  We investigate the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the pion and the
kaon by combining quantum chromodynamics (QCD) evolution with the basis light
front quantization. The initial PDFs result from the light front wave functions
obtained by diagonalizing the effective Hamiltonian consisting of the
holographic QCD confinement potential, a complementary longitudinal confinement
potential, and the color-singlet Nambu--Jona-Lasinio interactions. The
valence-quark PDF of the pion, after QCD evolution, is consistent with the
result from the E-0615 experiment at Fermilab. Meanwhile, the pion structure
function calculated from the PDFs agrees with the ZEUS and the H1 experiments
at DESY-HERA for large $x$. Additionally, the ratio of the up quark PDF of the
kaon to that of the pion is in agreement with the NA-003 experiment at CERN. We
also present the cross section for the pion-nucleus induced Drell-Yan process
with the obtained pion PDFs supplemented by the PDFs of the target nuclei.
