GEO-STRATEGIC AND POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF PAKISTAN

Geo- Strategic means importance of a country or a region as by virtue of its geographical location. Geo political is defined as, stressing the influence of geographic factors on the state power, international conduct and advantages it derives from its location. Pakistan is located at a region which is located a region which has a great economic, political and strategic location. It has been the hub of great activities for the past twenty years. Stephen Cohn describes this importance While history has been unkind to Pakistan, its geography has been its greatest benefit. It has resource rich area in the north-west, people rich in the north-east. Pakistan is a junction of South Asia, West Asia and Central Asia, a way from resource efficient countries to resource deficient countries. The world is facing energy crisis and terrorism. Pakistan is a route for transportation, and a front line state against terrorism. Pakistan has witnessed the intervention of three great powers Britons, U.S.S.R and U.S. Its significance is further enhanced during the cold war when it became the alley of the U.S policy of containment of U.S.S.R and now the post cold war era has witnessed its significance politically after the event of 9/11. Pakistan in Asia has much geographical importance because of its strategic location. Firstly, Pakistan has all features of nature like sea, deserts, mountains, rivers. Secondly, in this region there are four seasons; summer, winter, autumn and spring. Pakistan shares its borders with very prominent countries in the world like India, China, Afghanistan and Iran. Land lock countries do not have route for the transportation of goods by sea therefore, Pakistan also provides sea transportation to some countries. Interestingly, Pakistan is a Muslim country and it is located in the chain of the Muslim countries therefore, it is also known as "Center of Muslim World".

BOUNDRIES
Pakistan occupies a geostrategic position of importance: bordered by Iran on the west, Afghanistan on the northwest, China on the northeast, India on the east, and the Arabian Sea to the south. The total land area is estimated at 880,620 square kilometers.[ Including FATA,FANA and Azad kashmir} In 1893, a British commission created Pakistan's border with Iran, 800 kilometers long, separating Iran from what was then British Balochistan. In 1957 Pakistan signed a frontier agreement with Iran, and since then the border between the two countries has not been a subject to any border dispute.

GEO STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF PAKISTAN NATURAL RESOURCES

1) In the Southern Part Pakistan has a long coastal line which gives it access to warm waters. The Karachi port has always occupied a significant position even in history in terms of giving it access to other important sea ports of the world. Transporting goods through air or dry ports can be very costly in comparison. 2) There are huge reserves of iron ore in Pakistan besides several other unexplored mineral reserves in NWFP .

3) There are gold reserves to be found in the Northern mountainous belts. 4) Pakistan is rich in agriculture and has fertile cultivable soil. 60% of Pakistani GDP comes from agriculture. 5) 70 % of citrus fruits in the world are exported from Pakistan. 6) Pakistan has all four seasons and benefits that come with that. 7) Oil and gas reserves. 8) A strategic location that gives it access to China and other important locations in the North. 9) A complex irrigation system.

IMPORTANCE OF PAKISTAN,S INTERNATIONAL BOUNDRIES

Pakistan occupies a position of great geostrategic importance, bordered by Iran on the west, Afghanistan on the northwest, China on the northeast, India on the east, and the Arabian Sea on the south The total land area is estimated at 803,940 square kilometers. The boundary with Iran, some 800 kilometers in length, was first delimited by a British commission in 1893, separating Iran from what was then British Indian Balochistan. In 1957 Pakistan signed a frontier agreement with Iran, and since then the border between the two countries has not been a subject of serious dispute. Pakistan's boundary with Afghanistan is about 2,250 kilometers long. In the north, it runs along the ridges of the Hindu Kush (meaning Hindu Killer) mountains and the Pamirs, where a narrow strip of Afghan territory called the Wakhan Corridor extends between Pakistan and Tajikistan. The Hindu Kush was traditionally regarded as the last northwestern outpost where Hindus could venture in safety. The boundary line with Afghanistan was drawn in 1893 by Sir Mortimer Durand, then foreign secretary in British India, and was acceded to by the amir of Afghanistan that same year. This boundary, called the Durand Line, was not in doubt when Pakistan became independent in 1947, although its legitimacy was in later years disputed periodically by the Afghan government as well as by Pakhtun tribes straddling the PakistanAfghanistan border. On the one hand, Afghanistan claimed that the Durand Line had been imposed by a stronger power upon a weaker one, and it favored the establishment of still another state to be called Pashtunistan or Pakhtunistan. On the other hand, Pakistan, as the legatee of the British in the region, insisted on the legality and permanence of the boundary. The Durand Line remained in effect in 1994. In the northeastern tip of the country, Pakistan controls about 84,159 square kilometers of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. This area, consisting of Azad Kashmir (11,639 square kilometers) and most of the Northern Areas (72,520 square kilometers), which includes Gilgit and Baltistan, is the most visually stunning of Pakistan. The Northern Areas has five of the world's seventeen highest mountains. It also has such extensive glaciers that it has sometimes been called the "third pole." The boundary line has been a matter of pivotal dispute between Pakistan and India since 1947, and the Siachen Glacier in northern Kashmir has been an important arena for fighting between the two sides since 1984, although far more soldiers have died of exposure to the cold than from any skirmishes in the conflict. From the eastern end of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, a boundary of about 520 kilometers runs generally southeast between China and Pakistan, ending near the Karakoram Pass. This line was determined from 1961 to 1965 in a series of agreements between China and Pakistan. By mutual agreement, a new boundary treaty is to be negotiated between China and Pakistan

when the dispute over Kashmir is finally resolved between India and Pakistan. The Pakistan-India cease-fire line runs from the Karakoram Pass west-southwest to a point about 130 kilometers northeast of Lahore. This line, about 770 kilometers long, was arranged with United Nations (UN) assistance at the end of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-48. The cease-fire line came into effect on January 1, 1949, after eighteen months of fighting and was last adjusted and agreed upon by the two countries in the Simla Agreement of July 1972. Since then, it has been generally known as the Line of Control. The Pakistan-India boundary continues irregularly southward for about 1,280 kilometers, following the line of the 1947 Radcliffe Award, named for Sir Cyril Radcliffe, the head of the British boundary commission on the partition of Punjab and Bengal in 1947. Although this boundary with India is not formally disputed, passions still run high on both sides of the border. Many Indians had expected the original boundary line to run farther to the west, thereby ceding Lahore to India; Pakistanis had expected the line to run much farther east, possibly granting them control of Delhi, the imperial capital of the Mughal Empire. The southern borders are far less contentious than those in the north. The Thar Desert in the province of Sindh is separated in the south from the salt flats of the Rann of Kutch by a boundary that was first delineated in 1923-24. After partition, Pakistan contested the southern boundary of Sindh, and a succession of border incidents resulted. They were less dangerous and less widespread, however, than the conflict that erupted in Kashmir in the Indo-Pakistani War of August 1965. These southern hostilities were ended by British mediation, and both sides accepted the award of the Indo-Pakistan Western Boundary Case Tribunal designated by the UN secretary general. The tribunal made its award on February 19, 1968, delimiting a line of 403 kilometers that was later demarcated by joint survey teams. Of its original claim of some 9,100 square kilometers, Pakistan was awarded only about 780 square kilometers. Beyond the western terminus of the tribunal's award, the final stretch of Pakistan's border with India is about 80 kilometers long, running west and southwest to an inlet of the Arabian Sea.

TRADE AND GEO-STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

Pakistan has access of warm waters so Pakistan can trade throughout the year. Arabian Sea is the heaven of trading. Pakistan has two major coasts Gawadar and Karachi. Pakistan is the gateway to trade in Far East areas, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Sirilanka and Australia. Pakistan is separating India from Iran and Afghanistan, and Iran has huge natural resources like natural oil and gas. India wants to trade with Iran for natural gas with a pipe line. But the pipeline project still not completed. Pakistan is very important trade way for china to approach the trade markets of Middle Eastern and Arabian countries. Chinas own coastal areas are far away and the shortest approach for China to trade is Pakistan. Pakistan and China has friendly relations with each other. Both of the countries trade on the bases of Barter trading. Gawadar coast is also functioning in Pakistan with the help of China. It is located between three major and important regions Central Asia, South Asia and Oil rich areas of Middle East. Shahrahe Karakuram is the way from which Pak-China trade. Some Middle Eastern countries also dont have their own coasts so they are using Karachi coast to trade by sea.

Pakistan is a big market for everything. It has so important geographical location for trade point of view. Basically, Pakistan is an agricultural country and their agriculture products have very good quality and low in cost as compared to other countries of the world. Many Importers every year import lots of goods from Pakistan with variety of quality and save cost by paying less than other countries. Furthermore, Pakistan is well known as for their good trade relations with other countries. China, India, Afghanistan, Iran, United States of America, Turkey and some European regions have maintained good trade relations with Pakistan in past few years. Not only agriculture, Pakistan has good market of electrical goods, clothing and sports goods. Many Suppliers and Exporters of Pakistan are busy in making good quality products for supplying them across the world. Pakistan mainly exports: Leather Goods and raw leather with quality because there is high number of calves, cows and sheep are slaughtered every year. Punjab (province of Pakistan) is major location to Import leather from Pakistan. Textile & Fabrics have good quality with low cost and good variety can be purchased from Pakistan to spread the business globally. Faisalabad is the hot region in Punjab for the Importers of Clothing.

IMPORTANCE OF GWADAR PORT

Gwadar is Pakistans largest infrastructural project since independence. Gwadar Deep Seaport is located on the southwestern coast of Pakistan, close to the important Straits of Hormuz, through which more than 13 million barrels of oil passes daily. Ever since the construction of Gwadar deep seaport has been undertaken, it is an opportunity for the people of Balochistan to improve the living conditions in their province. Neighbouring countries are very much interested in investing in Gwadar especially China and has already spent $248 million in its construction. The geographical and strategic location makes the Gwadar Deep Seaport at a much advantageous position than other competing ports, like Rashid and Jebel Ali ports of Dubai, Salalah Port of Oman, Bandar Abbas and Chahbahar ports of Iran. 95% trade takes place through sea in Pakistan. Karachi port is handling 68% whereas Port Qasim takes care of 32% of the sea borne trade. The projected rise in total trade by the year 2015 is 91 million tons. This will increase shipping activity phenomenally at the existing port. Pakistan has very little strategic depth from east to west ,Gwadar will increase this strategic depth considerably, as a strategic port being further away from India . Gwadar will help Pakistan to monitor the Sea Lines of Communications (SLOCs) originating from the Persian Gulf and bottle neck at Strait of Hormuz. Both military and economic power now depends upon oil . Gwadar is of strategic importance, lying across the SLOCs emanating out of the strategic choke point of Hormuz. It is expected that Gwadar city in future would turn into an international hub of industrial and commercial activity, which would not only play a key role in the economic development of Balochistan, but also the entire country.

Benefits for Pakistan:

Pakistan can fulfill her energy needs which are beyond her indigenous production, additionally she can also accrue number of benefits such as: 1) Enhance trade with CARs / Middle East.

2) The relations with neighboring and regional countries can be improved and trade can be enhanced. 3) Through IPI /TAPI pipelines, relations with India can be normalized and that can also act as CBMs. 4) Pakistan can earn lot of foreign exchange through transit fee and improve her foreign exchange reserves. 5) The transit fee can be utilized for development purpose. 6) There will be a gradual growth and improvement in most of the backward areas and towns / villages. 7) The living conditions and literacy rate of these areas can also be improved. 8) Lot of new jobs would come up due to new projects which would lower the overall rate of unemployment. 9) Tourism and hotel industries can be boosted as no of foreigners would be visiting Pakistan for the construction of these projects. 10) It would improve the overall economy of the country.

STRATEGIC LOCATION AND ECONOMY

The point worth emphasising is that the US is an important country with which Pakistan needs to maintain friendly and cordial relations in the interests of its economic development. The US remains the largest reservoir of science and technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in the world. The Pakistani economy has everything to gain from the US, the largest economy in the world with an open trading platform; a liberal immigration policy; a strong reserve currency and a large supplier of investment. There is every reason to build mutually beneficial ties with the US and other western countries. That said, Pakistan has been quite consistent in so far as its policy towards China is concerned. A Free Trade Agreement with the largest exporting nation of the world makes perfect sense. But Pakistani businessmen have not taken full advantage of this opportunity. The growth in exports to China has been slower than expected; joint ventures for large infrastructure projects are almost nonexistent. Western China is closer to Pakistan than the coastal provinces and can be accessed if highways, railways, pipelines are built to link the two countries. But Pakistan has yet to fit itself into Chinas huge supply chain as other Asian countries have done. Iran the other neighbour has been distant and aloof in Pakistans economic development. The Pak-Iran gas pipeline is an excellent opening and should be constructed quickly to ease domestic energy shortages. Iran has almost completed laying the pipeline up to our border but we are still stuck in a state of paralysis. Several districts of Baluchistan can benefit from increased trade between the two countries. Iran can export electricity to these districts at cheaper rates and so promote productive economic activities. Finally, Afghanistan, Pakistans gateway to the Central Asian Republics. Being energy deficient, we can import hydropower from Tajikistan and natural gas from Turkmenistan. Central Asian

States, if they are provided access through rail and road links to Gwadar, will find it relatively cheaper to bring in and ship out their goods to the rest of the world. At present, these landlocked states have to pay exorbitant charges and incur huge expenses on international trade. A peaceful Afghanistan and friendly relations with Pakistan can open these routes. The survey shows that Pakistans strategic location has not so far been utilised to fight the war against poverty, illiteracy, disease and hunger our foremost national priorities. On the contrary, this location has landed us in deep trouble on many occasions and the economic and social malaise which we are suffering at present can be traced to the wrong use of this location. It is quite apparent that the three main pillars of this paradigm shift are; (a) removing elements that are perpetuating mistrust between the US and Pakistan, (b) normalising economic and trade relations between India and Pakistan, and (c) ensuring a peaceful and friendly Afghanistan. By following this strategy, we will be able to pick up speed in the economic race weve been lagging behind in as compared to most countries in Asia.

GEO-POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF PAKISTAN India-Centricity

For seasoned observers of historical developments and future trends, it should be obvious that the attention of Pakistan's security planners would remain riveted on India. Few believe India has the desire or military wherewithal to break up Pakistan, yet fears persist in Pakistan that India's leadership may see the strategic advantages of having four week a, demilitarised states in place of the four provinces of a well-armed, nuclearised and unified Pakistan. The goal of the Pakistani leadership has always been to ensure that such an Indian move would be far too costly for India to attempt. This would explain Pakistan's psycho-pathological obsession for parity with India and its quarter-century-long determined quest for the nuclear weapon to balance India's predominant conventional military strength and strategic reach. Another point that needs to be underscored is that no government in Pakistan appears to reflect the average Pakistani's wishes for peace and stability, and a secure political environment in the subcontinent. The establishment's role in reorienting the educational and cultural inculcation of the young towards an anti-India attitude has been well documented. In such a dispensation, Pakistan's history starts with the Arab leader Mohammad bin Qasim's invasion of Sindh ! "The syllabus at the Pakistani Military Academy in Kakul has a separate course on the ideology of Pakistan. The emphasis is on the inculcation of an anti-Indian attitude of mind as an essential component of Pakistani patriotism."14 Without a reversal of these pernicious practices, effective India-Pakistan rapprochement in the new millennium would in all likelihood be hostage to renewed adversarial impulses. In terms of security challenges, pessimistic as it may appear, co-existentialist sub-conventional conflict proceeding at multiple levels below the conventional threshold under the nuclear umbrella could operate for about a decade or so. Pakistan would be under no illusion that it

can ever annex Jammu and Kashmir. But the Kashmir bogey serves as a convenient symbol of national consolidation. Moreover, the low cost option of controlled support for militancy in the state helps Pakistan keep the issue internationally alive. Its initiatives in the low intensity conflict and efforts to gnaw at India's internal cohesion would need to be countered by appropriate pay-you-back-in-the-same coin strategies. Pakistan's nuclear and missile capability, notably the 1,500-km Ghauri IRBM and its possible 2,500-km follow-on variants have enabled it to balance India's strategic depth and stake its claim as a regional influential. It can provide extended deterrence to West Asian countries against Israel. These factors would doubtless need to be factored in India's strategic calculus. It does appear that despite the "ugly stability" of Indo-Pak relations in the near and medium term, nuclear deterrence over the long haul would stabilise bilateral ties for peace and mutual security.

China-Pakistan Axis
In geo-political terms, the decades-long convergence of strategic interests between China and Pakistan is inherently India-centric with China seeking an added bonus of a toe-hold in West Asia and possibility of egress into the Arabian Sea through the trans-Himalayan road highway. Their friendship is often described by Pakistanis and Chinese as "loftier than the Himalayas and deeper than the Indian Ocean." Peculiarities of geography and history have linked the two in the India-China strategic friction and territorial dispute. China would for decades remain India's strategic challenge. Pakistan got from China not only a range of nuclear-capable missilesM-11, M-9 and D-F 21/21A, meant specifically to counter India but also the design for a nuclear warhead that the latter had tested at Lop-Nor in 1966. This enabled Pakistan attain de facto nuclear power status in 1987, which India reportedly acquired only in 1990 or so. Beijing wilfully fuelled Pakistan's ambitions to be a regional influential, a development which may one day boomerang on it. By way of a delicious irony, China's intensified support for Pakistan's nuclear-delivery missile programme, culminating in the April 1998 test-launch of the 1,500-km Ghauri, coincided with Rajiv Gandhi's path-breaking visit to Beijing in 1988. That China chose this unalterable course just when its bilateral relations with India were thawing makes one inference clear. Beijing wilfully introduced an adversarial impulse in India-China relations by encouraging and endorsing Pakistan's ambitions to be a regional influential. The means adopted were to equip it with ballistic missiles having ranges well beyond those needed to balance India. From among developing countries, Pakistan's economic and military value lies as much in its being the foremost importer of China's nuclear and weapons technology as in its serving as an excellent source of hard currency earnings. These linkages are expected to be sustained over the years. Today about 70 per cent of Pakistan's military hardware is of Chinese origin. A trend of significant military consequence to India is that the on-going military modernisation in China, including induction of force multipliers, would provide Pakistan a siphon-off technological benefit through access to these systems apart from Su-27s, MBTs, Kilo class submarines and other equipment. Armed with these capabilities and nucleartipped Chinese-supplied ballistic missiles, Pakistan may well perceive itself as a lynchpin of China's grand design for South Asian security in the 21st century.

American Role
America's role in Pakistan's geo-political transformation as a regional influential, notwithstanding its extant internal and economic travails, needs to be addressed briefly.

During the concluding Cold War years, Pakistan was cultivated as a "frontline" state in America's sustained drive to reverse the former Soviet Union's influence in Afghanistan. As a quid pro quo, Pakistan's determined and often clandestine attempts to become a nuclear power were conveniently overlooked. These supportive influences largely facilitated Pakistan in acquiring the necessary capabilities from China. Lamentably, the global non-proliferation regime, so assiduously created by the West over the years, has been powerless against China's repeated successes in flouting the same through missile transfers to Pakistan. The United States leadership has consistently chosen to turn a blind eye to such sales even when these transgressed the Missile Technology Control Regime, Sino-American agreements and solemn Chinese promises. Despite claims to the contrary from both the United States and China, their implicit strategic congruence on the latter's nuclear-missile assistance to Pakistan has been palpable. Yet it is ironic that many influential sections in Pakistan's top leadership, particularly the military elements, do not consider America a trustworthy ally. It would be instructive to recall the mindset of Islamic solidarity that prevailed within the Pakistani leadership just prior to the Gulf War in 1991. General Aslam Beg, then Army Chief, had propagated the concept of "strategic defiance" against American prescriptions. In fact, during the war itself, sharp polarisation between the pro-Saddam Hussein and pro-Saudi Arabian elements within Pakistan did tend to erode Islamabad's credibility in the Arab world to a large extent. The anti-American perception would appear to have gained further momentum after the August 20, 1998, American Tomahawk attacks on the Saudi fugitive and terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. The apparent crushing impact of economic sanctions may well exacerbate matters as it could join the ordinary Pakistani's bitterness over Western antagonism to Islam with an outrage at alleged American betrayals of security commitments to that country. However, at the official levels, the country's leadership continues to perpetuate the myth of Pakistan being the only reliable bridge between the US and many areas of strategic interest to Washington. During Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's September 21, 1998, meeting with President Clinton at New York, the former has reportedly projected Pakistan as one nation with the ability to defuse the tension between Taliban and Iran.15 He also appears to have pointed out Pakistan's earlier honest broker's role in the US-China rapprochement, de-Sovietisation of Afghanistan and how in a similar fashion Pakistan could ease the path to the Central Asian Republics.

Central Asia and Afghanistan

Not withstanding Pakistan's endemic internal turbulence, it seems seriously engaged in reorienting its foreign policy goals to play a wider role. The preoccupation to exploit the Central Asian option is self-evident; for the United States, the importance of this area of potential strategic advantage, given the vast natural resources and untapped oil and gas in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, has been extensively documented in the media. Pakistan looks at the Central Asian Muslim states as the future arena for its diplomatic and economic initiatives as it can offer these republics the shortest outlet to the sea. Within the ambit of their Economic Cooperation Organisation, plans for joint ventures and economic linkages have been hamstrung by Pakistan's economic constraints. Besides, instabilities in the domestic and interstate politics of these countries make it hard for Pakistan to devise a coherent approach. They are also wary of Pakistan's parallel agenda for Islamic resurgence and seem to give the

impression of preferring a more moderate line. As any initiative for exploiting the economic potential of the Central Asian states is predicated to the early resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan, pressures for a lasting peace in the region seem very compelling. Taliban's capture of Mazar-e-Sharif and most of the northern areas and its being in occupation of nearly 85 per cent of Afghan territory has doubtless created a new situation. The aggressive Islamic fundamentalist ideology that the Taliban espouses has worrisome implications for Central Asia, India and China. Ever since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, Islamabad has been unwavering in its resolve to establish a Pakistan-dominated government in Kabul. Obtaining strategic depth against India, obviating problems with its own Pakhtoon and Baluch populationswhich an unfriendly Kabul could exacerbateand gaining access to transportation networks in Central Asia have constituted the dominant rationale in these endeavours. Creation and maintenance of the Taliban was thus central to Pakistan's strategy. As Zalmay Khalilzad averred, "Pakistan may have helped the Taliban with military training, fuel and weapons, including servicing of the military aircraft they captured in Kandahar and Herat areas. Islamabad may also have helped the Taliban recruit pilots....Additionally, hundreds of Pakistanis have been involved in fighting alongside the Taliban....There are many other sightings of Pakistani military personnel in various parts of Afghanistan.... some Taliban members have complained about the extent of Pakistan's involvement in the country's affairs."

CONCLUSION
Pakistan is very important country in the world with respect to its geographic location. Its importance is as a gateway to Islamic countries. Thats way Pakistan is known as the door of Islam/Fort of Islam. In short one can say that Pakistan has all the important elements from the nature and a unique geography that make it important for rest of the world. The only thing that we need is honest, visionary, brave and sincere leadership that can use this perfect position in a right way for the betterment of the country and its people. The explosive cocktail of weapons trade, extensive drug smuggling and religious extremism is not only sapping the vitals of Pakistani society but could also threaten the entire Southern Asian region. A political establishment that is elitist, militaristic and unrepresentative of the masses can hardly succeed in grappling with Pakistan's many crises. The only hope lies in reducing the stranglehold of the Army-bureaucratic nexus and restoring genuine institutionalised democracy. Until then, the Army will continue to call the shots. The country's economic crisis is a serious cause for concern. A wide-ranging economic reform alone can arrest the unprecedented economic squeeze. Meanwhile, the US, West Asian states and China would not allow the plug to be pulled on the life support system, even though no miraculous recovery is possible. The defence budget and force-modernisation would remain under pressure, perhaps impelling Pakistan and may be even India, which has a similar problem, to consider mutual balanced force reductions in the conventional sphere.

REFERENCES
Kalim Bahadur, "Pakistan's Systemic Crisis", Journal of Peace Studies, September-December 1996, p.35. Jasjit Singh, "Geopolitics of Southern Asia", World Focus, November-December 1993, p.12. Defence.pk dawnnews.pk the nation.com