[nobrains]

Why has , recently, Pakistan been seen added more and more to a new category "MENAP" and separate from South Asia (i.e. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh) ?

These classifications should be geographic and could even racial, but it seems this new classification (MENAP) seems more "religious"

[ricardobeat]

Pakistan being “south asia” makes about as much sense as Turkey and Saudi Arabia being labeled “west asia”. Technically correct, odd choice for modern communication.

[t0lo]

Pedantic response that makes light of a real issue. In case you haven't noticed, not every "western" country is actually in the western hemisphere.

[kdheiwns]

In America at least, all the hot deserty places between Europe and India=Middle East. I only started hearing the term "South Asia" to refer to places like Pakistan after encountering more non-Americans online. Afghanistan is also considered as part of the Middle East to basically every average American (hence why it's lumped in with all those "Middle Eastern wars"), but I'm not sure if it's seen that way in other areas.

[t-3]

Probably because they have been getting closer to those countries, especially since India has started getting closer to Israel.

[bcjdjsndon]

Bangladesh is Muslim though