Indeed. As distinct as other nations from their neighbours. The Oder River between Germany and Poland does not have three legs one eyed people as contrasted to the Poles with three eyes on one leg. As much as there ae differances between most countries we have them. But.
Very true. At heart of the equation it is very simple. Aitzaz Ahsan's book "The Indus Saga ad Making of Pakistan" pretty well lays the blueprint for Pakistan. It picks up on the fac that countries are geographies. Soil.
Earth.
Dust. Land. That is what makes a nation. That is what we spill blood over. Without land there can be
no sovereign nation. This land we call Pakistan that has cultivated the collage that lives on it has a long unique history going back to Mehr Garh 5,000 years ago. The Indus valley is a unique geography that has given birth to us. In his book "Indus Saga" Aitzaz Ahsan charts the evolution of a land. A 5,000 year saga.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/872849.The_Indus_Saga_and_the_Making_of_Pakistan
If this book in tandem with
Rehmat Ali and
Sir Allama Iqbal's call or "Muslim majority homeland" was leveraged by making it required reading for all Pakistani school children within a generation Pakistan would have a strong, pronounced, unique identity that would gell the polyglot peoples of the Indus Basin together. It would give this nation pride that we are second to non and that we hold the distinction of having been the cradle of human civilization. Our people would be cured of the schizoid nature they show many rooting for "Indian" or "Arab" or "Central Asian" identities and others fighting for some escapist ummah which actually is just as cheap contractors of Palestinians or other Arabs.
Sir Allama Iqbal 1980
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabad_Address
I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State.
Rehmat Ali 1933
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_rahmatali_1933.html
I am enclosing herewith an appeal on behalf of the thirty million Muslims of PAKISTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of India--Punjab, North-West Frontier (Afghan) Province, Kashmir, Sind, and Baluchistan. It embodies their demand for the recognition of their national status, as distinct from the other inhabitants of India, by the grant to Pakistan of a separate Federal Constitution on religious, social and historical group
But. But this has not happened and will not. Aitzaz's book has failed to gain any widespread traction and in fact has been dismissed by many talkingheads. The reasons are simple. First the religious lobby will not accept any such thing. Their goal is the ummah. Then we also have the Muhajir elite which pretty well dominates the media and education. To the 7% of this Pakistan are not exactly open to this "Pakistan" as they are not from the Indus Basin.
Therefore I see a broken and fractured identities fighting each other depending on their background. Say we are "Indians" on vacation from Hindutwa's in Karachi might not be taken too well in Mardan. Religion is peddled unleashed via energetic mullahs in a attempt to pucker up the "Muslim refuge" narrative although as I mentioned that itself brings it's own set of problems.
If a more composite anchored on the Indus region is not developed then as the differant regions of Pakistan develop I can see Pakistan cracking up along the Indus faultline with the easter half gaining the right to go "full on Indian" and perhaps rejoin Mata India. The future is bleak if this issue is not resolved. The pointer to this is how we have regional parties. PPP rural sindh. PML-N Punjab. MQM the Indian refugees in Karachi. PTI is heading to be a Pakhtun pressure group much as MQMN is a Indian migrant pressure group. This along with others shows the fractured polity of Pakistan.