It is an acronym, no? Stands for Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sind, and BaluchisTAN (i.e. the provinces that went to make up Pakstan when it was first created).

The "i" was added later to make it easier to say.

Either way it's easier than saying "the shop on the corner run by the former inhabitants of the Five Northern Units of India".

And the whole thing means "land of peace", which seems to have worked out nicely.
(e_logic, Wed 18 May 2011, 11:12, 1 reply)

This is an absolute, total, epic load of
bollocks
( WormuIus, Thu 19 May 2011, 8:42, closed)

Did you check first?
Cos it sounds like you're an absolute, total, epic load of bollocks. To quote Wikipedia:

The name Pakistan means Land of (the) Pure in Urdu and Persian. It was coined in 1933 as Pakstan by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan movement activist, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never.[18] The name is an acronym representing the "thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN—by which we mean the five Northern units of India viz: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind, and BaluchisTAN". The letter 'i' was later added to ease pronunciation." Sources: www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_rahmatali_1933.html www.chaudhryrahmatali.com/now%20or%20never/index.htm
( clockworkrat has nice pants, Thu 19 May 2011, 11:35, closed)