If there were any doubts that Pakistan still remains vulnerable to terrorism, the past week has put an end to them.

Claims of responsibility for the carnage have come from quarters with which the public is wearyingly familiar.

However, whether attacks such as these are carried out by the TTP, the militant Islamic State group, Jamaatul Ahrar, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi or any of the other outfits that have left a trail of destruction in their wake, they all subscribe to an equally violent ideology and have a common objective: to destabilise this country and the region as a whole.

There is a clear difference between religio-political parties that engage with the processes of parliamentary democracy, and those that hold it in contempt and will ultimately undermine it.

Certainly, some extremist organisations have been banned, but radicalised elements espousing similar ideologies have been allowed ingress into the body politic through the back door.

It is not surprising that many ultra hard-line outfits stay silent in the face of such slaughter as we have witnessed last week and cannot bring themselves to condemn the groups involved.

Most of the 'regular' political parties have become well and truly complicit in co-opting extremist elements, with a proven capacity for violence, within their ranks.

But are they prepared to live with the inevitably dire consequences that will flow from their expediency?

Read the rest of Dawn's editorial from today here.