THE murderous attack on Hamid Mir, one of Pakistan’s most recognisable faces in the TV news industry, may have been shocking, but is anyone truly surprised? The media is specifically under threat and the spate of attacks culminating with the one in Karachi on Saturday against Mr Mir may only be the beginning.

Across the media, there is a growing fear that something truly dreadful and on a spectacular scale may be in the offing. And what is the government’s response? Verbal condemnations and an emergency meeting convened by the prime minister yesterday at which it was decided to form a judicial commission to investigate the attack. That, as the many commissions that have come before it are a testament to, is the government effectively saying there’s nothing it can do.

But there is much that the government can do. It could, for example, take a hard line with the group that directly, routinely and openly threatens the media: the outlawed TTP, the very group with which the government is negotiating.

At the very least, the TTP could be asked to take back its fatwa against sections of the media. The TTP could also, as part of the dialogue process, be asked to explicitly renounce violence against the media. Yet, a judicial commission whose report may never see the light of day if it ventures too close to uncomfortable facts is all the government has to offer.

There is also silence in another difficult area that became the focus in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Mr Mir: the role of Pakistan’s military-run intelligence agencies. While many of the accusations were emotional and bereft of hard information, there is a wider point to consider.

Instantaneous denials via the ISPR are never followed up with what should be the next step: finding the actual culprits. Who killed Saleem Shahzad, for example? All that is publicly known is who denied having anything to do with his death. Is it any surprise then that in moments of emotion, the same set of accusations is repeated? Unless such cases are investigated and the culprits brought to book, fingers will always be pointed at those whose duty it is, in fact, to provide protection to media personnel and other citizens.