THERE are moments when the obvious needs to be restated. Terrorism is a national threat, the gravest and most immediate danger to the safety and security of Pakistan.

Terrorism is not about one province. It is not about one political party. And it is certainly not for one institution alone to fight. Yet, all of those rather obvious realities appear to be lost on both the PML-N government and the army leadership.

Last week was an opportunity for the political and civilian leaderships to stand united and speak as one to the nation. Instead, disarray was witnessed and secret late-night meetings were held.

The nation knows little about what was discussed and even less about why it had to be a secret when Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan met Gen Raheel Sharif. All that is known is that the two have acted as intermediaries in the past when their boss, Nawaz Sharif, is locked in tension with the military leadership.

Yet, to focus on civil-military difference is to overlook the immediate threat: terrorism in Punjab, which Jamaatul Ahrar has vowed to continue and that other militant organisations in the province are surely looking to participate in.

To fight terrorism in Punjab effectively and urgently, both the military and the political class will have to cast aside narrow institutional interests.

With the military, it has become evident that it would rather do more than less, everywhere and in every domain. That is problematic. From military courts to extraordinary powers of arrest and detention to controlling the rehabilitation and reforms process, the military has crowded out the civilian side of the state.

While the marginalisation of the civilians is explained as an unfortunate necessity because of the need for speed and the lack of will and capacity among civilians, it has a pernicious effect. The militarisation of security policy will be to the long-term detriment of the fight against militancy.

But what of the political class as a whole and the PML-N in particular? Zarb-i-Azb and the National Action Plan injected no urgency in civilian counter-terrorism capacity building. Nacta was left to languish, legislative reforms were ignored and judicial overhaul left in limbo.

It is not just the federal government, but the provinces too that have been unable to come out of their myopia. Sindh and Khyber Pakthunkhwa are indifferent to policing reforms, while Balochistan is mired in fighting separatists.

Meanwhile, parliament is caught in legislative paralysis — a joint session to try and privatise PIA can be held, but no party wants to debate security policy or overhaul legislative codes. Bizarrely, the PML-N is set to review anti-terrorism rules at the behest of pro-Mumtaz Qadri protesters.

The military may be encroaching, but it is the civilians who are abdicating.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2016