The reality is that there is NO reset button. If there is anything to be achieved it has to be based on reality and cognizance of shared history and polity.
The facts are that Pashtuns/Pakhtoons/Pathans are in fact Afghans, that is those who speak pashto. This is only to remind those who try to keep the wedge erected by the Brits alive. So, this only makes other political realities evident and clear as day... that Afghanistan is a microcosm of Pakistan, a country of multitude of ethnicities and languages... Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmen and Hazara some of the notable few.
The geopolitics that Pakistan has to align itself with is the political reality on the western edge of Pakistan that was always there ... for ages... The Persian and Turkic world!
Which speaks volumes on both Afghans(the pashto speakers) and PanjAbis(literally two Persian words transliteration of which means Five Waters!) For those this reality is lost on... for hundreds of years Lahore and Kabul were centers of Persian language. Only difference that British eradicated that past, created hard borders and disconnected this side from it's geopolitical reality. Which essentially made Pakistan artificially orbiting Indian cultural appropriation and onslaught. To complete the first thought... both Afghans and PunjAbis are not monolithic groups but an amalgamation... such as turkics who speak pashto and Afghans who speak Punjabi so on and so forth.
Fact is that it is among THESE very tribes and ethnicities some found common ground ... above that fray while maintaining their ethnic and linguistic identities and came to conquer India multiple times over. Whereas the Jatts/Jauts/Jutts of PunjAb never managed to first have any of their clans either manage to gather critical mass, association/alliance or diplomatic/organizational strength to establish their domain(except for the small exceptions) less do any conquest ... they instead changed with the winds and mercenaries. Where they did manage to unite in case of Sikhs, they ruled. In there case 3 million ruled around 70... quite a contrast.
People in Pakistan will eventually have to realize the reason why The Raj had it's largest cantonment in Rawalpindi of all places or why they made those borders of convenience with Aghanistan as a buffer. Why U.S. armed Pakistan and even formed defense treaties... the military was always meant for the Western border and keeping the gulf Arab sheikhdoms stable. The armaments were always meant to be used against Soviets, India was a convenient ruse.
Which is why the same institution milked the instability in its Western neighbor... playing it's part. Soviet invasion was in fact a blessing, something that wa sought and duely exploited... instability was later maintained and WOT became convenient... so much so that the institution actively seeks it's revival in any form... it is a source of dried up revenues for the wigs. No wonder, the poor souls blame all on Pakistan... a game of spite plays out.
Anyhow, the geopolitical center of Pakistani people resides with it's enormous hinterland whose masses today reside and call Pakistan, home!
If anything linguistic revival is absolutely imperative with both Turkic and Persian worlds to revive and resuscitate the now dead horse. Eurasian connectivity will rejuvenate the long dormant prosperity of the region and above all connect people once again for free flow of goods and ideas.
And it will never happen until people will reconcile with their true past and reconnect with it!
