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48 free Pakistan trivia questions with answers. These Pakistan trivia questions cover the country from the Karakoram to the Arabian Sea. You will find the second-highest mountain on Earth, a 4,500-year-old city, the world's largest earth-filled dam, the town that makes most of the planet's footballs, and the poet whose 1930 speech sketched a nation before it existed. The set moves from easy (the capital, the national sport, the founder known as Quaid-e-Azam) through medium (which province was renamed in 2010, who won the 1979 Nobel Prize) to hard questions about forts, necropolises, dams and squash streaks. It suits a classroom unit on South Asia, an Independence Day quiz night, or anyone brushing up before a trip. Every answer was verified against a reference page and each question carries the sentence that supports it, so the answer key holds up under argument.
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Q 01Which city has been the capital of Pakistan since it was built as a planned city in the 1960s?
Islamabad
Islamabad was laid out by Greek architect Constantinos Doxiadis, whose 1960 master plan divided the city into eight zones at the foot of the Margalla Hills; it formally became the capital in 1967.
Q 02Pakistan gained independence from British rule in which year?
1947
1947 saw the two dominions of India and Pakistan legally come into being at midnight on 14–15 August, under the Indian Independence Act passed by the British Parliament that July.
Q 03Muhammad Ali Jinnah is revered in Pakistan by the title Quaid-e-Azam, which means what?
Great Leader
Quaid-e-Azam translates as Great Leader; Jinnah led the Muslim League from 1934 and served as Pakistan's first governor-general until his death in September 1948.
Q 04K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, stands at what height?
8,611 m
K2 stands at 8,611 m, roughly 240 m short of Everest; also called Mount Godwin-Austen and nicknamed the 'Savage Mountain', it was first climbed by Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni in 1954.
Q 05The Indus River rises in which region before flowing through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea?
Tibet
Tibet is where the Indus begins, near Mount Kailash, as the Sengge Zangbo or 'Lion River'; the 3,180 km river then bends sharply around the Nanga Parbat massif on its way south.
Q 06Which is Pakistan's national sport?
Field hockey
Field hockey is the national sport: Pakistan's men's team won Olympic gold in 1960, 1968 and 1984 and the World Cup in 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994.
Q 07Which animal, known for its corkscrew horns, is the national animal of Pakistan?
Markhor
The Markhor, or screw-horned goat, is Pakistan's national animal; both sexes grow the tightly curled horns, which spread outward toward the tips, and a male's can reach about 1.5 m.
Q 08Which flower is Pakistan's national flower?
Jasmine
Jasmine, specifically Jasminum officinale, is Pakistan's national flower; Indonesia and the Philippines also chose a jasmine, but a different species, Jasminum sambac.
Q 09Which conifer is the national tree of Pakistan?
Deodar
Deodar, the Himalayan cedar Cedrus deodara, is Pakistan's national tree; it is also the state tree of Himachal Pradesh in India and grows in Pakistan's northern mountains alongside spruce and pine.
Q 10Malala Yousafzai became the youngest Nobel laureate in history when she won the Peace Prize at what age?
17
Malala was 17 when she shared the 2014 Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi, making her the youngest Nobel laureate; she was named after the Afghan folk heroine Malalai of Maiwand.
Q 11Abdus Salam, the first Pakistani Nobel laureate, won the 1979 prize in which field?
Physics
Physics: Abdus Salam shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow for the electroweak theory unifying the weak and electromagnetic interactions.
Q 12The ancient city of Mohenjo-daro was built around what date?
c. 2500 BCE
Built c. 2500 BCE, Mohenjo-daro was contemporary with Old Kingdom Egypt and Sumerian Mesopotamia; its name means 'Mound of the Dead Men' in the local language, and excavation began in 1922.
Q 13The Mohenjo-daro archaeological site lies in which province?
Sindh
Sindh's Larkana District holds the site, on the right bank of the Indus; the province's name and the word 'Indus' share the ancient root Sindhu.
Q 21Imran Khan captained Pakistan to its first Cricket World Cup title in which year?
1992
1992's final in Melbourne saw Pakistan beat England by 22 runs; Imran Khan, then 39, retired from cricket straight afterwards and later served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
Q 22The polytheistic Kalash people live in three valleys of which region?
Chitral
Chitral's Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir valleys are home to the Kalash, a few thousand people who kept their polytheistic religion while the related people of Nuristan, across the border, were converted in the 1890s.
Q 23The Karakoram Highway reaches its highest point, 4,714 m, near which crossing on the Chinese border?
Khunjerab Pass
Q 14The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore was built between 1671 and 1673 by which Mughal emperor?
Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb commissioned it in 1671 and it was finished in 1673, unusual for an emperor who spent most of his reign on campaign rather than building; the mosque faces the Alamgiri Gate of Lahore Fort.
Q 15The tent-shaped Faisal Mosque was designed by an architect from which country?
Turkey
Turkey's Vedat Dalokay won the 1969 design competition; his eight-sided concrete shell replaces the usual dome, and the mosque is named for King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who funded it.
Q 16Which language is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan?
Urdu
Urdu is the national language under the 1973 constitution, with English the other official language; Punjabi is the most widely spoken mother tongue, while Urdu is the first language of under a tenth of Pakistanis.
Q 17Benazir Bhutto first became prime minister of Pakistan in which year?
1988
Benazir Bhutto took office in December 1988 after the PPP won the election that followed Zia-ul-Haq's death; she was the first woman to lead a Muslim-majority country's government and served again from 1993 to 1996.
Q 18The Khyber Pass runs along Pakistan's border with which country?
Afghanistan
Afghanistan lies on the far side: the pass climbs through the Spin Ghar range to its summit at Landi Kotal, about 5 km inside Pakistan from the Torkham border crossing.
Q 19Nanga Parbat, nicknamed the 'Killer Mountain', ranks where among the world's highest peaks?
Ninth
Ninth highest at 8,126 m, Nanga Parbat is also the 14th most prominent peak on Earth, one of only two mountains in the top twenty of both lists.
Q 20Squash legend Jahangir Khan went unbeaten from 1981 to 1986, winning how many consecutive matches?
555
555 consecutive wins between 1981 and 1986 ended with a loss to Ross Norman in the 1986 World Open final; Guinness lists it as the longest winning streak in professional sport, and Khan also won ten straight British Opens.
Khunjerab Pass, opened to traffic in 1986, is where the 1,300 km highway crosses into China's Xinjiang; the road, sometimes called the Eighth Wonder of the World, is one of the highest paved roads on Earth.
Q 24The port of Gwadar was purchased by Pakistan in 1958 from which country?
Oman
It had been an overseas possession of the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman since 1783. Today it anchors the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Q 25Tarbela Dam on the Indus holds which world record?
Largest earth-filled dam
Largest earth-filled dam is Tarbela's claim: completed in 1976, its 143 m high, 2.7 km long embankment stands where the Indus leaves the Himalayan foothills for the Pothohar Plateau.
Q 26On Pakistan's flag, what does the vertical white stripe at the hoist represent?
Religious minorities
Religious minorities are represented by the white stripe, one quarter of the flag's width, while the green field stands for the Muslim majority; the Constituent Assembly adopted the flag days before independence.
Q 27The evening flag-lowering ceremony at the Wagah border with India has run since which year?
1959
1959 saw the first joint Beating Retreat ceremony at Wagah, a choreographed high-kicking drill by Pakistan Rangers and India's Border Security Force that ends each day with both flags lowered in unison.
Q 28Which is the largest of Pakistan's provinces by area, but the least populated?
Balochistan
Balochistan covers about 44 percent of Pakistan's land yet counted under 15 million people in the 2023 census, far fewer than any other province; its capital is Quetta.
Q 29The North-West Frontier Province was renamed what in April 2010?
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa became the province's name under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, signed into law on 19 April 2010, reflecting its Pashtun majority.
Q 30Gilgit-Baltistan, home to K2, was known by what name until 2009?
Northern Areas
Northern Areas was the name given in 1970 to the combined Gilgit Agency and Baltistan; the 2009 Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order renamed the territory and gave it an elected assembly.