Why doesn’t Pakistan merge POK like India? What is his problem?

Pakistan’s goal never has been integrating Kashmir, in fact it has never been about Kashmir at all. Pakistan’s goal has been about any and every attempt to destabilize India. By integrating Pakistani Occupied Kashmir, the result would be a tacit accepting the Line of Control as the de facto border, ending the tension Rawalpindi has used to keep Pakistan’s population distracted and under control. The Pakistani Army which has since the 1950s been the true power in Pakistan, has successfully marginalized and removed any civilian government which attempted to create even the suggestion of an environment of peace and dialogue with India. The Pakistan Army has used Kashmir a rallying cause for Pakistani citizens to be distracted from the complete economic policy failures Pakistan has faced due the diversion of economic impetus to the military industrial complex.

India drives back Pakistan from the valley of Kashmir, 1947.

Pakistan in 1947 just weeks into its existence after being created by the British Empire upon its exit from India, invaded the Kingdom of Kashmir while its Army was still under the control of the British Empire. The likely goal was to ensure India would not have a border with Afghanistan or land route which could pass through Kashmir creating a land route to the U.S.S.R. Prime Minister Nehru would be advised by Lord Mountbatten that the Indian Army could not assist the Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, until such time that he joined the Indian Union. The weeks which were wasted while this process played out, would eventually cost India nearly 1/2 of Kashmir, India would eventually push Pakistan out of the Valley of Kashmir, once more Prime Minister Nehru would listen to Lord Mountbatten, and agree to not pursue taking all of Kashmir in the spring of 1948. Many military commanders even today feel the advice was wrong, as the goal of ensuring the western areas of Kashmir and a route to central Asia was lost. The British Empire along with the U.S. would refuse to condemn Pakistan’s actions and also pushed for a plebiscite to take place in Kashmir, though no pressure was put on Pakistan to withdraw, as it soon became clear that population of Kashmir was largely in favor of joining India. The result was a stalemate which continues.

Pakistan has sought to be viewed as nation which would counterbalance India for much of its existance.

It is clear that Pakistan, fully cooperated with British Empire and later Western policy in regard to Kashmir. The division of Kashmir was accomplished without much of the world realizing the underlying policy the British Empire employed for the partition of India and the later invasion into the Kingdom of Kashmir. Simply put, Pakistan would never have been able to invade Kashmir without British approval. Pakistan’s gains were mitigated, and it never was in the geopolitical cards for Pakistan to control all of Kashmir. The ongoing issue of Kashmir suited Western Cold War Policy and also that of China in the decades which followed. Today, Pakistan has very few unifying factors, and the agitation for Kashmir is one of the few propaganda tools left for the Pakistan Army to distract the total failure of Pakistan as a state in nearly every venue.