To control all these buffer regions, the Pakistani state must absorb masses of other peoples who do not conform to the norms of the Indus core. Russia faces a similar challenge; its lack of geographic insulation from its neighbours forces it to expand to establish a buffer. But in Pakistan, the complications are far worse. Russia's buffers are primarily flat, which facilitates the assimilation of conquered peoples. Pakistan's buffers are broken and mountainous, which reinforces ethnic divisions among the regions' inhabitants — core Punjabis and Sindhis in the Indus Valley, Baloch to the west and Pashtuns to the north. And the Baloch and Pashtuns are spread out over far more territory than what comprises the Punjab-Sindh core.
Thus, while Pakistan has relatively definable boundaries, it lacks the ethnic and social cohesion of a strong nation-state. Three of the four major Pakistani ethnic groups — Punjabis, Pashtuns and Baloch — are not entirely in Pakistan. India has an entire state called Punjab, 42 per cent of Afghanistan is Pashtun, and Iran has a significant Baloch minority in its Sistan-Balochistan province.
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5:28 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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