Recently, I came across a few reports from the South Asia Terrorism Portal which offered an account of all the terrorist activities in South Asia this year. My focus was Pakistan, of course.

The thing with good research is, in order to make sense of data, one needs to understand the setting in which it was extracted. For example, a solitary drop of water might mean nothing, but if we are in a desert, it means everything.

Similarly, the state of terrorism in 2015 tells a woeful tale of human casualties. Even a single casualty is one too many, but in Pakistan, this could also mean a sharp decline.

The collection of aforementioned reports sing a song of notable decline in terrorist-related incidents in the country; a song of tragedy, but one that seems to be fast approaching its final note.

To me, that sounds like good news, the kind I would want the international community to sing along to; my country is getting cleaner by the day.

Look through: Militant attacks declined in March

But before I could begin to feel comfortable with this newfound insight, I read an article that spoke of the same report, but devoid of context. That article sung an entirely different note, one of melancholy.

This brings me to our ubiquitous glass half-empty mindsets.

Why are we always so willingly myopic when it comes to good news in Pakistan?

Now, to keep perspective, let me state that I am not labouring under the delusion that everything is OK. In fact, google the phrase “what’s wrong with Pakistan” and you will be busy reading for months. We definitely cannot and should not, at any cost, ignore the harsh realities surrounding us.

However, why is it that we appear to almost ignore the country's positive developments with the same vehemence?

We acknowledge that our economy is not even in the neighbourhood of 'booming'. The last time we did well was back in 2006-2007, and even that wasn’t our peak.

So anytime we hear reports of anything going well, our first instinct is to offset it with news of things going horribly wrong; perhaps, stemming from the assumption that we need to be grounded in reality.

We are either a nation of perfectionists (I doubt that’s the case), or have blurred the line between cautious skepticism and pessimism so much that it has ceased to exist (my money’s on that one).

Here are some of the positives in recent history that you may or may not have known. I must urge here that we muffle our reflex of immediately countering with a human rights violation or some such.

According to both the IMF and the Pakistan Economic Survey, non-tax revenue has actually gone up this year. There is a visible increase in grants, and investment growth is the highest it’s been since 2006-2007 (though not quite there, yet).

Read on: Will Pakistan rejoin the emerging markets?

Pakistan’s investment growth opportunities are actually higher than Canada, Singapore, United States, Germany, Japan and Hong Kong.

Germany, Canada and USA are in the list simply for comparison; they are developed nations so of course, their investment growth will be limited – they don’t grow, they expand.

Yes, you can quote the same survey and tell me that inflation is also on the rise, but in light of what we are discussing, it is lower than what it was two years ago. It is bad, but there is still something good to salvage from it.

That said, let us talk about the evolving startup culture in Pakistan; a nation falling on hard times finds the finest opportunities in birthing and encouraging entrepreneurs.

This includes Nasa’s space apps challenge/hackathon in Islamabad and Skardu. Winners get to go to Nasa in Pasadena, CA. These are called opportunities, and they are growing.

At the academic level, Information and Communication Technologies Research & Development (ICT R&D) are offering to fund final-year projects for students enrolled in universities. Successful applicants will get regular stipends and funding for equipment and technology they might need.

Bloomberg even discussed the improving condition of Pakistan’s economy. This includes our credit rating, which might explain at least some part of China’s sudden interest in investing here.

Also read: Chinese president's visit to usher in new era of development: PM

We have international award-winning TV shows, movies that are starting to set new ground, a new wave of digital artists and young musicians creating a positive image of Pakistan across the world.

We finally took a stand on the Saudi-Yemen war. In fact, our own Zarb-e-Azb has started yielding results – not 100 per cent success, but success nonetheless.

I do not presume that these facts absolve us of our misfortunes. I do, however, know that we are not at the brink of annihilation as we keep convincing ourselves to be.

This situation reminds me of bad parents who constantly berate their children, comparing them to others who have done much more with far less. The parent is frustrated and ends up blurring the lines between constructive criticism and just plain old yelling. This approach only helps to create depressed and unconfident children.

If the analogy holds true, then we are being bad parents to our own country. Let's stop yelling.

Related:

• 'Also Pakistan' series
  
• A positive column on Pakistan
  
• Pakistan: Perceptions vs. reality