Flag of Pakistan
Pakistan’s flag is dark green with a white vertical band at the pole and a white crescent and five-pointed star on the green. Pakistan’s Consulate General in Jeddah gives the meanings: green for Islam and the Muslim majority, white for the religious minorities, the crescent for progress and the star for enlightenment.
Easily confused with
- Flag of TurkmenistanTurkmenistan’s flag is green with a dark red band near the pole carrying five carpet guls above two crossed olive branches, and a white crescent and five white stars in the upper corner. Turkmenistan’s state news agency says the guls stand for the friendship and unity of the Turkmen people, and the olive branches, added in 1997, for the country’s neutrality.
- Flag of TurkeyAlso a white crescent and star, but on red, with no white band at the pole.
- Flag of AlgeriaAlso green and white with a crescent and star, but Algeria’s halves are equal and its crescent and star are red.
How to read it
The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan adopted the flag on 11 August 1947, three days before independence; ARY News writes that Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan presented it to the Assembly. It was designed by Amiruddin Kidwai from the flag of the All-India Muslim League. Store norske leksikon describes a flag divided vertically into a dark green square at the fly, with the white crescent and star set at a slant, and a narrower white field at the pole, and calls the crescent and star the foremost symbol of Islam. The naval ensign is a longer version, at 1:2.
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Pakistan’s and Turkey’s flags side by side
Turkey’s flag also has a white crescent and star, but on red: Turkey’s flag law calls it the red flag with the white crescent and star. It has no band at the pole. Pakistan’s is green, with a white band at the pole.
Telling it from Algeria’s flag
Algeria’s flag is green and white too, with a crescent and star, but its constitution makes them red and places them in the centre. On Pakistan’s flag the crescent and star are white, on the green, and the white is only a band at the pole.
From the Muslim League flag
ARY News writes that the flag was first adopted in 1906 as the flag of the All-India Muslim League, without the white band, and that Master Altaf Hussain stitched the first Pakistani flag in June 1947 at Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s request. Store norske leksikon says the last viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, proposed taking the League’s flag with the Union Jack in the canton; Jinnah turned it down, not accepting a Christian cross beside the crescent and star.
Where this symbol came from
oldsymbols.comStar and crescentStore norske leksikon calls the crescent and star on the green the foremost symbol of Islam.Read next
- Next in Asian flagsFlag of Sri LankaSri Lanka’s flag, the Lion Flag, has a gold lion holding a sword on a maroon panel with a bo leaf in each corner, and green and orange vertical bands by the pole, all framed in gold. The Sunday Times explains the lion with its upright sword as righteous rule and justice to all; the National Archives give the bo leaves as four Buddhist virtues; the two bands stand for the minorities, green for Muslims and orange for Tamils in Store norske leksikon (Hindus in the Sunday Times).
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of the ComorosThe Comoros flag is four horizontal stripes, yellow, white, red and blue from the top, with a green triangle along the pole holding a white crescent and four white stars in a line between its tips. Norway’s Store norske leksikon explains the crescent as the symbol of Islam and the four stars as the four islands of the Comoros; Lex says the four stripes are said to stand for the islands too.
More asian flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with curves and waves, lines, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- National Flag (Consulate General of Pakistan, Jeddah), Consulate General of Pakistan, Jeddah, “National Flag”, Consulate General of Pakistan, Jeddah, Page text
- Pakistan flag: Here’s how it came to be (ARY News), ARY News, “Pakistan flag: Here’s how it came to be”, ARY News, Article text
- Pakistans flagg og våpen (Store norske leksikon), Lars Roede, “Pakistans flagg og våpen”, Store norske leksikon, Store norske leksikon, Article text
- Türk Bayrağı Kanunu (Kanun No. 2893, current text), Turkish Flag Law No. 2893, consolidated text, Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, Art. 2 and 4
- Constitution of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, 2020, Constitution of Algeria of 2020, Articles 6 and 234 (English translation), Constitute Project, Art. 6 and 234
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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