For two decades, Pakistan’s soldiers have bled into the soil they defend-8,000 souls since 2001, 500 more in 2023 alone-their sacrifice a testament to valour. Yet, the civilian leadership’s promise to revive the National Action Plan (NAP) remains a script read aloud but never staged: 12 of 20 points ignored, deradicalisation sidelined, and banned groups rebranded under new aliases. While soldiers clear trenches, the state’s inertia clears paths for terror’s return.
Numbers do not lie. The military cleared 90% of former FATA post-2014, yet terrorism resurges like monsoon floods. Why? Because the civilian apparatus refuses to build dams. The 380 security personnel martyred in 2023 underscore a crisis metastasising beyond kinetic solutions. The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), the supposed nerve centre of counterterrorism, languishes with 80% of its posts vacant. Meanwhile, Punjab’s counterterrorism courts manage a mere 15% conviction rate: justice delayed, justice mocked. Instead of enforcing the NAP, the state offers hollow theatrics: proscribed outfits operate freely, their leaders hosted on primetime TV, while the civilian apparatus dithers. Balochistan’s torment epitomises this hypocrisy. The province remains a tinderbox, with over half of CPEC projects delayed due to bureaucratic inertia, even as youth alienation metastasises into militancy. The 18th Amendment’s devolution pledge gathers dust while lawmakers squander Rs95 billion on VIP protocols. Islamabad’s myopia ignores that terrorism thrives where hope dies: 60% of Baloch youth lack access to vocational training, yet the state offers bullets, not books.
The economy, too, bleeds from this duality. Terrorism has cost Pakistan $150 billion since 2001, yet the civilian elite treat economic revival as a slogan, not a strategy. Critical reforms, including police modernisation, judicial overhauls (2.2 million case backlog), and madrassa regulation (35,000+ operate unchecked), are shelved for petty politics. The military may dismantle all the terror camps it can find, but our state’s failure to dismantle the ecosystem means every dead militant is replaced by three recruits.
To the civilian leadership: Your soldiers have paid the price. Now, pay the debt. Fast-track courts. Audit hate-spewing madrassas. Cut the nexus between militia and cross-border facilitators. Redirect VIP billions to fortify schools in South Waziristan and hospitals in Balochistan. Terrorism isn’t defeated by F-16s alone but by a state that bridges its fault lines. *