Pakistan Provinces

Pakistan is a country of river plains and mountain walls: the Indus runs the length of it from the Karakoram to the Arabian Sea, and the first tier of the map is a question of which side of that river, and which side of the mountains, a round is on. The seven first-level units are few enough to learn in an evening.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: The four provinces against the three territories
In the game: 7 province or territories

Start

What you are looking at

The first tier of Pakistan: four provinces, and three territories that are not provinces. Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are the parts of Kashmir that Pakistan administers, and Islamabad is the federal capital territory, a small area at the foot of the Margalla Hills. The quiz draws only the land Pakistan administers, along the line of control, and not the parts of Kashmir held by India.

Punjab holds more than half the population and sits on the flat east of the country. Balochistan is the largest by far, a dry plateau that takes up almost half the map to the south west. Sindh follows the lower Indus down to Karachi and the sea, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the mountainous strip along the Afghan border, which now includes the former tribal areas merged into it in 2018.

The start dialog groups them as provinces and territories, which is how the constitution splits them. The districts inside them are their own quiz, Pakistan Districts.

How to place one

Anchor on Balochistan. It is the biggest shape on the map and the one that makes the south west unmistakable.
Follow the Indus. Punjab lies upstream and east of it, Sindh downstream to the coast, and the line between them is a straight administrative edge, not a river.
Climb north. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa runs up the Afghan border, with Gilgit-Baltistan above and east of it, and Azad Kashmir a narrow strip on the Indian line.
Find the capital last. Islamabad is a speck beside Rawalpindi on the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa line, and is one of the smallest answers on the site, so the map gives it a tap area.

Every unit, by group

Provinces4 province or territories: Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh
Territories3 province or territories: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad

Worked examples

Balochistan

The biggest of them

Balochistan covers nearly half the country and holds a small share of its people: desert, dry mountains and a long Arabian Sea coast that includes the port of Gwadar.

Islamabad

The one you can miss

Islamabad is a planned capital built in the 1960s against the foothills, a tiny territory wedged between Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Zoom in on the north of Punjab to find it.

Frequently asked questions

How many provinces does Pakistan have?

Four: Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad are territories, which makes seven first-level units.