...
There is also another factor that you are missing out on - it is not just oil that gets stopped in a blockade. Emergency shipments of war materials and aid that gets blockaded as well. Considering that over 95% of trade of Pakistan is through the sea, it is staggeringly important to protect.
Yes, I left it out intentionally.
Pakistan can manufacture low-mid level military hardware itself and keep a good inventory. Plus supplies from China won't be as easy to block as sea lanes. And an Indo-Pak war is not expected to last more a few weeks at most. Modern times have made international (political) intervention necessary.
War would disrupt other trade and commerce anyways.
IMO, war-time scenarios demand fuel-guzzling hardware like tanks and aircraft to be constantly on the move in one way or another. Without fuel, even bombs are dead weight. This why I feel that oil is the single most important supply item.
Coal is just a temporary solution. The pollution from such power plants and its ecological impact alone is enough for concern. But in a tight spot, I guess anything's better than nothing.
The oil pipeline, as you said, is very dependent. But appropriate diplomatic and strategic moves could tilt Iran in our favour to continue oil supplies. And GCC supplies could, theoretically, travel to Pakistan via Iran. No Pakistani ports needed.
But there are too many
ifs involved in this:
-
If Iran accepts...
-
If Iran doesn't favour India
-
If the GCC wants to supply...
-
If our strategy plays out...
-
If the US doesn't oppose Pak-Iran...
We're trapped bad, actually. But Iranian oil does save us some dollars which we can use to buy better naval hardware or create some storage facilities. Just comes down to cash.