The Most Dangerous Nation in the World?

There were few citizens of Karachi who did not anticipate Benazir Bhutto’s return this month without trepidation. But we were lulled, perhaps, into a sense of security by loud talk of police protection forces, mobile jammer devices, armoured vehicles and the like. When the scenes of jubilation on October 18th gave way, late at night, to carnage and horror, shock reverberated through the country.

But do we really have any right to be surprised? If incidents of recent months have taught us anything, it is that political events in this country cannot take place without being marked by bloodshed and chaos. The government, the opposition parties, the rebel militants, the Taliban terrorists, all are locked in a deadly dance for domination, sidestepping and criss-crossing one another. Who can we point the finger at for this riot, that suicide attack? All we know for sure is that the price for this struggle is being paid by the ordinary citizens of Pakistan.

There was a time when denizens of Pakistan’s great cities considered themselves immune to the fallout from these power struggles. Fighting was something that took place in the tribal belts, the remote regions of the country. But growing numbers of militants have freely infiltrated the cities to bring their own particular brand of mayhem and murder to urban life. Today, a political upset may mean that I encounter a strike in my own area, a bomb explosion down the road, bodies on my way to the office.

Does this mean that we have become, as Newsweek recently claimed, the most dangerous nation in the world – worse even than Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan? Perhaps. It has certainly been proven that there is no refuge, no safe haven from the onslaught of extremism and terrorism in any part of the country, at any level.

Has ever a bleaker picture been painted for our nation?

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