sq mi) and has a total population of over 4.045 million as per the 2017 national census.

The territory has a parliamentary form of government modelled after the British Westminster system, with the city of Muzaffarabad serving as its capital. The President of AJK is the constitutional head of state, while the Prime Minister, supported by a Council of Ministers, is the chief executive. The unicameral Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly elects both the Prime Minister and President. The territory has its own Supreme Court and a High Court, while the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan serves as a link between itself and Azad Jammu and Kashmir's government, although the autonomous territory is not represented in the Parliament of Pakistan.

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.

Balochistan (/bəˈlɒtʃɪstɑːn, bəˌlɒtʃɪˈstɑːn, -stæn/; Balochi: بلۏچستان, romanised: Balòcestàn, Balochi pronunciation: [baˈloːt͡ʃest̪ɑːn]; Urdu: بلوچستان, romanised: Balocistān, Urdu pronunciation: [bəloːt͡ʃɪst̪ɑːn] ) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-east, Punjab to the east, and Sindh to the southeast; shares international borders with Iran to the west and Afghanistan to the north; and is bound by the Arabian Sea to the south. Balochistan is an extensive plateau of rough terrain divided into basins by ranges of sufficient height and ruggedness. It has a large deep-sea port, the Port of Gwadar, lying in the Arabian Sea.

Although it constitutes approximately 44% of Pakistan's land area, only 5% of it is arable, and it is noted for an extremely dry desert climate. Despite this, agriculture and livestock make up about 47% of Balochistan's economy.

The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilisations of the Near East and South Asia. Of the three, it was the most widespread: it spanned much of Pakistan; northwestern India; and northeast Afghanistan. The civilisation flourished both in the alluvial plain of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra, a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan.

The term Harappan is also applied to the Indus Civilisation, after its type site Harappa, the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan. The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro was the culmination of work that had begun after the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj in 1861. There were earlier and later cultures called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area. The early Harappan cultures were populated from Neolithic cultures, the earliest and best-known of which is named after Mehrgarh, in Balochistan, Pakistan. Harappan civilisation is sometimes called Mature Harappan to distinguish it from the earlier cultures.

Taxila (Punjabi: ٹيکسلا, romanized: Ṭeksilā), historically known as Takshashila, is a city and UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Pothohar Plateau of Punjab, Pakistan. Founded around c. 1000 BC, it is one of the oldest cities in South Asia. Taxila is located within the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District in northern Punjab, and it lies approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the Haripur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Established during the Vedic period, Old Taxila was for a time the capital city of ancient Gandhāra. Situated on the eastern shore of the Indus River—the pivotal junction of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia—it was possibly founded around 1000 BCE. Takshashila and Pushkalavati remained prominent cities in Gandhāra during the Mahajanapadas. The city is believed to have become part of the Achaemenid Empire during 550 – 326 BCE. In 326 BCE, it was claimed by Alexander the Great, after overthrowing the Achaemenids. Alexander gained control of the city without a battle since it immediately surrendered to his Macedonian Empire. This was followed successively by the Mauryans (~317 – ~200 BCE), the Indo-Greeks (~200 BCE – ~55 BCE), the Indo-Scythians (~80 BCE – ~30 CE), and the Kushan Empire (~30 CE – ~375 CE), who destroyed the existing city, in the first century CE, to build their own on a site to the north of the ruins. Owing to its strategic location, Taxila has changed hands many times over the centuries, with many polities vying for its control. When the great ancient trade routes connecting these regions ceased to be important, the city sank into insignificance and was finally destroyed in the 5th century by the invading Hunas. In mid-19th century British India, ancient Taxila's ruins were rediscovered by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham and extensively excavated by Sir John Marshall. In 1980, UNESCO designated Taxila as a World Heritage Site. The area was part of the ancient Gandhara region. Taxila (ancient city) was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 and is located in the town of Taxila.

Sagala, Sakala (Sanskrit: साकला), or Sangala (Ancient Greek: Σάγγαλα) was a city in Punjab, which is generally identified as the predecessor of the modern city of Sialkot that is located in what is now Pakistan's northern Punjab province. The city was the capital of the Madra kingdom and it was razed in 326 BC during the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great. In the 2nd century BC, Sagala was made capital of the Indo-Greek kingdom by Menander I. Menander embraced Buddhism after extensive debating with a Buddhist monk, as recorded in the Buddhist text Milinda Panha. Sagala became a major centre for Buddhism under his reign, and prospered as a major trading centre.

Lahore is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Punjab. It is the second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and 27th largest in the world, with a population of over 14 million. Lahore is one of Pakistan's major industrial, educational and economic hubs. It has been the historic capital and cultural centre of the wider Punjab region, and is one of Pakistan's most socially liberal, progressive, and cosmopolitan cities.

Lahore's origin dates back to antiquity. The city has been inhabited for around two millennia, although it rose to prominence in the late 10th century with the establishment of the Walled City, its fortified interior. Lahore served as the capital of several empires during the mediaeval era, including the Hindu Shahis, Ghaznavid Empire and Delhi Sultanate. It reached the height of its splendour under the Mughal Empire between the late 16th and early 18th centuries, being its capital city for many years. During this period, it was one of the largest cities in the world. The city was captured by the forces of the Afsharid ruler Nader Shah in 1739. Although the Mughal authority was re-established, it fell into a period of decay while being contested among the Afghans and the Sikhs between 1748 and 1798, eventually becoming capital of the Sikh Empire in the early 19th century. Lahore was annexed to the British Raj in 1849 and became the capital of British Punjab. Lahore was central to the independence movements of British India, with the city being the site of both the Declaration of Indian Independence and the resolution calling for the establishment of Pakistan. It experienced some of the worst rioting during the partition of British India preceding Pakistan's establishment. Following the success of the Pakistan Movement and the subsequent partition in 1947, Lahore was declared the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province.

Faisalabad, formerly known as Lyallpur, is the second-largest city and primary industrial center of the Pakistani province of Punjab. Located in the Rachna Doab of the central Punjab, it is the third-most populous city in Pakistan. Established in 1890s as a planned city, the population of the city increased six times in the decade following the partition of British India as hundreds of thousands of East Punjabi Muslim immigrants settled the city.

Historically one of the largest villages of Punjab, Lyallpur was one of the first planned cities within British India. It became headquarters of the lower Chenab Colony and in 1898 was incorporated as a municipality. It was restructured into city district status; a devolution promulgated by the 2001 local government ordinance (LGO). The city is the headquarters of the Faisalabad District the total area of which is around 5,856 km (2,261 sq mi) while the urban area controlled by the Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA) is around 1,300 km (500 sq mi).