The province of Balochistan in Pakistan is the largest in the country by geographical area. It contains most of historical Balochistan and is named after the Baloch. Its neighbouring regions are Iranian Balochistan to the west, Afghanistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to the north and Punjab and Sindh to the east. To the south is the Arabian Sea.  Balochistan is believed to be rich in mineral resources. It is also a major supplier of natural gas to the country.

History

Balochistan was the site of the earliest known farming settlements upon the Iranian plateau bordering South Asia, the earliest of which was Mehrgarh dated at 6500 BCE. Pakistani Balochistan corresponds to the ancient Achaemenid province of Gedrosia. Balochistan was sparsely populated by various tribes, possibly of Dravidian and Indo-Iranian origin, for centuries following the decline of the nearby Harappa-Mohenjo-daro civilisation to the east. Over time, Balochistan was invaded by various Eurasian groups including the Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Kushans, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Mughals, Afghans, and the British. Aryan invasions appear to have led to the eventual demise of the Elamo-Dravidian with the exception of the Brahui who may have arrived much later as did the Balochis themselves.

The Balochis began to arrive from their homeland in northern Iran and appear to be an offshoot of the Kurdish tribes that would mainly populate the western end of the Iranian plateau. The Balochi tribes eventually became a sizable group rivalled only by another Iranian group, while the Pashtuns and the Brahuis increasingly came under the cultural influence of the Balochis. Muslim Arab invaders annexed the region during the Abbasid period and conversion to Islam.

Balochis believe that their origins are Semitic and not Iranian contrary to linguistic and historical evidence. Balochis claim that they left their Aleppo homeland in Syria at some point during the 1st millennium CE and moved to Balochistan, on the other hand it is considered more likely they are an Iranian group who have possibly absorbed some Arab ancestry and cultural traits instead, it is also believed that Balochis are Arab blood, it could be they left the Arab world during Iraq broke from Persia in 652 AD and there are historical evidence that they lived in Iranian Arabistan (Khuzestan) and (Bushehr) before moving to Kerman and Hormozgan. In 15th century Mir Chakar Khan Rind became first king of Baluchistan. Balochistan subsequently was dominated by empires based in Iran and Afghanistan as well as the Mughal empire based in India. Ahmed Shah Durrani annexed the region as part of a "greater" Afghanistan. The area would eventually revert to local Balochi control, while parts of the northern regions would continue to be dominated by Pashtun tribes.

During the period of the British Raj, there were four Princely states in Balochistan: Makran, Kharan, Las Bela and Kalat. In 1876 Sir Robert Sandeman concluded a treaty with the Khan of Kalat and brought his territories - including Kharan, Makran, and Las Bela - under British suzerainty. After the Second Afghan War of 1878-80, the Treaty of Gandamak concluded in May 1879, the Afghan Emir ceded the districts of Quetta Pishin,Sibi, Harnai, and Thal Chotiali to the British. In 1883 the British leased the Bolan Pass, southeast of Quetta, from the Khan of Kalat on a permanent basis. In 1887 some areas of Balochistan were declared British territory. In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand negotiated an agreement with Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan to fix the Durand Line running from Chitral to Balochistan to as the boundary between the Afghans and the British.

There were two devastating earthquakes in Balochistan during the British colonial rule. The 1935 Balochistan Earthquake devastated Quetta. The 1945 Balochistan Earthquake occurred in Makran region and was felt in other regions of South Asia.

Since the 1970s there has been some small-scale violence. The area had been badly affected by fighting and instability in Afghanistan, with arms and refugees flooding the province. Small attacks have occurred against coal miners, oil prospectors, and energy infrastructure. On 15 June 2006, an estimated 600 fighters, led by three commanders, agreed to lay down their weapons after talks with Shoaib Nausherwani, Baluchistan`s minister for internal affairs, in Dera Bugti district. On August 26, Balochistan tribal leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed in airstrikes carried out by the Pakistani military.

In 1998 Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in Ras Koh and in the Kharan desert, both in the Kharan District in north-western Balochistan.