Ghamistan

Federal Republic of Ghamistan د ګمستان فدرالي جمهوریت
Flag
Motto: "Motherland is heaven"
Anthem: "Dar in Watan" In This Homeland (Estmerish)
Location of Ghamistan (in navy), within Coius (light blue)
Capital	Maziar City
Largest Metro	Velawar
Official languages	Ghamic
Ethnic groups	64% Ghamic 14% Togoti 11% Tabur Pardarian 7% Sathani 4% Other
Religion	58% Prathanism 21% Irfan 8% Ashankism 5% Other Satrian 4% Sotirianity 1% Other (Including Badi, Zohism, and Tribal Religion) 3% Irreligious
Demonym(s)	Ghamistani
Government	Federal Parliamentary Republic
• Federal President	Chavi Rastegar
• Prime Minister	Vahin Kuram
Legislature	National Congress
Significant events & Formation
• Rise of the Muzhgan Dynasty	1651 CE
• Creation of Gamia Etruriana	1887 CE
• Independence from Etruria	1946 CE
Area
• Total	967,519 km2 (373,561 sq mi)
• Water (%)	2.2
Population
• 2023 estimate	136,507,255 (6th)
• Density	141.09/km2 (365.4/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2023 estimate
• Total	2.026 trillion (17th)
• Per capita	$14,840 (46th)
GDP (nominal)	2023 estimate
• Total	1.291 trillion (17th)
• Per capita	$9,460 (50th)
Gini (2023)	45.9 medium
HDI (2023)	0.668 medium
Currency	Ghamistani Mandin (GHM)
Time zone	UTC-1 (UTC)
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy
Driving side	left
Calling code	+53
Internet TLD	.gh

Ghamistan (Ghamic: غمستان), officially the Federal Republic of Ghamistan (Ghamic: د ګمستان فدرالي جمهوریت), is a country at the eastern edge of the Satrian region of the continent of Coius. Ghamistan borders Rajyaghar to the west, Zorasan to the east, and the Acheloian Sea to the north. Almost exactly one million square kilometers in area, the country is made up of a diverse range of geographic features, most prominently divided by the Pavitra Mountain Range running east-west across the country. As of 2023, Ghamistan's population is 136.5 million, the 6th highest in the world. Maziar City is the nation's capital, while Velawar is its largest city and financial center.

Inhabited by humans for more than 60,000 years, early Purvan cultures developed the first major settlements in modern Ghamistan between 4000 BCE and 2000 BCE, before being gradually displaced by the Boreocoian Migration from the Great Steppe, leading to the establishment of some of the first Bhagic Kingdoms as waystations for further settlement into Satria. Intermittently conquered by outside forces including the Second Heavenly Kingdom, Jhanda Empire, and Great Chanwa, Ghamic culture developed as a blend of these waves of external influence, before the rise of the Ghamic Kingdoms throughout the 1100s and 1200s CE, concurrently with the widespread adoption of Prathanism.

The Muzhgan Empire, formed in 1651, would prosper following the collaspe of its contemporary rival, the Togoti Empire, expanding to encompass territory beyond the borders of modern Ghamistan at its height before beginning a gradual decline throughout the later half of the 18th century, the start of a period called the Century of Degradation. Becoming a protectorate of Etruria in 1834 and later annexed as a colonial territory in 1887, the Padshah was retained as a disempowered figurehead ruler over Gamia Etruriana.

Ghamistan gained independence from Etruria at the same time as much of its colonial empire during the conclusion of the Solarian War, with a republic established by the All Ghamistan League successful in attaining recognition by the Community of Nations and subsequently repressing regional attempts at separate independence during the ensuing Satrian Wars. From 1954 to 1973, the National Republic of Ghamistan undermined democratic institutions, pursued proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and undertook campaigns of political repression and ethnic cleansing, before a military coup established the interim State of Ghamistan and prevented a total civil war during a major breakdown in civil order.

In 1983, the Sahran Loya Jirga established the modern Federal Republic with a model of weak federalism that leaves significant authority to the states. Ghamistan has since experienced the growth of a flourishing political ecosystem, but is still considered a southern democracy by modern political analysts, with concerns raised about the authority of the bureaucracy and military over elected leaders.

Today, Ghamistan has a developing economy with growing industrial and tertiary sectors, and is seen as a potential regional power. Ghamistan is a member of the Community of Nations, ITO, and AEC, and an observer of the Irfanic Cooperative Conference, Council for Mutual Development, and International Forum for Developing States. Ghamistan is a former partner of the Global Institute for Fiscal Affairs and member of the League of Oil Producing States.

Etymology

Rarely used today, the exonym for Ghamistan through the early and late modern period had been the form Khamistan. Scholars have suggested that the root name, Khaman is derived from the ancient Matrabashi word Kamin, the name used for ancient inhabitants of the Satrian Pranta. Kamin literally means "lover" or "sparrow". Historically, the ethnonym Khaman was used to refer to Bhagic-descendent people broadly, before becoming specifically associated with Velic Ghamic speaking people along the coast of modern Ghamistan.

Ghamic or alternatively Ghami as an ethnonym is a modern construction, which describes the speakers of mutually intelligible Ghamic dialects who have previously generally associated with several distinct ethnic identities, who collectively formed the demographic core of the Muzhghan Empire and later Gamia Etruriana. The suffix "-stan" is of Pardarian origin, meaning "place of". Therefore, "Ghamistan" translates to "land of the Ghamis".

"Ghamistani" is the accepted national demonym, which carries less ethnographic emphasis, though "Ghamic" is also commonly used.

Politics

Government

Ghamistan is a democratic parliamentary federal republic, though some of its states retain constitutional monarchies. Originally a liberal-minded presidential republic, the National Republic of Ghamistan gradually devolved into a civilian dictatorship between 1954 and 1973, before ten years of government by an interim military clique. The modern constitution, signed in 1983, guarantees universal suffrage, equality before the law, and various other civil rights. Democratic transition of power following elections has been largely successful since the first modern election, albeit twice requiring nonviolent intervention by the military, in 1996 and 2001.

Prime Minister Vahin Kuram

The Unicameral Legislature, the National Congress, consists of 1,000 seats, filled since the 2001 election by a Regional Party List voting system. Typically, federal political parties are formulated out of broad alliances of regional movements, or participate in permanent electoral alliance agreements, with only a handful of parties being formally organized at a federal scale. These parties go on to form various semi-permanent coalitions in the Congress, which themselves form the loose ideological groupings called caucuses that constitutionally determine the composition of the government and opposition. For example, the current Prime Minister Vahin Kuram is a representative of the Ghamistan Forward Bloc. That is a federally organized party which currently comprises the bulk of the All Ghamistan League coalition, itself the leading part of the Reform Caucus, the largest caucus in the National Congress following the 2019 election.

While unicameral, the legislative competence of the National Congress is limited in constitutional affairs by the Federal Council which must assent to any law considered to be of constitutional significance. The other essential role of the Federal Council is electing the Federal President, the largely ceremonial head of state. Additionally, while not a standing legislative body, at any time a Loya Jirga may be called by representatives of at least two thirds of states, to amend the constitution, pass laws, or remove officials from office. The necessary quorum has only been reached once since the Jirga which established the modern constitution in 1983, to reform the electoral system of the National Congress in 1999.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Ghamistan

As of 2023, Ghamistan had the largest economy in Satria and the 17th largest economy in the world by measure of Nominal GDP ($1.291 trillion) and PPP GDP ($2.026 trillion), and is classified as a lower-middle income developing economy. With a labor force of roughly 80 million, the world's sixth largest, growing industrial and tertiary sectors, as well as access to considerable natural resource wealth, Ghamistan is seen by many as holding significant economic potential over the next decade. Challenges to Ghamistan's economic development include its extreme income inequality and high rate of poverty, exorbitant national debts (238.8% of GDP), a historic lack of foreign investment, and institutional blockages to ease of doing business.

Ghamistan is a major regional exporter of iron and bauxite ore, precious metals, ethanol, sugar, tea, jute, footwear, vehicle parts, construction materials, and electronics, as well as a notable producer of copper ore, coal, rice, fish, fertiliser, beverages, textiles, and small arms. Conversely, its largest import commodities are petroleum products, plastic material, road vehicles, and industrial machinery. Tertiary and Services sectors make up the largest part of the economy, at 52.4% of total GDP, followed by industry including mining at 39.1%, and agriculture at 8.5%.

After several decades under an effective command economy in the post-colonial period, Ghamistan experienced rapid growth following the introduction of liberalisation policies in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, leading to the overly optimistic and ambitious claim by Ghamistani academics such as Zigar Ghilzai that the Federal Republic would become a developed nation and a great power by the year 2020. In reality, rates of growth had already slowed significantly in the leadup to the 2005 Global Recession, which sent Ghamistan into spiraling national debt necessitating bailouts and unpopular restructuring policies imposed by international financial institutions to avoid a default. Development had recovered from this slump by the mid-2010s with returning consumer and investor confidence, and the Ghamistani economy has grown at an average rate of 7.1% per year over the last decade.

Agriculture and Primary Sector

At its independence, Ghamistan was largely an agrarian and extractive economy, developed largely to serve the export needs of the Etrurian colonial empire. Upwards of 80% of the labor force worked in agriculture in 1945. While successive governments have undertaken a number of campaigns of modernisation and industrialisation, farming and mineral extraction remain an essential part of the economy today. The primary and agricultural sector, while accounting for 8.5% of national GDP, employs 26.2% of the labor force, and it remains the largest source of foreign exchange earnings.

Ghamistan is a major producer of sugarcane, cotton, tea, jute, soy, wheat, grapes, rice, watermelon, beef, milk, pistachios, almonds, and pomegranates. It is also one of the world's largest producers of legal papaver somniferum, or opium poppy, largely for pharmaceutical use.