What is the capital of Pakistan?

Islamabad was built in the 1960s to replace Karachi, which had served as capital since independence but was criticised as too hot, too congested, too exposed on the coast and too dominated by commercial interests. A commission chose a site on the Potohar plateau in the north, beside the Margalla Hills and next to the existing garrison city of Rawalpindi, which also placed the capital close to the army's headquarters. The Greek planner Constantinos Doxiadis designed it as a grid of numbered and lettered sectors, each intended to be largely self-contained with its own markets, schools and mosque, on a plan meant to expand outward in one direction as the city grew. The result is unusually green and orderly by regional standards, backed by wooded hills, with the vast Faisal Mosque, shaped like a desert tent, standing where the city meets the slopes.

Rawalpindi, immediately adjacent, served as an interim capital while Islamabad was under construction.