Editing Languages of Pakistan (section)

=== Pashto ===
[[File:Pashto-speakers_by_Pakistani_District_-_2017_Census.svg|thumb|150x150px|<div style="text-align: center">The proportion of people with [[Pashto]] as their [[mother tongue]] in each Pakistani [[Districts of Pakistan|District]] as of the [[2017 Pakistan Census]]</div>|left]]
[[Pashto]] ({{Lang|ps|{{naskh|پښتو}}}}) is an [[Iranian language]] spoken as a first language by more than 18.15% of Pakistanis, mainly in [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] and in northern [[Balochistan (Pakistan)|Balochistan]] as well as in ethnic [[Pashtun people|Pashtun]] communities in the cities of [[Islamabad]], [[Rawalpindi]] and most notably [[Karachi]],<ref name="pbs">{{cite web|author=Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy|date=17 July 2009|title=Karachi's Invisible Enemy |url=https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2009/07/karachis_invisi.html|access-date=24 August 2010|publisher=PBS}}</ref><ref name="The National">{{cite web|date=24 August 2009|title=In a city of ethnic friction, more tinder|url=http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090825/FOREIGN/708249931|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116211443/http://www.thenational.ae/|archive-date=16 January 2010|access-date=24 August 2010|publisher=The National}}</ref><ref name="tribune.com.pk">{{cite magazine|date=28 August 2010|title=Columnists {{pipe}} The Pakhtun in Karachi|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/43827/the-pakhtun-in-karachi/|access-date=8 September 2011|magazine=Time}}</ref><ref name="thefridaytimes.com">[http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20110715&page=5] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121209085408/http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20110715&page=5|date=9 December 2012}}, thefridaytimes</ref> which may have the largest Pashtun population of any city in the world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lieven|first=Anatol |date=2021-05-04|title=An Afghan Tragedy: The Pashtuns, the Taliban and the State |journal=Survival|volume=63|issue=3|pages=7–36|doi=10.1080/00396338.2021.1930403|s2cid=235219004 |issn=0039-6338|doi-access=free}}</ref> There are three major dialect patterns within which the various individual dialects may be classified; these are the Pakhto variety of Northern ([[Peshawar]]) variety, the southern Pashto spoken in the vicinity of [[Quetta]], and the [[Wanetsi]] or Tareeno variety of northern Balochistan.