After a heartfelt appeal by philanthropist Faisal Edhi, the Punjab Government has announced that it will supply medicines and other essential supplies to the perpetually suffering population of Parachinar. With highways closed in the wake of last month’s attack on a passenger convoy and the subsequent sporadic outbreak of sectarian violence that claimed an astonishing 130 lives, the locals are struggling to cling to life, becoming more and more desperate for a return to normalcy. That PTI government came under heavy fire not only from opposition parties but even from its own allies in a Senate session held on Thursday should serve as a much-needed wakeup call to rattle the authorities out of the complacency. While the chief minister’s house and key representatives drag their feet, even choosing to ignore their party founder’s instructions, Kurram is fast burning to the ground. Living virtually under siege in freezing temperatures for over 70 days, there is little hope for children and older residents who battle an array of diseases. The pneumonia crisis continues unabated, with an increasing number of patients in critical condition awaiting transfer to other cities. Meanwhile, the local administration has yet to come up with a reliable solution to the security paradigm, as they link the restoration of connectivity to the need for deweaponization. Daily life suffers at a standstill, with educational institutions closed: helpless because means of conveyance have gone missing. Whether those in charge needed to seriously but immediately reconsider the performance of the current governance model or work towards restoring the trust of the wary residents, who seem to have little appetite for militancy threat from across the border, speaks to the far murkier problem at hand: how much do the troubles of the common man matter to the provincial administration? What will the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government say to parents of the 30 children who lost their lives, not because modern medicine was ill-equipped to treat their ailments, but because their country failed to provide them with another chance at survival? *