To say that the present conflict in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province is bloody is an understatement. While more than a thousand have been killed, there are at least 2 million people displaced.

All these sacrifices will be for naught if Pakistan does not restrategize its ambitions in Afghanistan and Indian Kashmir. The country also has to reform its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that has earned the reputation of being a double-dealing two-edged sword. Also, Pakistan should exert efforts in overhauling its educational system that promotes hatred towards non-Muslims.

In other words, Pakistan should stop existing in the service of religion while being a political entity, even if it’s the only nation on earth that was created solely out of religious reasons. The consequences are dire. Pakistan, today, is known as the heartland of terrorism that is associated with religious fanaticism. It has been harboring a conducive and fertile ground for radical Islam to be elevated to the heights of ideology.

The intense conflict in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier will only be an exercise in futility if it does not serve as a springboard for transformation in Pakistan. Should the country rise above its personal tragedy and prove to the world that it can shun radicalism on its grounds, it would be sending off a most crucial message to the rest of the Islamist-addled world: that militant Muslims will not prosper for long if populations reject them.

Should Pakistan fail in this current campaign against militant Muslims, there is more than the possibility of nuclear armaments falling in the hands of the Taliban. There is the much-feared about morale boost among radical Islamists that have been forming contingents in other parts of the world, from Somalia to Sumatra, even to the UK.

Image

Via Forbes