Striker Mohammad Essa was the pick of the home side as he scored twice in the second half against a hapless Maldivians who were 1-0 down at breather.
After a day’s rest, Pakistan square off against Sri Lanka Saturday at 6.00pm, while Maldives take on Bangladesh at 3.30pm.
The tourists threatened the local outfit with a corner in the very first minute of the game, otherwise they were rarely allowed to penetrate Pakistan defence.
A partisan crowd of some 5,000 rose to its feet when Pakistan surged ahead through midfielder Adeel Ahmad in the 10th minute.
The game exploded into action when an unmarked Adeel broke Maldivian resistance with an amazing 45-metre shot which rolled into the right corner of the net past the Maldives goalkeeper Mohammad Areesh.
Pakistan missed four sitters within the spell of five minutes with Essa being foiled by the ‘keeper first in the 16th minute and then by a defender inside the box four minutes minutes later.
A 22nd-minute corner was headed over by Adeel whose another header failed to find the net after a Atiq-ur-Rahman cross five minutes later.
Although Pakistan players tore Maldives defence apart with their fine runs, three of them, Mohammad Abbas, Essa and Martin Gill received yellow cards for rough play.
The Maldivians would have grabbed a 40th-minute equaliser had Pakistan custodian Falak Sher not made a stupendous save from the penalty spot.
Falak became a villain when he tripped Maldives’ Ali Ashfaq inside the box but he became the hero when he saved the spot kick taken by Ashfaq.
After an exciting first session, the second half deteriorated into a battle of defensive wits. Adeel, the vice-captain, once again wasted a golden opportunity following a Zaheer Abbas cross.
The game was restricted to the midfield and was dying on its feet when there was an explosion of brilliance in the 73rd minute.
Zaheer Abbas came off the bench to set up an exquisite goal for Essa who was giving the Maldives defenders tough time with his darting runs deep.
Zaheer hooked an inch-perfect square pass into the path of Essa who fired home past a bewildered goalkeeper to make it 2-0 for the hosts. The spirit and fight disappeared from Maldives when goal number three came just 60 seconds later.
This time Essa combined with midfielder Aftab Qadir who clipped a perfectly-weighted pass into Essa’s path whose first-time effort found the net.
Maldives, in a rare attack, came close to reducing the margin but Saeedi Didi shot wide in the 85th minute.
Aftab killed off the game with the fourth in the dying moments after collecting a Zaheer cross and slammed a drive past the goalkeeper.
Bangladesh also collected full points when they beat Sri Lanka 2-0 with a goal in each half.
Though, Sri Lanka were aggressive in the beginning, they conceded the first goal when Bangladesh skipper Mehdi Hasan caught the Sri Lankan defence napping in the 5th minute.
Hasan however skewed his shot after two minutes from inside the box after getting hold a Parvez Sala lob, while a Parvez free kick skidded from 30 metres and missed the target in the 12th minute, although goalkeeper Sadun Devinda was beaten.
Both the sides launched attacks and fluffed promising openings but the second eventually came after the lemon time from the Bangladesh whose Arman Aziz was shown yellow seconds before the end of the first period.
Bangladesh raised the tempo and Faisal Mahmood injured himself when he fell on the drain near the sidelines during a tackle in the 70th minute.
An unmarked Parvez punished the Sri Lankan defence to fire past a helpless goalkeeper from a Hasan pass to complete the scoring.
Pakistan 4 Maldives 0
Bangladesh 2 Sri Lanka 0