FOR a nation as terrorised as Pakistan, it is an oddly complacent one. On Wednesday lawmakers from the PML-N and the Jamaat-i-Islami sought parliamentary debates on the execution of Shia pilgrims in Mastung. Sadly, this welcome move was also a reminder of how seldom terrorist attacks on innocent civilians receive as much attention from these and other mainstream political parties. Take just a handful of recent instances: a group of boys were kidnapped by the Taliban from Bajaur on Eid and remain missing, dozens of people attending the funeral of an anti-Taliban tribesman were blown up in Dir, children were shot dead in a school bus in Peshawar, and an eight-year-old and his mother were among the civilians killed in an attack on a law-enforcement official in Karachi. Even as the violence grows increasingly indiscriminate, government officials express formulaic condemnations while most major political parties remain silent unless asked to comment. When they do, they blame US imperialism and Pakistani government collusion with it, refusing to admit that Islamist militancy is being promoted as a jihadi ideo-logy. In a vicious cycle, even mainstream parties pander to an electorate whose mindset they themselves have helped pushed to the right by failing to take loud, firm stances against terrorism.

Nor has civil society played its role. Intense media coverage erupts when a high-profile personality is targeted, casualties are high or the nature of an attack is new or particularly disturbing. Once in a while there are protests, as in the case of the Mastung attack. But a day or two later all is forgotten, and until the next major incident NGOs, parents, journalists and other Pakistanis resign themselves to the carnage, carrying on with their lives until momentarily shaken up by an attack that hits too close to home.

Meanwhile, while it may be trying to fight terrorism on the law-enforcement and military fronts, the state seems not to have realised the need for an ideological war. This is an admittedly fuzzy concept, one that offers neither the clear-cut methods nor the tangible results of crime-fighting and brute force. Transforming mindsets and creating cultural change is a slow and difficult process. But it is every bit as important, if not more so, especially if there is to be a lasting change. Over the last 10 years, the Pakistani state has attempted to bribe, convince and attack terrorists into submission. What it has not tried to do is create a society — and hence a political system — that will not harbour them, swell their ranks or excuse or ignore their actions in the name of anti-Americanism.