Overview
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is situated between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, at the strategically important mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan is the world's fifth most populous country, with more than 250 million people, which projects an active voice in the South Asia region and within the Islamic world. Pakistan was formed following the partition of India in August 1947. Pakistan shares significant borders with China, India, Afghanistan and Iran. Pakistan counts China and Iran as key regional partners. Pakistan continues to host a large Afghan refugee community. The territorial dispute over Kashmir continues to challenge its relationship with India.
Bilateral relationship
Australia enjoys long-standing and growing ties with Pakistan, underpinned by deepening people-to-people links. Diplomatic relations were established on partition in 1947, and Australia has maintained a resident mission in the country since 1948.
The Australian Government engages with Pakistan in the areas of trade, agriculture, education, human rights, migration cooperation, development assistance, and annual reciprocal defence education and training, including through official level dialogue.
People-to-people links
Australia and Pakistan enjoy a common heritage and shared interests. Our strong people-to-people links centre on an active and successful Pakistani community in Australia, of more than 140,000 people, that continues to enrich Australia through academia, cultural exchange, commerce and sport.
Australia hosts a sizeable Pakistani international student cohort. There were more than 22,000 international students from Pakistan in Australia in 2025. This includes those studying in Australia on scholarships under the Australia Awards program, which aims to build capacity to support Pakistan to achieve sustainable development with particular focus on the empowerment of women and girls, climate change, water security, agriculture, infrastructure and inclusive economic development.
Both countries are members of the Commonwealth, are federations with bicameral legislatures, and share a common law tradition – as well as a great love of cricket.
Development cooperation
While Australia's bilateral development cooperation program with Pakistan ceased in 2019-20, Australia continues to support people in Pakistan through regional and global programs, as well as the Australia Awards program. Australian support focuses on gender equality, agriculture and water security and responding to natural disasters and humanitarian crises. Australia provided over A$10 million in response to devastating flooding in 2022 and continues to support Afghan refugees and host communities in Pakistan.
Economic and trade relations
Australia-Pakistan two-way trade in goods and services was approximately A$3.4 billion in 2025. Australia's major goods exports to Pakistan include vegetables (including pulses such as chickpeas and lentils), oilseeds (such as canola), cotton and fertiliser. Major imports from Pakistan are textiles and clothing. The value of education services exports to Pakistan in 2025 was approximately A$1.4 billion.
The Australia and Pakistan Joint Trade Committee (JTC) is the primary forum for discussing bilateral trade and investment and last met in Canberra in August 2026.
Both countries are exploring avenues to expand trade and investment, particularly in education and agribusiness. Austrade has a locally engaged Business Development Manager in Islamabad. Country management for Pakistan is the responsibility of Austrade's Dubai-based Regional Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner.
There are reasonable prospects for growth in trade and investment, particularly in agribusiness (dairy, livestock, and crop production) and processed foods. Other promising sectors include sustainable mining services and technologies, and water management.
Security cooperation
Australia-Pakistan military ties date back to 1907, and Australian attendance at Quetta Command and Staff College. These linkages assume greater importance given the Pakistani military's strong influence in the country's governance Australia and Pakistan hold regular Chief-to-Chief dialogues, and, since 2010, there have been regular defence 1.5 track dialogues that bring together senior leaders from respective militaries, government agencies and think tanks to discuss issues of mutual interest.
Australia and Pakistan have a longstanding relationship on law enforcement. The Australian Federal Police has a 42-year history of cooperation with Pakistan law enforcement agencies in disrupting transnational crime. Through the provision of training programs and specialist equipment, Australia has positively contributed to Pakistan's capacity to counter serious and organised crime and counterterrorism aimed at reducing harm to Pakistani and Australian citizens alike.
Pakistan works with Australia to address irregular migration and combat people smuggling, including through the return of Pakistani citizens unlawfully in Australia. Pakistani skilled migration to Australia has steadily increased with around 21,000 skilled migration visa holders currently in Australia. Pakistan is a significant source country for Australian student visa applicants and was the 10th largest lodgement country in 2025-26. There were 13,500 Pakistanis with visas to study in Australia as of 30 June 2026.
Political overview
Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic comprising four provinces (Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan), two autonomous territories (Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan) and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
National government
Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in on 4 March 2024 as Pakistan's 24th Prime Minister. The Prime Minister heads the Cabinet.
Asif Ali Zardari was elected President on 9 March 2024 by the electoral college, which comprises the Senate, and National and Provincial Assemblies. The Presidency is primarily a ceremonial position and chairs the National Security Council, which comprises military chiefs and cabinet members.
Pakistan's 2024 general elections were held on 8 February to vote on 265 seats in the National Assembly and for the legislatures of Pakistan's four provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. More than 128 million Pakistanis registered to vote and voter turnout was 47.6 per cent. Results showed independents secured 101 seats with the majority (92) being Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) aligned independents. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party won 75 seats, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won 54 seats, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan won 17 seats, and the rest were divided among 10 other parties. None of the parties had enough seats for a majority. Post-election, the PML-N and PPP and other smaller parties formed a coalition government. In June 2025, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court decision increased the number of reserved seats given to the coalition, providing them with a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
National legislature
Pakistan has a federal system of government with a bicameral legislature: the National Assembly and the Senate.
The National Assembly (the lower house) has 342 seats in total. The majority of lower house seats are elected on a first-past-the-post basis, with 60 seats reserved for women and 10 for non-Muslim minorities. The reserved seats are allocated on the basis of proportional representation to parties that win more than 5 per cent of the directly elected seats.
The Senate (the upper house) consists of 96 senators, with 23 elected by each of the four provincial assemblies, four are Islamabad Capital Territory representatives from the lower house, and four seats are allocated to non-Muslim minorities under the 18th Constitutional Amendment (passed in February 2010).
Provincial and other sub-national governments
Pakistan includes four provinces – Sindh (capital, Karachi), Punjab (capital, Lahore), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly the North-West Frontier Province and now including the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas) (capital, Peshawar) and Balochistan (capital, Quetta). Islamabad has its own status as a 'Federal Capital Territory'.
All four provinces have their own elected provincial assemblies and governments. A Chief Minister heads each provincial government. Each province also has a Governor, who is appointed by the President of Pakistan.
The Kashmir region is disputed with India. Pakistan-administered Kashmir comprises Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Economic overview
Pakistan has the second-largest economy in South Asia after India. It is a lower middle-income economy with GDP generated mostly by the services sector (more than 50 per cent share), along with the agriculture (around 23 per cent) and industry (nearly 20 per cent) sectors. Pakistan has been pursuing targeted reforms and inclusive development under its National Economic Transformation Plan 2024–29 ('Uraan Pakistan'), which aims to grow Pakistan's economy to US$1 trillion by 2035 and US$3 trillion by 2047.
Pakistan's economy has stabilised since 2023, during which Pakistan's GDP growth contracted by 0.4 per cent and inflation reached almost 38 per cent. Pakistan's growth accelerated to 3.7 per cent in 2025, up from 3.1 per cent in 2024. The Asian Development Bank's Asian Development Outlook July 2026 projected Pakistan's GDP growth to remain at 3.7 per cent for FY2026-27. Risks to Pakistan's economic outlook include delays or failures to implement critical structural reforms that could undermine productivity, investment, and private sector development.
Pakistan's previous International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic restructure program lapsed without completion in June 2023. The IMF and Pakistan then negotiated a US$3 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) that expired in April 2024. In September 2024, the IMF Executive Board approved a 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of around US$7 billion. This saw immediate disbursement of about US$1 billion to 'support the authorities' efforts to cement macroeconomic stability and create conditions for a stronger, more inclusive, and resilient growth' by Pakistan taking steps to implement reforms. In May 2025, the IMF Executive Board approved a 28-month arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) worth approximately US$1.4 billion, to support Pakistan's efforts to reduce vulnerabilities to natural disasters and to build economic and climate resilience. Pakistan has passed all EFF and RSF reviews.
Pakistan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 and is an active participant in the rules-based multilateral trading system. Pakistan's 2022 WTO Trade Policy Review noted that Pakistan's openness to international trade and international economic integration has been on a downward trend since 2007-08. Pakistan's top trading partners are China, the European Union, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. Europe and the Americas are increasingly important export markets and Asia and the Middle East are growing as Pakistan's main import sources. Pakistan's major exports include textiles, clothing and footwear, agricultural goods, leather products, surgical and pharmaceutical products, light engineering goods and auto parts. Major imports include petroleum, agricultural and other chemicals, food items, machinery, metals and transport vehicles.
Remittances from overseas workers are an important source of foreign exchange for Pakistan. The State Bank of Pakistan reported inflows worth US$41.6 billion in FY2025-26, equivalent to more than 10 per cent of GDP. Key sources were Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Remittances from Australia exceeded US$1.1 billion in FY2025-26.
Human rights
Pakistan underwent its most recent United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review on 30 January 2023.
The Australian Government has continued to express its concerns with the human rights situation in Pakistan, including the use of capital punishment, the impact of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, the rights of women and girls, erosion of democratic freedoms, the treatment of ethnic, religious and sexual minority groups, and freedom of expression, among other issues.
Australia has raised its universal opposition to the death penalty, continues to promote inter-faith harmony and urged the Pakistan Government to address human rights concerns through both bilateral and multilateral representations.