Rawalpindi, city, northern Pakistan, in Punjab Province. The city is an industrial and military center with a petroleum refinery, an ordnance factory, an arsenal, engineering workshops, a steel-rolling mill, gasworks, and a brewery. A college of technology is here. Rawalpindi served as the provisional capital of Pakistan from 1959 to 1967, when the seat of government was transferred to the permanent capital, nearby Islamabad. Population (1998) 1,406,214.