THE lack of focus on genuine national issues is deeply troubling. The people of Pakistan deserve better than to see their cities hijacked and their lives badly disrupted. The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) recently led a protest march towards Islamabad, the federal capital, when he should have been focu-ssing on the situation in Kurram in his own province where about 60 lives had been lost just days earlier till that time.

There is an urgent need to abandon confrontational politics so that one may have the time and the energy to set one’s priorities right. Ignoring the mounting tension in Kurram to raise a storm in Islamabad was not the ideal approach for a provincial chief minister.

The people desperately want to see the state’s presence in volatile Kurram to bridge the divide and heal the wounds. All political parties should resolve their differences through constructive means rather than by ruining lives and exhausting public resources in thoughtless power displays

It is high time we paused and reflected. Let our conscience guide us towards the practical solutions for our political and societal problems. The people of Pakistan can no longer afford to pay the price for the reckless ambitions of their leaders.

Qamer Soomro
Shikarpur

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2024