It hardly rains in Pakistan, and only one Indus River runs through the country, with an average annual rainfall of 300mm (even lower than 100mm in the east). Bad weather conditions cannot support a strong agricultural foundation, let alone modern urban and industrial water use. In other words, climate alone has directly killed the long-term hidden upper limit of Pakistan's population and economic development level.
Religious beliefs and the policy of having more children made Pakistan's population swell in the second half of last century. However, the rapid population growth is due to the problem of 1, and there is no supporting education and urbanization resources. It is difficult for Pakistan's population to enjoy the demographic dividend for a long time, but the number of people with means of production has decreased. At present, the three major industries in Pakistan are agriculture barely entering modernization, the industrial base is extremely weak (the most developed industry, I remember correctly, is ship scrapping because other countries don't want to do it because of oil pollution), the tertiary industry structure of financial services is poor, and foreign capital occupies an absolute advantage.
The extreme religious problems in Iran, India and even the Taliban have put Pakistan under great external pressure, and the government has to allocate funds from economic construction for military defense. How can we talk about the progress of modern industries when funds cannot enter the domestic real economy for a long time?
On the basis of "3", Pakistan first adopted western-style democracy, that is, the model of state capitalism and civilian rule. But it was soon discovered that this road was unsustainable, and the military never stopped exploiting the economy while not having enough to eat. In the end, the elected government was abandoned (temporarily) and a military coup came to power, commonly known as "the gun came out of power." But if things go so smoothly (after all, decision-making will be less influenced by people's likes and dislikes, and it is convenient to raise resources), it is strange that Pakistan's military government has no long-term prestige, and will eventually fall into the stage of elected government and military government in turn, which will eventually confuse Pakistan's high-level regime and change its decrees. Of course, it also breeds corruption
Punjabi, the main ethnic group, only accounts for 60% of the country. In contrast, the ethnic composition of China is as high as 90% no matter how it falls. Almost one province, one bureau, and even local tribes that are far away from the emperor are completely out of central control. At the beginning, the partition of India was hastily defined by religion, but now a group of people who may not know the language are forcing national recognition. It is a great miracle that Pakistan can persist for so many years and split into Bangladesh enclave.
These are almost the main reasons for Pakistan's (relative) poverty. Relative is added because we are not sure whether there will be some changes in the future, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Belt and Road Initiative. Moreover, we should realize that Pakistan is the only "all-round, all-weather strategic partner" of China, so there is no reason why we should not help it in education and engineering. In the end, we can solve two or three of these problems.