Located on the banks of the Pahang River 50 km south of Kuantan, Pekan is the royal town of the Malaysian state of Pahang Darul Makmur. Its name comes from a flower, the Bunga Pekan. Pekan is also the name of the district the town is situated in, and a parliamentary constituency in its own right. It is the home of the state's royal family headed by Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Abu Bakar Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mu'adzamo Shah. It is also the hometown of the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, and the current Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Najib is also Pekan's current Member of Parliament.

The Masjid Abdullah, which dates from the 1920s, and the newer Masjid Abu Bakar is near the Sultan Abu Bakar Museum.

According to the old folk, the Bunga Pekan flower grows wild at the banks of Pahang River. The river at the Pekan town (near Mengkasar village) is also called Pekan River, however there is no source for the claim that Pekan got its name from this river. Other sources say the name "Pekan" came from the word "Pekan Sehari" (the word "Sehari" was eventually omitted).^{[citation needed]} For easier pronunciation, the locals simply called it "Pekan" and the name is still used. (Pekan Sehari or Sunday Market still exists until today)

Dato', or occasionally Datin Seri,Siti Nurhaliza binti Tarudin DIMP, JSM, SAP, PMP, AAP (Jawi: سيتي نورهاليز بنت تارودين [ˈsiti nʊrhaˈliza ˈbinti taˈrudɪn]; born 11 January 1979) is a Malaysian singer, songwriter, record producer, television presenter and businesswoman. To date, she has garnered more than 200 local awards as well as international awards. She rose to fame as a multiple-platinum selling artist, since her winning of Bintang HMI 1995 when she was only 16 where she was given offers in form of singing contract from four different international recording companies. Her first single, Jerat Percintaan from her debut album won the 11th Anugerah Juara Lagu and another two awards for Best Performance and Best Ballad.. In her career she had recorded and sings in languages, including Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin, Arabic, Hindustan and Japanese.

She has won an unprecedented number of music awards in Malaysia and its environs: 34 Anugerah Industri Muzik awards, 23 Anugerah Bintang Popular awards, 21 Anugerah Planet Muzik awards, 18 Anugerah Juara Lagu awards, four MTV Asia Awards and the holder of two records in the Malaysian Book of Records. Backed with 14 studio albums, she is one of the most popular artistes in the Malay Archipelago and Nusantara region and she has been voted ten times in a row for Regional Most Popular Artiste in the Anugerah Planet Muzik since 2001. Currently, she has been listed as one of Malaysia's richest, most-influential, most award-winning, most single-produced artists.