The present government has managed, despite apparently the best intentions, to show that it does not really care about the resurgence of terrorism in the country. It is not really the sole stakeholder to be blamed, because the opposition PTI is also busier playing politics over an issue that affects the entire nation. That an All Parties Conference has been called by the government on the issue is a preliminary step, barely an acknowledgement that the country is faced with problems that cannot be solved by the party or parties alone. It is also an acknowledgement that Parliament cannot speak for the nation as a whole, because one component, the PTI, has resigned from it. It might be remembered that, at the time of the 2014 Army Public School massacre, the last time an All Parties Conference was called by the government, the PTI, then a component in the opposition, had also withdrawn from Parliament. In 2014, on the other hand, when the government wanted to get everyone on board for the Salala incident (when US gunship helicopters had shot up a Pakistani border post, as no one was sitting out of Parliament, the government did not have to resort to the APC mechanism, but merely called a joint session Parliament to express the will of the nation.
However, while by calling an APC, the government is accepting that the problem is now too big for it to handle on its own, its postponements to accommodate the schedule of key officials, belittles it. First the COAS, who was one of the briefers, and who could probably be substituted by another officer, had to make a pre-scheduled visit to the UK. Now the Prime Minister finds it necessary to go to Syria and Turkey to express condolences. It has to be acknowledged that the tragedy is immense, but also that Turkey’s President Recip Tayyip Erdogan visited Pakistan after the catastrophic 2014 floods, yet it also has to acknowleged that Pakistan is itself still reeling from the January 30 attack, and the APC on it should be his priority, more so because there is no one else who can substitute for him.
Apart from the need for individuals to realize that the APC must top their list of priorities, parties must realize that it is possible to attend the APC while sticking to their political stance. While the terrorism issue, and even that of the economic quagmire, are issues of governance, and thus of governance, they are too big to be handled by the normal tactics of partisan politics, and demand a show of national unity that might run contrary to the divisions that rive the polity today. History will not forgive those who insist on narrow political ends.
