Geography of Pakistan
The Geography of Pakistan encompasses a wide variety of landscapes varying from plains to deserts, forests, and plateaus ranging from the coastal areas of the Arabian Sea in the south to the mountains of the Karakoram, Hindukush, Himalayas ranges in the north. Pakistan geologically overlaps both with the Indian and the Eurasian tectonic plates where its Sindh and Punjab provinces lie on the north-western corner of the Indian plate while Balochistan, most of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Gilgit-Baltistan lie within the Eurasian plate which mainly comprises the Iranian Plateau and the Tibetan Plateau in the north.
Pakistan is bordered by Iran to the west, Afghanistan to the northwest
, India to the east, and the Arabian sea to the south. Geopoltically, the nation is situated within some of the most hostile regional boundaries, characterized by territorial disputes and historical tensions, particularly the Kashmir conflict with India, which has led to multiple military confrontations between the two countries.
Pakistan's western borders include the Khyber Pass and Bolan Pass that have served as traditional migration and trade routes between Central Eurasia and South Asia, serving as conduits for cultural exchanges, military invasions, and commercial activity for centuries.
Area and boundaries
; Area; Area—comparative
International boundaries
Pakistan shares its borders with four neighboring countries—People's Republic of China, Afghanistan, India, and Iran—while Tajikistan is separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Additionally, Pakistan shares maritime boundaries with India and Iran and has close maritime proximity with Oman across the Arabian Sea, which plays a crucial role in its trade and maritime connectivity. In total, Pakistan's land borders span approximately 7,307 km, excluding its coastline along the Arabian Sea.Afghanistan–Pakistan border
The border with Afghanistan which is known as the Durand Line,, which runs from the Hindu Kush and the Pamir Mountains. A narrow strip of Afghanistan territory called the Wakhan Corridor extends between Pakistan and Tajikistan.China–Pakistan border
The eastern tip of the Wahan Corridor starts the Sino-Pak border between the People's Republic of China and Pakistan spanning about. It carries on south-eastward and ends near the Karakoram Pass. This line was determined from 1961 to 1965 in a series of agreements between China and Pakistan and finally on 2 March 1963 both the governments, of Karachi and Beijing, formally agreed. It is understood that if the dispute over Kashmir is resolved, the border would need to be discussed again.India–Pakistan border
The Northern Areas has fifth of the world's seventeen highest peaks along with highest range of mountains the Karakoram and Himalayas. It also has such extensive glaciers that it has sometimes been called the "Third Pole". The international border-line has been a matter of pivotal dispute between Pakistan and India ever since 1947, and the Siachen Glacier in northern Kashmir has been an important arena for fighting between the two sides since 1984, although far more soldiers have died of exposure to the cold than from any skirmishes in the conflict between their National Armies facing each other.The Pakistan–India ceasefire line runs from the Karakoram Pass west-southwest to a point about 130 kilometres northwest of Lahore. This line, about 740 kilometres long, was arranged with United Nations assistance at the end of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–48. The ceasefire line came into effect on 1 January 1949, after eighteen months of fighting between Indian forces and Pakistani forces and was last adjusted and agreed upon by the two countries according to the Shimla Agreement of 2 July 1972 between Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Since then, it has been generally known as the Line of Control or the.
The India–Pakistan border continues irregularly southward for about 1,280 kilometers, following the Radcliffe line, named for Sir Cyril Radcliffe, the head of the British Boundary Commission on the division of the Punjab and Bengal provinces of British India on 13 August 1947.
The southern borders are far less contentious than those in northern Pakistan. The Thar Desert in the province of Sindh is separated in the south from the salt flats of the Rann of Kachchh by a boundary that was first delineated in 1923–1924. After independence and dissolution of Empire, Independent and free Pakistan contested the southern boundary of Sindh, and a succession of border incidents resulted. They were less dangerous and less widespread, however, than the conflict that erupted in Kashmir in the Indo-Pakistani War of August 1965, which started with this decisive core of issues. These southern hostilities were ended by British mediation during Harold Wilson's era, and both sides accepted the award of the Indo-Pakistan Western Boundary Case Tribunal designated by the UN secretary general himself. The tribunal made its award on 19 February 1968; delimiting a line of 403 kilometres that was later demarcated by joint survey teams, of its original claim of some 9,100 square kilometres, Pakistan was awarded only about 780 square kilometers. Beyond the western terminus of the tribunal's award, the final stretch of Pakistan's border with India is about 80 kilometres long, running east and southeast of Sindh to an inlet of the Indian Ocean. The village of Punjwarian is one of the villages close to the border of Indo-Pakistan.
Iran–Pakistan border
The boundary with Iran,, was first delimited by a British commission in the same year as the Durand Line was demarcated, separating Iran from what was then British India's Baluchistan province. Modern Iran has a province named Sistan va Baluchistan that borders Pakistan and has Baluchis in an ethnic majority. In 1957 Pakistan signed a frontier agreement with Iran in Rawalpindi according to which the border was officially declared and the two countries have not had this border as a subject of serious dispute at all.Maritime border
; Contiguous zone; Continental shelf
; Exclusive Economic Zone
; Territorial sea
Geographical regions
Pakistan is divided into three major geographic areas: the northern highlands; the Indus River plain, with two major subdivisions corresponding roughly to the provinces of Punjab and Sindh; and the Balochistan Plateau. Some geographers designate additional major regions. For example, the mountain ranges along the western border with Afghanistan are sometimes described separately from the Balochistan Plateau, and on the eastern border with India, south of the Sutlej River, the Thar Desert may be considered separately from the Indus Plain. Nevertheless, the country may conveniently be visualized in general terms as divided in three by an imaginary line drawn eastward from the Khyber Pass and another drawn southwest from Islamabad down the middle of the country. Roughly, then, the northern highlands are north of the imaginary east–west line; the Balochistan Plateau is to the west of the imaginary southwest line; and the Indus Plain lies to the east of that line.The Northern Highlands
The northern highlands include parts of the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram Range, and the Himalayas. This area includes such famous peaks as K2. More than one-half of the summits are over 4,500 meters, and more than fifty peaks reach above 6,500 meters. Travel through the area is difficult and dangerous, although the government is attempting to develop certain areas into tourist and trekking sites. Because of their rugged topography and the rigors of the climate, the northern highlands and the Himalayas to the east have been formidable barriers to movement into Pakistan throughout history.South of the northern highlands and west of the Indus River plain are the Safed Koh Range along the Afghanistan border and the Suleiman Range and Kirthar Range, which define the western extent of the province of Sindh and reach almost to the southern coast. The lower reaches are far more arid than those in the north, and they branch into ranges that run generally to the southwest across the province Balochistan. North-south valleys in Balochistan and Sindh have restricted the migration of peoples along the Makran Coast on the Indian Ocean east toward the plains.
Several large passes cut the ranges along the border with Afghanistan. Among them are the Khojak Pass, about eighty kilometres northwest of Quetta in Balochistan; the Khyber Pass, forty kilometres west of Peshawar and leading to Kabul; and the Broghol Pass in the far north, providing access to the Wakhan Corridor.
Less than one-fifth of Pakistan's land area has the potential for intensive agricultural use. Nearly all of the arable land is actively cultivated, but outputs are low by world standards. Cultivation is sparse in the northern mountains, the southern deserts, and the western plateaus, but the Indus River basin in Punjab and northern Sindh has fertile soil that enables Pakistan to feed its population under usual climatic conditions.
The Indus plain
The name Indus comes from the Sanskrit word सिंधु, as mentioned, one of the Rigvedic rivers, from which also come the words Sindh, Hindu, and India. The Indus, one of the great rivers of the world, rises in southwestern Tibet only about 160 kilometres west of the source of the Sutlej River, which then itself flows through Punjab, India and joins the Indus in Pakistani Punjab. The catchment area of the Indus is estimated at almost 1 million square kilometres, and all of Pakistan's major rivers—the Kabul, Jhelum, and Chenab—flow into it. The Indus River basin is a large, fertile alluvial plain formed by silt from the Indus. This area has been inhabited by agricultural civilizations for at least 5,000 years.Balochistan
Balochistan is located at the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau and in the border region between Southwest, Central, and South Asia. It is geographically the largest of the four provinces at of Pakistani territory; and composes 48% of the total land area of Pakistan. The population density is very low due to the mountainous terrain and scarcity of water. The southern region is known as Makran. The central region is known as Kalat.The Sulaiman Mountains dominate the northeast corner and the Bolan Pass is a natural route into Afghanistan towards Kandahar. Much of the province south of the Quetta region is sparse desert terrain with pockets of inhabitable towns mostly near rivers and streams. The largest desert is the Kharan Desert which occupies the most of Kharan District.
This area is subject to frequent seismic disturbances because the tectonic plate under the Indian plate hits the plate under Eurasia as it continues to move northward and to push the Himalayas ever higher. The region surrounding Quetta is highly prone to earthquakes. A severe quake in 1931 was followed by one of more destructive force in 1935. The small city of Quetta was almost completely destroyed, and the adjacent military cantonment was heavily damaged. At least 20,000 people were killed. Tremors continue in the vicinity of Quetta. The most recent major earthquakes include the October 2005 Kashmir earthquake in which nearly 10,000 people died and the 2008 Balochistan earthquake occurred in October 2008 in which 215 people were killed. In January 1991 a severe earthquake destroyed entire villages in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, but far fewer people were killed in the quake than died in 1935. A major earthquake centered in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Kohistan District in 1965 also caused heavy damage.