Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area

Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area
Cities and Town's	Pakistan
Principal cities	Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Murree, Wah Cantt,
Population (2015)
• Total	7,700,000
Time zone	Pakistan Standard Time

The Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area is Pakistan's third most populous metropolitan area. It consists principally of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, along with smaller towns such as Murree, Wah Cantonment, Taxila, Gujar Khan, Golra Sharif.

Covering the Pothohar Plateau, the area consists of the ancient town of Taxila, which is a World Heritage Site; the colonial cities of Rawalpindi and Murree, and the modern planned city of Islamabad. The region received a major boom with the construction of Islamabad as the capital city of Pakistan in the 1960s.

Islamabad and Rawalpindi are located in the Potohar region of northern Punjab, against the backdrop of the Margalla Hills.

Islamabad is a net contributor to the Pakistani economy, as whilst having only 0.8% of the country's population, it contributes 1% to the country's GDP., founded in 1989, is Pakistan's third largest stock exchange after and , and was merged to form . The exchange had 118 members with 104 corporate bodies and 18 individual members. The average daily turnover of the stock exchange is over 1 million shares.

As of 2012^[update], Islamabad LTU (Large Tax Unit) was responsible for Rs 371 billion in tax revenue, which amounts to 20% of all the revenue collected by Federal Board of Revenue. Islamabad has seen an expansion in information and communications technology with the addition two Software Technology Parks, which house numerous national and foreign technological and information technology companies. The tech parks are located in Evacuee Trust Complex and Awami Markaz. Awami Markaz houses 36 IT companies while Evacuee Trust house 29 companies.

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