There is an english word for it.. yeah like urdu and hindi... its called 'similar'...
.. not 'same'.. worth repeating though.
Indeed they are Similar in many regards but those who have a penchant of painting us with the same brush seem to forget that our dissimilarities are many & profound as well ! What is more Post-Partition Culture has let us evolve further into an even more unique identity.
We - in Pakistan - are a country & a people at the cross roads of civilization & history - Naturally there would be similarities but to claim that somehow that gives us a common footing simply because someone in Lahore might like to sing the same Punjabi song as someone in Amristar is a grave injustice to those Pakistanis living in Sindh, Baluchistan, Northern Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, KPK & FATA who wouldn't know how to pronounce Punjabi to begin with !
I mean take my example - I'm a Punjabi of Kashmiri descent but I don't know the first thing about Kashmiri culture or my ancestral tongue nor am I well versed in the Punjabi Language ! Urdu is my mother tongue & yet I feel like an outsider when I'm amongst Sikhs, Kashmiris from either side or even Urdu Speakers from Karachi or the ones from India !
And why ? Because my Cultural & Linguistic Development is unique in that my accent of speaking Urdu is Punjabi in its bearing & my accent of speaking Punjabi is Urdu in its bearing ! Culturally whereas I prescribe to the Punjabi Culture, mine like the difference between Urdu & Hindi has indelible marks left by Islam, my cultural proximity with Pukhtoons, Kashmiris, Saraikis & even Baluch & Sindhis to have evolved different from the one prescribed to by the Punjabis in Indian Punjab !
So I don't really feel like I'm a part of an overarching fraternity called the 'Desis' simply because I might crack a few Punjabi jokes or quote Baba Bulleh Shah in my broken Punjabi with its heavily Urduized Accent !
And I say this without an ounce of ill-will or resentment on being compared with an India ! But what people need to realize is that Punjabi Muslims & Punjabi Pakistanis are a unique ethnic & linguistic group because we always were a bit different than our Non-Muslim Punjab Counterparts due to Islam & the closer proximity of West Punjab with KPK, Sindh & Baluchistan & because ever since the Partition the Pakistani bit of it has changed it even more ! You will find our Punjabi to be riddled with Urdu vocabulary & us sharing more in common with the Pukhtoons, the Sindhis, the Saraikis & the Baluch in our dietary habits & some of our cultural practices than we do with Punjabis from India !
Take the example of our language - None of uses Gurmukhi here & our Punjabi is heavily influenced by other languages especially by Urdu to such an extent that we use them interchangeably in such a way that most of the time we're not even able to tell whether a particular word has come from Urdu or whether it came from Punjabi ! In fact we've even created words ourselves through the mingling of Urdu & Punjabi that you'd not hear anywhere else....words that have more than once been at the receiving end of the criticism of those who pride themselves on speaking prim & proper Urdu.
Take another example - No one celebrates Besaki or whatever its called over here ! Even the Sufistic Traditions in Punjab have drawn more from Sindh & the Saraiki belt than from Eastern-Punjab.
No soft image, afgans will eagerly watch (am sure they do) any pakistani program whether they like you or not. Because there is something in common there again (sorry afgans for comparing you with dalkhors )
Not quite ! Like I said the Indian Influence is blown vastly out of proportion. In the North they listen to Persian music, movies & folklore whilst in the South it mostly Pashto. I would imagine that most of the Bollywood Influence traveled from Pakistan with the Afghan Refugees.
Oh, and did I also mention that the commonality/similarity decreases as you go away from wagha border on both sides ..so much so that.......
Indeed it does ! So its better to say that parts of North-Western India & parts of Pakistani Punjab have things in common because the rest don't !
And this is precisely the reason why I consider such sweeping statements like 'We're the same people with the same culture' that often draw a frown from me !
Even more I am used to different Urdu accents here in Karachi , why do you think the city is referred to as the ' Mini Pakistan ' 
