Welcome to Islamabad!
Islamabad (Urdu: اسلام آباد) has been the capital of Pakistan since 1960 when the capital city was moved from Karachi. Although it is only the ninth largest city of Pakistan, together with its neighbouring twin city of Rawalpindi, the greater Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area is the third largest conurbation with a population of over 4.5 million inhabitants.
Since its foundation in the 1960s, Islamabad has attracted people from all over Pakistan, making it one of the most cosmopolitan and urbanized cities of Pakistan. As the capital, Islamabad is the seat of the Government of Pakistan, and the Presidential Palace (Aiwan-e-Sadr) is here.
Islamabad is known as a relatively clean, calm, and green city by Pakistan standards. It hosts a large number of diplomats, politicians, and government employees. Islamabad is a modern, well-planned, well-maintained, and well-organized international city on the Pothohar Plateau in the northeastern part of Pakistan, within the Islamabad Capital Territory, and regarded as the most developed city in Pakistan. It has the highest literacy rate in Pakistan and, like Canberra in Australia, is surrounded by hills.
Islamabad (Urdu: اسلام آباد, romanized: Islām Ābād) is the capital city of Pakistan and is administered by the Pakistani federal government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. It is the ninth-largest city in Pakistan, while the larger Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area is the country's third-largest with a population of about 4.1 million people. Built as a planned city in the 1960s to replace Karachi as Pakistan's capital, Islamabad is noted for its high standards of living, safety, and abundant greenery. The master plan for the city was designed by Greek architect Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis and divides the city into eight zones, including administrative, diplomatic enclave, residential areas, educational and industrial sectors, commercial areas, as well as rural and green areas which are administered by the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation with support from the Capital Development Authority. Islamabad is known for the presence of several parks and forests, including the Margalla Hills National Park and the Shakarparian. It is home to several landmarks, with the most notable one being the Faisal Mosque, the largest mosque in South Asia and the fifth-largest in the world. Other landmarks include the Pakistan National Monument and Democracy Square. Islamabad is a Gamma+ city as rated by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. It has the highest cost of living in Pakistan, and its populace is dominated by middle and upper-middle-class citizens. The city is home to twenty universities, including Bahria University, Quaid-e-Azam University, PIEAS, COMSATS University, and NUST. The city is rated as one of the safest in Pakistan, and has an expansive RFID-enabled surveillance system with almost 2000 active CCTV cameras.