Daily Times

Pakistan cricket community is still reeling from the aftermath of the deadly militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus during a test match series in 2009, horrified by which several major international teams refused to tour the country out of security concerns.

In March this year, a string of terrorist attacks targetting Chinese interests in Pakistan triggered a sharp response from Beijing to the extent that talks are now underway to establish joint security companies to protect Chinese nationals working on multi-billion dollar infrastructural projects. Against all this, yesterday’s explosion on Malam Jabba Road in Swat, coinciding with a convoy carrying diplomats from 12 countries, serves as a chilling reminder of what can go wrong at the push of a button.

While a tragedy was thankfully averted, a policeman had to pay a steep cost and three others were critically injured. But as condemnations pour in from Islamabad, would the ruling elite care to seriously consider the increasing resurgence in terrorism? Rather than making sweeping generalisations, shouldn’t the federal and provincial governments show some willingness to strike at the heart of the issue? The alarming fact that 59 terrorist attacks were reported in August alone, largely concentrated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and targetting security forces, makes it literally impossible for those at the helm of our affairs to keep their head buried in the sand. More worryingly, scandalous accusations from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor about the elected government “encouraging” militant forces would prove to be nothing short of a good douse of kerosene on the raging flames of provincialism.

Pakistan’s ranking as the fourth most affected country by terrorism, according to the latest Global Terrorism Index, underscores the critical need for an effective response to security threats.

As our civilian leadership drags its feet, not interested in taking proactive measures to establish its writ, it gives nefarious outfits a free hand to exploit gaps in the governance and hit where it hurts us the most. It would do well to remember that if today, it is trying every trick in the playbook to calm Chinese tensions, ignoring the elephant in the room might soon prompt similar fears from potential investors, understandably hesitant to commit to a country whose security situation is precarious. *