long scarf or shawl called a dupatta around the head or neck. The dupatta is also employed as a form of modesty—although it is made of delicate material, it obscures the upper body's contours by passing over the shoulders. For Muslim women, the dupatta is a less stringent alternative to the chador or burqa. Languages Urdu, or Lashkari (لشکری ), an Indo-Aryan language, is the lingua franca of Pakistan, and while it shares official status with English, it is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups. Although Indo-Aryan in classification, it's exact origins as a language are disputed by scholars. However, despite serving as the country's national language, Urdu is spoken as a second language by most Pakistanis, with nearly 93 percent of the population speaking a first language other than Urdu. Numerous regional and provincial languages are spoken as native languages by Pakistan's various ethnolinguistic groups, with the Punjabi language having a national plurality as the first language of approximately 45 percent of the total population. Languages with more than a million speakers each include Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi, Brahui, and Hindko. The Pakistani dialect of English is also widely spoken throughout the country, albeit mostly in urban centres such as Islamabad and Karachi. Religion Pakistan officially endorses Islam as a state religion and utilizes Sharia in governance across the entire country to a large degree. The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis identify as Muslims, and the country has the second-largest population of Muslims in the world after Indonesia. Other minority religious faiths include Hinduism, Christianity, Ahmadiyya, Sikhism, the Baháʼí Faith, Zoroastrianism, and Kalasha. Pakistan's Hindu and Christian minorities comprise the second- and third-largest religious groups in the country, respectively. Irreligion Irreligion, agnosticism, and atheism are present amongst a minority of Pakistanis, the majority of whom belong to the newer generations. According to a 2005 Gallup World Poll, 1 percent of Pakistani respondents identified themselves as atheists. By 2012, the figure had risen to 2 percent. The same poll also surveyed 2,700 other people in Pakistan, of whom 54 were self-declared irreligious. Diaspora The Pakistani diaspora maintains a significant presence in the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Australia. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Pakistan has the seventh-largest diaspora in the world. According to the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development of the Government of Pakistan, approximately