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  • painting, Western (art)
    history of Western painting from its beginnings in prehistoric times to the present....
  • Painvin, Georges J. (French cryptologist)
    The great French cryptanalyst Georges J. Painvin succeeded in cryptanalyzing critical ADFGVX ciphers in 1918, with devastating effect for the German army in the battle for Paris....
  • Paipai (people)
    The remnants of the Baja California Indians—the Tipai (Diegueño), Akwa’ala (Paipai), and Kiliwa—live in ranch clusters and other tiny settlements in the mountains near the American border. Speaking Yuman languages of Hokan stock, they are little different today from their relatives in American California. A small number of Cocopa in the Colorado Delta in like manner rep...
  • pair axiom (set theory)
    ...quality, further means of constructing sets from existing sets must be introduced if some of the desirable features of Cantorian set theory are to be established. Three axioms in the table—axiom of pairing, axiom of union, and axiom of power set—are of this sort....
  • pair bonding (zoology)
    Another factor that has an impact upon the complexity of displays is the length of time that the pair bond will endure. Brief relationships are usually, but not always, associated with rather simple courtship activity. In a number of insects, birds, and mammals, the males display on a common courtship ground called a lek or an arena. Females visit these courtship areas, copulate, and leave. The......
  • pair hitch (dogsled method)
    ...well as by fur trappers to travel between their traps. At first dogs were individually tethered to the sled in a fan hitch. This was ideal in open country, but, as the use of sled dogs expanded, the tandem hitch, for running dogs in pairs, became the standard. Sled dogs are still used for transportation and working purposes in some Arctic and subarctic areas, though they have largely been......
  • Pair of Blue Eyes, A (novel by Hardy)
    ...met the rector’s vivacious sister-in-law, Emma Lavinia Gifford, who became his wife four years later. She actively encouraged and assisted him in his literary endeavours, and his next novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873), drew heavily upon the circumstances of their courtship for its wild Cornish setting and its melodramatic story of a young woman (somewhat resembling Emma Gifford) a...
  • pair of virginals (musical instrument)
    musical instrument of the harpsichord family, of which it may be the oldest member. The virginal may take its name from Latin virga (“rod”), referring to the jacks, or wooden shafts that rest on the ends of the keys and hold the plucking mechanism. Unlike the harpsichord and spinet, the virginal’s single set of strings runs nearly parallel to the keyboard. By building t...
  • pair potential function, intermolecular (physics)
    Molecules cohere even though their ability to form chemical bonds has been satisfied. The evidence for the existence of these weak intermolecular forces is the fact that gases can be liquefied, that ordinary liquids exist and need a considerable input of energy for vaporization to a gas of independent molecules, and that many molecular compounds occur as solids. The role of weak intermolecular......
  • pair production (physics)
    in physics, formation or materialization of two electrons, one negative and the other positive (positron), from a pulse of electromagnetic energy traveling through matter, usually in the vicinity of an atomic nucleus. Pair production is a direct conversion of radiant energy to matter. It is one of the principal ways in which high-energy gamma rays are absorbed in matter. For pa...
  • pair system (numeral systems)
    It should not be inferred, however, that 10 is either the only possible base or the only one actually used. The pair system, in which the counting goes “one, two, two and one, two twos, two and two and one,” and so on, is found among the ethnologically oldest tribes of Australia, in many Papuan languages of the Torres Strait and the adjacent coast of New Guinea, among some African......
  • paired leaf arrangement (plant anatomy)
    ...on stems in angiosperms are alternate, opposite (paired), and whorled. In alternate-leaved plants, the leaves are single at each node and borne along the stem alternately in an ascending spiral. In opposite-leaved plants, the leaves are paired at a node and borne opposite to each other. A plant has whorled leaves when there are three or more equally spaced leaves at a node....
  • paired terrace (geology)
    Terraces are most commonly classified on the basis of topographic relationships between their segments. Where terrace treads stand at the same elevation on both sides of the valley, they are called paired terraces. The surfaces of the paired relationship are presumed to be equivalent in age and part of the same abandoned floodplain. Where terrace levels are different across the valley, they are......
  • paired-associate learning
    The method of paired-associate learning, in which a person is asked to learn to associate one syllable or word with another (e.g., complete–hot, safe–green, wild–soft), encouraged the investigation of the influence of stimulus and response similarity on transfer of learning. Typically these pairs of verbal items.....
  • pairing, axiom of (set theory)
    ...quality, further means of constructing sets from existing sets must be introduced if some of the desirable features of Cantorian set theory are to be established. Three axioms in the table—axiom of pairing, axiom of union, and axiom of power set—are of this sort....
  • pairing energy (electrons)
    The essential feature of crystal field theory is that there is a competition between the magnitude of the CFSE and the pairing energy, which is the energy required to accommodate two electrons in one orbital. When the pairing energy is high compared with the CFSE, the lowest-energy electron configuration is achieved with as many electrons as possible in different orbitals. The arrangement of a......
  • Páirliment Chloinne Tomáis (Irish literature)
    An interesting development in prose style was the satire Páirliment Chloinne Tomáis (“Parliament of Clan Thomas”). It appears to be by a representative of the bardic order, for it attacked with equal savagery the new ruling class and the native peasantry, using a style close to that of the earlier crosánacht but with prose predominating over verse.....
  • pairs skating (sport)
    Pairs skating consists of a man and a woman performing jumps and spins in unison as well as such partnered elements as lifts, throw jumps, and death spirals. Good pairs skaters demonstrate symmetry and parallel flow across the ice. Unison elements are important in pairs skating. When the partners are not touching, they perform identical elements, including double and triple jumps, spins, and......
  • Páirtí Lucht Oibre (political party, Ireland)
    main party of the left in the Republic of Ireland....
  • Pais, Abraham (American physicist)
    Dutch-born American physicist and science historian (b. May 19, 1918, Amsterdam, Neth.—d. July 28, 2000, Copenhagen, Den.), was a prominent theoretical physicist who in later life wrote widely acclaimed biographies of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. Pais earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Amsterdam in 1941. A Jew, he was forced into hiding after Germany overtook The Netherland...
  • País, El (Uruguayan newspaper)
    ...most prestigious paper until its demise in the early 1990s; it was founded in 1886 by the Colorado leader and (later) president José Batlle y Ordóñez. El País, the paper of the rival Blanco Party, has the largest circulation. El Observador Económico is a respected independent daily, and many......
  • País, El (Spanish newspaper)
    (Spanish: “The Country”), daily newspaper published in Madrid, an independent paper dedicated to the promotion of democratic ideals in post-Franco Spain....
  • Pais, Sidónio (president of Portugal)
    ...by Costa’s oratory, partisan press, and political machine, the Democrats’ regime was in turn overthrown by another bloody military coup (December 1917), led by the former minister to Germany, Major Sidónio Pais....
  • País Vasco (region, Spain)
    comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) and historic region of northern Spain encompassing the provincias (provinces) of Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya (Biscay). The Basque Country is bounded by the Bay of Biscay to the no...
  • Paisà (film by Fellini)
    ...Persiane chiuse [1951; Drawn Shutters]), his scripts for Rossellini are most important to the history of the Italian cinema. These include Paisà (1946; Paisan), perhaps the purest example of Italian Neorealism; Il miracolo (1948; “The Miracle,” an episode of the....
  • Paisaci dialect (language)
    ...works. The oldest poetic work in this is Vimala Sūri’s Paumacariya (c. 3rd century). Of other Prākrit dialects mentioned by grammarians, Paiśācī (or Bhūta-Bhāṣā, both meaning “Language of Demons”) is noteworthy; it is said to be the language of the original Bṛhatkathā of......
  • “Paisan” (film by Fellini)
    ...Persiane chiuse [1951; Drawn Shutters]), his scripts for Rossellini are most important to the history of the Italian cinema. These include Paisà (1946; Paisan), perhaps the purest example of Italian Neorealism; Il miracolo (1948; “The Miracle,” an episode of the....
  • Paisiello, Giovanni (Italian composer)
    Neapolitan composer of operas admired for their robust realism and dramatic power....
  • Paisiy of Khilendar (Bulgarian monk)
    ...intelligentsia. The creation and dissemination of a sense of national identity was usually the work of national apostles who pointed back to more glorious years. In Bulgaria, for example, the monk Paisiy of Khilendar chronicled the glories of the medieval tsars and saints. In the same way, Serbs were reminded of the achievements of Stefan Dušan, and Albanians looked back to the exploits....
  • paisley (textile pattern)
    textile pattern characterized by colourful, curved abstract figures; it is named for the shawls manufactured at the town of Paisley, Scot. When, about 1800, patterned shawls made from the soft fleece of the Kashmir goat began to be imported to Britain from India, machine-woven equivalents were made at Paisley to supply the insatiable demand that had been crea...
  • Paisley (Scotland, United Kingdom)
    large burgh (town) and an industrial centre, Renfrewshire council area and historic county, west-central Scotland, 7 miles (11 km) west of Glasgow. It is situated on the River White Cart, a tributary of the River Clyde....
  • Paisley, Bob (British soccer team manager)
    ("BOB"), British association football (soccer) player and manager who, at the time of his retirement in 1983, was the most successful team manager in the history of English soccer; between 1974, when he took command of the Liverpool Football Club, and 1983 he steered Liverpool to six League titles, three League Cups, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup, and the 1977 European Super Cup (b. Jan. 23, 1...
  • Paisley, Ian (Irish clergyman and politician)
    militant Protestant leader in the sectarian conflict that divided Northern Ireland from the 1960s, who was first minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to June 2008. He also served as a member of the British Parliament (1970) and the European Parliament (1979–2004)....
  • Paisley, Ian Richard Kyle (Irish clergyman and politician)
    militant Protestant leader in the sectarian conflict that divided Northern Ireland from the 1960s, who was first minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to June 2008. He also served as a member of the British Parliament (1970) and the European Parliament (1979–2004)....
  • Paisley Park Studios (American company)
    Although Prince had moved to New York City in 1976, signed to Warner Brothers in 1978, and established his revolutionary working practices by 1980, it was not until his heyday in the mid-1980s that his impact was fully felt. Many of Prince’s riffs and rhythms drew from funk’s rich history—notably from James Brown and George Clinton—but what was entirely novel was the wa...
  • Paisley, Robert (British soccer team manager)
    ("BOB"), British association football (soccer) player and manager who, at the time of his retirement in 1983, was the most successful team manager in the history of English soccer; between 1974, when he took command of the Liverpool Football Club, and 1983 he steered Liverpool to six League titles, three League Cups, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup, and the 1977 European Super Cup (b. Jan. 23, 1...
  • Paisley shawl (clothing)
    textile pattern characterized by colourful, curved abstract figures; it is named for the shawls manufactured at the town of Paisley, Scot. When, about 1800, patterned shawls made from the soft fleece of the Kashmir goat began to be imported to Britain from India, machine-woven equivalents were made at Paisley to supply the insatiable demand that had been created for “cashmere”......
  • Paitishhahya (Zoroastrianism)
    ...are: Maidhyaōizaremaya (Midspring), occurring in the month of Artavahisht, 41 days after the New Year; 60 days later is Maidhyoishema (Midsummer), in the month of Tīr; 75 days later, Paitishhahya (Harvest-time), in the month of Shatvairō; 30 days later, Ayāthrima (possibly Time of Prosperity), in the month of Mitrā; 80 days later, Maidhyāirya (Midwinter...
  • Paiute (people)
    either of two distinct North American Indian groups that speak languages of the Numic group of the Uto-Aztecan family. The Southern Paiute, who speak Ute, at one time occupied what are now southern Utah, northwestern Arizona, southern Nevada, and southeastern California, the latter group being known as the Chemehuevi. Although encroached upo...
  • Paiva, Afonso de (Portuguese traveler)
    ...move may have resulted from reports received in 1486 in Benin (a kingdom on the west coast of Africa), referring to a great ruler far to the east. Pêro was chosen for the mission to India, and Afonso de Paiva, a squire who spoke Arabic, was to seek Prester John and discover a route from Guinea to Abyssinia. The men left Portugal in May 1487 with letters of credit on Italian bankers; they...
  • “Päivälehti” (Finnish newspaper)
    morning daily newspaper published in Helsinki, the largest paper in Finland and the only one of substance that remains free of political-party control....
  • Paiwan language
    ...(though not all) of the languages can easily be determined by an inspection of such basic subsystems as personal pronouns or the numerals. The Table presents names for the numbers 1 to 10 in the Paiwan language of southeastern Taiwan, Cebuano Bisayan (Visayan) of the central Philippines, Javanese of western Indonesia, Malagasy of Madagascar, Arosi of the southeastern Solomon Islands in......
  • Paiwanic language
    The Formosan languages belong to the Austronesian family. They are diverse and fall into three major branches: Atayalic, Tsonic, and Paiwanic. The last is the largest and includes Ami, Bunun, Paiwan, and Saaroa. ...
  • Paixhans, Henri-Joseph (French military officer)
    ...guns in warships’ main batteries were preceded by bombs fired from mortars, small shell guns, and solid hot shot heated to cherry red. A principal architect in bringing big shell guns to sea was Henri-Joseph Paixhans, a general of French artillery. The first large shell guns from Paixhans’ design, chambered howitzers firing a 62.5-pound (28.5-kg) shell (thicker-walled than bombs t...
  • paixiao (musical instrument)
    Chinese bamboo panpipe, generally a series of bamboo tubes secured together by rows of bamboo strips, wooden strips, or ropes. The instrument is blown across the top end. Although 16 pipes have become the standard, other groupings (from 13 to 24) have been made. Before the Tang dynasty (ad 618–907) the panpipe was called ...
  • paj ntaub (Asian decorative arts)
    ...Kuna Indians of Panama by the reverse-appliqué technique in which the upper layers of cloth are cut away and turned back to expose the lower layers. The intricate paj ntaub (Hmong: “flower cloth”) made by Hmong women of Southeast Asia are delicate patterns executed in appliqué and reverse appliqué with embroidered......
  • Pajama Game, The (work by Bissell)
    ...in the latter year and danced and sang in three film musicals, including Kiss Me Kate. He returned the next year to Broadway, where he won his first Tony award for choreographing The Pajama Game (1954), becoming noted then and later for his clever, angular groupings of dancers and fresh, stylistically exaggerated staging. He then arranged the dances for several Broadway......
  • pajamas (clothing)
    loose, lightweight trousers first worn in the East, or a loose two-piece suit consisting of trousers and a shirt, made of silk, cotton, or synthetic material and worn for sleeping or lounging....
  • Pajarito Plateau (plateau, New Mexico, United States)
    city, seat (1949) of Los Alamos county, north-central New Mexico, U.S. It lies on the Pajarito Plateau (elevation 7,300 feet [2,225 metres]) of the Jemez Mountains, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Santa Fe. The site was named Los Alamos (Spanish: “the cottonwoods”) by Ashley Pond, founder of the Los Alamos Ranch School for Boys (1918–43)....
  • Pajeú (river, Brazil)
    ...are navigable during periods of high water, but below Petrolina the river is impassable. The broken course—during which the São Francisco receives the São Pedro, Ipueira, and Pajeú rivers—culminates in the great Paulo Afonso Falls. At the top of the falls, the river divides suddenly and violently and cuts three successive falls through the granite rocks for a....
  • paji (garment)
    Some of the basic elements of modern traditional dress in Korea, the chŏgori (jacket), paji (trousers), and turumagi (overcoat), were probably worn at a very early date, but the characteristic two-piece costume of today did not begin to evolve until the period of the Three......
  • Pajjusaṇa (Jaina festival)
    a popular eight-day festival in Jainism, a religion of India. It generally is celebrated by members of the Śvetāmbara sect from the 13th day of the dark half of the month Bhādrapada (August–September) to the 5th day of the bright half of the month. Among Digambaras, a corresponding festival is called Daśalakṣaṇa, and it begins imm...
  • Pajkowski, Franciszek A. (American athlete)
    American tennis player who in the 1940s was U.S. singles champion twice, Wimbledon doubles champion--with Pancho Gonzales--once, and French singles champion twice; he spent 17 years in the top-10 ranks (b. Feb. 13, 1916--d. July 24, 1997)....
  • Pajon, Claude (French theologian)
    French Protestant theologian who was influential during the later Reformation....
  • Pajou, Augustin (French sculptor)
    French sculptor and decorator known mainly for his portrait busts of famous contemporaries, such as his patroness, Madame du Barry, and for directing the decoration of the Versailles opera house....
  • PAK (political party, Greece)
    ...After a period of imprisonment, he had been allowed to leave Greece. In exile he was a leading critic of the military regime and sought with limited success to launch a resistance movement, the Panhellenic Liberation Movement (Panellinio Apeleutherotiko Kinima; PAK), to bring about the overthrow of the military regime. PAK members formed a significant element in the newly established......
  • “Pak Ch’ŏmjikuk” (Korean puppet play)
    ...been determined; however, in the Koryŏ period puppet plays were widely performed and very popular among the people. Several types of puppet play developed in Korea. The folk puppet play Kkoktukaksi, named after the wife of the main character, is still performed in the summer months in South Korea by farmers in troupes of six or seven players and musicians. Twelve or 15 puppets......
  • Pak Inno (Korean poet)
    Pak Inno, the master of kasa in the 17th century, wrote in a style that combined erudition and lyricism. He produced seven pieces between 1598 and 1636; the theme of his first two kasa was the Japanese invasion, during which he served in the navy. The desire to reevaluate the past and to re-create the world of literature led to changes in the kasa, as exemplified in the......
  • Pak Island (island, Papua New Guinea)
    ...on Baluan made bird-shaped bowls, ladles, and spatulas; on Lou, obsidian was carved into great hemispheric bowls; on Rambutyo figures and anthropomorphic lime spatulas were common; and the people on Pak made beds (used nowhere else in Melanesia) and slit gongs. Although the Matankor were neither culturally nor linguistically homogeneous, their art style shows a considerable uniformity. Surface....
  • Pak Kyongni (South Korean poet and novelist)
    South Korean poet and novelist who garnered international acclaim for the 21-volume epic novel T’oji (1969–94; Land), in which she chronicled Korea’s tumultuous history from 1897 to 1945. The novel, widely regarded as a masterpiece of Korean literature, took Pak more than 25 years to complete and won numerous honours, including the Woltan Literature Award. Pak pu...
  • Pak Nae-hyŏn (Korean artist)
    ...and No Su-hyŏn. After World War II traditional painting began to assume a modern mode of expression, as may be seen in the works of a group of radical painters such as Kim Ki-ch’ang, Pak Nae-hyŏn, and Pak No-su. All of these artists were highly trained in the traditional mediums of ink and watercolour painting. Their paintings reflect a bold sense of composition and colour....
  • Pak No-su (Korean artist)
    ...After World War II traditional painting began to assume a modern mode of expression, as may be seen in the works of a group of radical painters such as Kim Ki-ch’ang, Pak Nae-hyŏn, and Pak No-su. All of these artists were highly trained in the traditional mediums of ink and watercolour painting. Their paintings reflect a bold sense of composition and colour and also have the......
  • Pak Se Ri (South Korean golfer)
    The Associated Press called her "the rookie sensation"; Time magazine hailed her as the "Tigress Woods" of golf; and the New York Times claimed she was the best product South Korea had ever exported to the U.S. In 1998 there seemed to be no superlative too great for Pak Se Ri, the most exciting rookie to appear in women’s golf since Nancy Lopez made her Ladies Professional Gol...
  • Pak Tai (region, Thailand)
    The upper part of the southern-peninsula region, also called Pak Tai, has a distinctive identity linked to the historical role of towns such as Nakhon Si Thammarat, once known as Ligor. Because of the region’s historical ties to the later Siamese kingdoms, the language and customs of the southern Thai are similar to those of the Thai of central Thailand. The lower part of the southern regio...
  • Pak Tujin (Korean poet)
    ...witness to the events of their age; some sought to further assimilate traditional Korean values, while others drew variously on Western traditions to enrich their work. Sŏ Chŏngju and Pak Tujin are known for their lifelong dedication and contributions to modern Korean poetry. Considered to be the most “Korean” of contemporary poets, Sŏ is credited with explori...
  • Pak-hoi (China)
    city and port, southern Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi, China. For a time the city was in Guangdong province, but in 1965 it became part of Guangxi. It is located on the western shore of a small peninsula on the eastern side of Qinzhou Bay on the Gulf of Tonkin, immediately south of the delta of the Nanliu River, about 12.5 miles (20 km...
  • Pakaha (king of Israel)
    ...Judah—a vassal of Assyria—now had to pay tribute. Over the next two years Tiglath-pileser systematically broke the power of Damascus. Israel was made subject through the assassination of Pekah (Pakaha) and his replacement by a pro-Assyrian vassal Hoshea (Ausi). Galilee was made part of an adjacent province....
  • Pakanbaru (Indonesia)
    kotamadya (municipality) and capital of Riau propinsi (province), central Sumatra, Indonesia. It is a port on the Siak River and is located about 100 miles (160 km) upstream from the Strait of Malacca. Pekanbaru is a collection centre for agricultural produce from the hinterland, including rubber, tea, and coffee, together with petroleum, bauxite, and gold. Househo...
  • Pakaraima Mountains (mountains, South America)
    central tabular upland of the Guiana Highlands in Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana. The Pacaraima Mountains form the drainage divide between the Orinoco Valley to the north and the Amazon Basin to the south. Extending for 250 miles (400 km) in an east–west direction, the mountains mark the borders between Brazil and southeastern Venezuela and between Brazil and west central Guyana. Mount Rorai...
  • Pake, George Edward (American physicist)
    American physicist (b. April 1, 1924, Jeffersonville, Ohio—d. March 4, 2004, Tucson, Ariz.), assembled (1970) a team of crack scientists and engineers for the Xerox Corp. at the newly established Palo Alto Research Center in California and oversaw its explorations into the emerging field of computer science. Under his leadership, which fostered collegiality, a number of inventions were crea...
  • Pakenham, Edward Arthur Henry (British dramatist)
    theatre patron and playwright who is best-remembered as the director of the Gate Theatre in Dublin....
  • Pakenham, Elizabeth Harman (British historian and biographer)
    British historian and biographer (b. Aug. 30, 1906, London, Eng.—d. Oct. 23, 2002, Hurst Green, East Sussex, Eng.), was an acclaimed author and the matriarch of one of England’s most brilliant literary families—her eight children included biographer Lady Antonia Fraser, writer Thomas Pakenham, novelist Rachel Billington, and poet Judith Kazantzis. Longford published her first ...
  • Pakenham, Francis Aungier (British politician)
    British politician and social reformer (b. Dec. 5, 1905, London, Eng.—d. Aug. 3, 2001, London), was admired as an active, though sometimes eccentric, social reformer in a long political career as a government minister in the 1940s and ’50s and later as an outspoken member of the House of Lords, of which he was leader 1964–68. The son of the 5th earl of Longford, he was educate...
  • pakhavāj (musical instrument)
    ...drum a definite pitch. The left head is usually tuned an octave lower than the right. The drum is held across the lap and played on both ends with the hands and fingers. A similar instrument, the pakhavāj, is played in North India....
  • Pakhto language
    Eastern Iranian language spoken by the Pashtun in eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Its dialects fall into two main divisions: the southern, which preserves the ancient sh (as in “Pashto”) and zh sounds, and the northern, which has kh (as in “Pakhto”) and gh sounds instead. Written in a modified Arabic alphabet, Pashto shows strong I...
  • Pakhtun (people)
    Pashto-speaking people of southeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They constitute the majority of the population of Afghanistan and bore the exclusive name of Afghan before that name came to denote any native of the present land area of Afghanistan....
  • Pakhtunwali (social code)
    ...politics. In the absence of an effective central government, Afghan communities have their own social norms, but none so elaborate as Pashtun tribal law, known as Pashtunwali. With the advent of the Taliban, Islamic courts and an Islamic administration of justice through interpretation of the law by clergy (......
  • Paki, Lydia Liliuokalani (queen of Hawaii)
    first and only reigning Hawaiian queen and the last Hawaiian sovereign to govern the islands, which were annexed by the United States in 1898....
  • Pakian Viravong (Lao writer)
    ...decline in Lao social values. Major writers in Vientiane during this period include three children of Maha Sila Viravong, an important scholar of traditional Lao literature, history, and culture: Pakian Viravong, Duangdeuan Viravong, and Dara Viravong (pseudonyms Pa Nai, Dauk Ket, and Duang Champa, respectively). An equally important writer was Outhine Bounyavong, Maha Sila Viravong’s......
  • Pakistan
    populous and multiethnic country of South Asia. Pakistan has historically and culturally been associated with India. Since the two countries achieved independence in 1947, Pakistan has been distinguished from its larger southeastern neighbour by its overwhelmingly Muslim population (as opposed to the predominance of Hindus in India). Pakistan has struggled throughout its existen...
  • Pakistan, Church of (Protestant denomination)
    denomination inaugurated in Pakistan in 1970 and comprising former Anglican, Methodist, Scottish Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches and mission bodies. It is the only church in the world joining Lutherans with Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians and one of three in which Anglicans and Methodists unite, the others being the churches of North and South India....
  • Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pakistani government agency)
    ...radio and television traditionally have been used in an attempt to harness folk cultural traditions (especially in song, music, and drama) for political and nonpolitical purposes. In 2002 the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was established to regulate and license privately owned radio, television, and satellite broadcasting facilities. Censorship, particularly of......
  • Pakistan, flag of
    ...
  • Pakistan, history of
    This section presents the history of Pakistan from the partition of British India (1947) to the present. For a discussion of the earlier history of the region, see India....
  • Pakistan Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation (Pakistani financial organization)
    ...institutions provide medium- and long-term credit for industrial, agricultural, and housing purposes and include the Pakistan Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation (1957; since 2001, PICIC Commercial Bank, Ltd.), the Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan (1961), the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (1961), and the House Building Finance Corporation (1952). There are a......
  • Pakistan International Airlines (Pakistani company)
    Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), established in 1954, is the national carrier; until the mid-1990s it was the sole domestic carrier, but since then a number of small regional airlines and charter services have been established. (PIA also runs international flights to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia, as well as to neighbouring Afghanistan.) The principal airports are located......
  • Pakistan Muslim League (J) (political party, Pakistan)
    ...to take advantage of the new conditions by reestablishing themselves. In January 1986, Junejo announced that he intended to revive and lead the Pakistan Muslim League—often designated as Muslim League (J) to distinguish it from other factions attempting to access the party’s legacy. Soon afterward Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and head of the PPP, returned fr...
  • Pakistan Muslim League (N) (political party, Pakistan)
    ...of claims of fraud by the PPP. Of the more than 200 seats contested in the National Assembly, the PPP won fewer than 20. Only in Sind did the PPP have anything resembling a respectable showing. The PML-N of Nawaz Sharif was the big winner, taking all the provinces either outright or through coalitions with provincial parties. Although only one-third of the eligible electorate had voted, no......
  • Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (political party, Pakistan)
    The outcome of the voting was seen as a rejection of Musharraf and his rule; his PML-Q party finished a distant third behind the PPP (now led by Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower), which captured about one-third of the parliamentary seats up for election, and Sharif’s party, the PML-N, with about one-fourth of the seats. In March the PPP and PML-N formed a coalition......
  • Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (political party, Pakistan)
    ...of claims of fraud by the PPP. Of the more than 200 seats contested in the National Assembly, the PPP won fewer than 20. Only in Sind did the PPP have anything resembling a respectable showing. The PML-N of Nawaz Sharif was the big winner, taking all the provinces either outright or through coalitions with provincial parties. Although only one-third of the eligible electorate had voted, no......
  • Pakistan National Alliance (political party, Pakistan)
    Bhutto scheduled the country’s second national election in 1977. With the PPP being the only successful national party in the country, nine opposition parties formed the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) and agreed to run as a single bloc. Fearing the possible strength of the PNA, Bhutto and his colleagues plotted an electoral strategy that included unleashing the FSF to terrorize the......
  • Pakistan People’s Party (political party, Pakistan)
    The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was formed in 1968 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, working with a number of liberal leftists who wanted Pakistan to disregard the idiom of religion in politics in favour of a program of rapid modernization of the country and the introduction of a socialist economy. The PPP emerged as the majority party in West Pakistan in the elections of 1970 (though the Awami Lea...
  • Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (political party, Pakistan)
    ...unanimously elected leadership would have excluded the PPP from participating in elections. In response to these obstacles, the PPP split, registering a new, legally distinct branch called the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP). Legally separate and free from the restrictions brought upon the PPP by Bhutto’s leadership, the PPPP participated in the 2002 elections, in ...
  • Pakistan Posts and Telegraph Department (Pakistani company)
    ...developed and expanded since the first years of independence. Since 1988 the government has stimulated investment in telecommunications and prompted the development of an efficient national system. Pakistan Telecommunications Company, Ltd.—originally founded in 1947 as the state-run Pakistan Posts and Telegraph Department and partly privatized in 1994—is the country’s large...
  • Pakistan Resolution (Indian-Pakistani history)
    The first meeting of the league after the outbreak of the war was held in Punjab’s ancient capital of Lahore in March 1940. The famous Lahore Resolution, later known as the Pakistan Resolution, was passed by the largest gathering of league delegates just one day after Jinnah informed his followers that “the problem of India is not of an inter-communal but manifestly of an internation...
  • Pakistan Telecommunications Company, Ltd. (Pakistani company)
    ...developed and expanded since the first years of independence. Since 1988 the government has stimulated investment in telecommunications and prompted the development of an efficient national system. Pakistan Telecommunications Company, Ltd.—originally founded in 1947 as the state-run Pakistan Posts and Telegraph Department and partly privatized in 1994—is the country’s large...
  • Pakistani Clergy, Assembly of (political party, Pakistan)
    ...urban lower-middle classes (as well as having great influence abroad). Two other religious parties, the Assembly of Islamic Clergy (Jamīʿat ʿUlamāʾ-e Islām) and the Assembly of Pakistani Clergy (Jamīʿat ʿUlamāʾ-e Pakistan), have strong centres of support, the former in Karachi and the latter in the rural areas of the N...
  • Pakistani Water and Power Development Authority (Pakistani organization)
    The generation, transmission, and distribution of power is the responsibility of the Pakistani Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), a public-sector corporation. WAPDA lost its monopoly over generation after Pakistan entered into an agreement in 1989 with a consortium of foreign firms to produce power from giant oil-fired plants located at Hub, near Karachi; the plants were completed......
  • pakkā (food)
    Food observances help to define caste ranking: Brahmins are the highest caste because they eat only those foods prepared in the finest manner (pakkā); everyone else takes inferior (kaccā) food. Pakkā food is the only kind that can be offered in feasts to gods, to guests of high status, and to persons who provide honorific services. Food is regarded as......
  • Paknam (Thailand)
    town, south-central Thailand, on the Gulf of Thailand. Samut Prakan (sometimes called Paknam) lies at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River and serves as a lower port of Bangkok, 12 miles (19 km) north, with which it is linked by road and railway. The adjacent gulf coastline is marshy and most settlements are inland. Rice cultivation and fishing are economically important. Pop. (1986 est.) 69,218....
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