when we switch to an ethnic map you can also see that pakistan's borders don't really appear to follow any clear ethnic divisions either what pakistan's borders do follow instead is the religious border between the majority muslim and majority hindu areas of the indian subcontinent and that's not by accident it was designed that way from the beginning on purpose and like most messy border problems across the world it's all the fault of the british.
A long time ago the entire indian subcontinent was ruled by the british but in 1947 they decided to let it all go and grant independence but when they did they decided to partition the colony of india into two separate newly independent states a majority hindu country that became india and a majority muslim country that became pakistan the two were separated exclusively based upon the borders of the majority muslim and the majority hindu areas in the empire without any regard to natural geographic boundaries and this has created hosts of problems for both countries.
In the case of pakistan this created a long border with india from the arabian sea through the salt marshes of the ran of kuch the vast inhospitable tar desert the fertile plains of the punjab and up through the high mountains of the hotly contested province of kashmir most of this border is recognized and accepted by both pakistan and india. until it gets to the kashmir area which is a territory claimed entirely by both of them they've both fought multiple wars against each other for control over the whole thing and as it stands now on the ground the line of each other's actual de facto control across the province looks like this which is effectively the border between them even though nobody actually recognizes it as such this line was created upon the ceasefire line that concluded the 1971 war between them. but there was one incredibly stupid problem with it. it doesn't extend across the entire province it literally abruptly just ends right here which left a lot of vague uncertainties as to who exactly controlled what beyond it towards china.
The reason that the line ended where it did was because it was at the foothills of the colossal karakoram mountain range so all of the land beyond it was just extremely inhospitable and effectively impassable glaciers the U.N just assumed that neither side would really care about it but scare they did beginning in 1984 both sides realized that there was an active geographic hole in their de facto border that the other side could take advantage of and so they both attempted to plug it up with thousands of troops trying to outmaneuver the other in order to secure the strategic high ground and mountain passes that led into each other's sides.
The high altitude combat 6000 meters up above sea level took place here in the sieshan glacier area and the elements claimed the lives of thousands of men from both sides by the end of the conflict in 2003 india had secured the high ground in the area and control over the main passes through which gives them the geographic advantage in the area to this day india is without a doubt pakistan's biggest rival on the world stage and the whole border between the two is considered to be one of the most dangerous places in the entire world and if all-out war ever were to break out between them pakistan has really weak geographic armor for defenses across the entire line as the situation in kashmir stands today the indian military occupies a line that's only 83 kilometers away from the center of the pakistani capital islamabad if pakistan could control all of kashmir it would push the indian lions far away from the capital city and establish a massively significant mountain shield that the indian army would struggle to punch through to get there this is partially why kashmir is of such massive strategic value to pakistan but as it is now the indian army controls most of it and is within striking distance of the capital the only big mountains that pakistan controls along the indian border that could be used for defense are all located in the far north of the country far away from all of pakistan's major population and economic centers which means that any indian advance could just simply ignore them the indus river is one of the biggest rivers in the world and would make a great defensive line but unfortunately it runs roughly through the middle of the country which means that falling back behind it would mean surrendering half of the country by that point the system of indus tributary rivers that runs through the punjab province are somewhat defensible but even still the indian army could punch through all of these highlighted areas without ever having to cross a river and that includes some of pakistan's most major population centers like lahore, faisalabad, hyderabad and the capital islamabad.
Further complicating things is that pakistan is a relatively easy country to blockade she only has a narrow stretch of coastline here in the south on the arabian sea and only a handful of significant ports on it that if eliminated can effectively transform pakistan into a landlocked state the port of karachi alone handles 60 of all of pakistan's cargo owing to its strategic location near the strait of hormuz important trade routes in the world where 25 of all the world's oil passes through this heavy reliance on a single city for supplies makes pakistan exceptionally vulnerable if just karachi can be blockaded or captured that immediately halts 60 of pakistan's cargo and supplies from getting inside of the country but the border with india and the over-reliance on a single port are not the only crappy border situations that pakistan has to deal with there is another and it's another british created mess here with afghanistan.
The british also created this border back in 1893 as the boundary between british india and afghanistan and pakistan simply inherited the mess for themselves upon independence in 1947. the main problem with it is that it divides the ethnic territory of the pashtun people between afghanistan and pakistan which is awkward because the pashtuns are the largest ethnic group inside of afghanistan and they largely rule that country so the pashtones of afghanistan have long desired to be reunited with the rest of the ethnic pashtuns across the border and pakistan and afghanistan often lays claim to an extended border that stretches this deep into pakistan to cover it. as recently as 2017 the president of afghanistan has stated that afghanistan will never recognize the border with pakistan as it stands today when pakistan joined the united nations in 1947 there was only a single country who voted against them joining it and it wasn't india it was afghanistan so because of these messy borders left over by the british, pakistan faces enemies on both of her flanks who openly claim territory that pakistan also claims or controls this means that the prospect of a two-front war against both parties if they ever allied with one another against pakistan is a very real possibility.
Therefore it has always been within pakistan's best interests to seek influence in afghanistan and attempt to pacify their government by any means necessary in order to keep this from happening it also doesn't help though that the border runs right through the middle of the extremely mountainous part of the pashtun tribal lands which makes the border extremely difficult to govern police and control for both countries drug smugglers terrorist groups like the taliban and other seedy individuals routinely cross it between both sides.
which also makes this border one of the most violent and unstable places in the entire world meaning that pakistan has two inherently unstable borders on either side this only leaves pakistan borders with two other countries iran and china the border with iran is through the sparsely inhabited arid province of balochistan which like the pashtuns cuts the balooch people between pakistan, iran and afghanistan unlike the pashtuns though the baloch don't have an independent state of their own so they can't pose an existential threat to pakistan in the same way that the pashtuns of afghanistan do iran and pakistan cooperate to an extent on squashing balu's separatism in their respective zones of control but a working alliance between the two is severely complicated by iran's shia government and pakistan's sunni government this leaves only china as a potential geographic ally for pakistan in the region and sure enough china is without a doubt pakistan's closest ally on the world stage.
The geography of pakistan is more challenging and difficult than most but with strong leadership shrewd alliances and careful diplomacy even a difficult situation like this can be made manageable now difficult situations come in all different shapes and sizes there's macro difficult situations like pakistan's geography.
Thank you for Reading..!!
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