Daily Times Editorials 3rd August 2026

Another Blast

Isn’t it downright ironic that a suicide bomber managed to tear through a protest demonstration in Swat gathered to demand peace from the very militants who have returned apprehension to Swat?

They were chanting against terrorism when a man trying to enter the compound was stopped and searched by policemen. He detonated his explosives at the gate, killing at least 14 people and injuring 20.

The intervention at the entrance may have prevented a breach of the police station and a still greater catastrophe. It cannot lessen the horror visited upon families who had to carry their dead home from a rally for peace.

That is the news Kabal carries. This catastrophic war on Pakistan was never confined to ambushes on lonely roads or attacks on distant checkposts. By striking at every possible sight of public life, those perpetually hungry for blood are sending a clear message far and wide: they have both the capacity and the intent to challenge the state’s writ on every possible front.Accidents & Disasters

A peace rally in Swat was a direct repudiation of such outfits’ (especially Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) claim to speak for the people, to represent religious sentiment or to possess any social constituency beyond fear. The men at Kabal had assembled to say as much. Sadly, the bomber answered in the only language available to outfits that have nothing to offer the people except death.

It is equally significant that the attack came as if to conclude a deadly week in Swat. An Elite Force constable was martyred during an operation in Matta on Tuesday, where militants had reportedly taken refuge in a house and used residents as shields. The following day, another policeman and village defence committee members lost their lives, as six militants were killed in joint operations in Matta and Kabal. July’s security figures give this pattern its grim scale. Some 112 security personnel were among 205 people killed during the month, while 401 terrorists were eliminated in counterterrorism operations. In the first seven months of 2026, terrorism and counterterrorism operations have caused 2,786 deaths, including 434 security personnel, 463 civilians and 32 peace committee members. The cost is being borne by the army, the police, and communities that have already given too much.Language Resources

The army’s operations remain indispensable. Swat itself bears the memory of the campaign that broke the Taliban’s open rule and restored the possibility of normalcy in the valley. Yet military success requires political and administrative follow-through. The police must hold the ground, investigate networks, protect witnesses, and remain close enough to communities to cut through chaos and ensure rule of law. Those tasks become harder when provincial politics treats security as another occasion for point-scoring. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government cannot keep leaving the front line to policemen and soldiers while behaving as though governance were a side portfolio.

More Rains

The latest flood warnings issued by the country’s weather agency for low-lying areas of Islamabad and several cities, including but not limited to Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Hyderabad, and Tando Allahyar, have, for the umpteenth time, exposed a crippling infrastructural weakness that seems to be growing manifold with every new housing scheme or road. That even a season expected to bring less rain overall can still overwhelm a city when a heavy spell arrives within a few hours speaks volumes about Pakistan’s urban centres, which have tried every trick in the playbook to reduce their carrying capacity through years of poor decisions.

Every now and then, seminars are held to remind the authorities of the gross mishandling of the urban sprawl. For starters, we do not share credible data with city engineers, who need rainfall data measured by the hour, and sometimes by the minute, rather than assumptions inherited from plans drawn decades ago.

The expansion of concrete has altered the movement of water. Rainwater once spread across open ground, ponds, fields and wetlands. Much of that land is now paved. Since natural channels have been narrowed, diverted or built over (thanks to road levels, medians and underpasses often planned without studying how runoff will move through surrounding neighbourhoods), ordinary Pakistanis are reduced to sitting ducks every monsoon.Weather

The much-talked-about pre-monsoon desilting drive cannot compensate for weak waste collection throughout the year. A drain cleared in summers will soon choke again if garbage and construction debris continue to enter it. Similarly, dewatering pumps may shorten the time water stands on a road, but they cannot repair an undersized channel or restore a watercourse buried beneath concrete.

It goes without saying that responsibility is scattered across development authorities, water agencies, municipal bodies, provincial departments and disaster bodies. Each controls a part of the urban system. None is answerable for the whole drainage system. The result is often duplication during an emergency and blame after the water recedes. Local governments, which should handle street-level maintenance and enforcement, remain the weakest part of this arrangement.

The damage is also distributed unequally. Better-off households can raise entrances, install pumps and replace damaged possessions. A low-income family, when faced with similar circumstances, may lose a lifetime of savings in just one spell.Natural Disasters

At the risk of sounding repetitive, these pages urge the authorities to act against construction over waterways, including projects backed by influential developers. Informal settlements cannot be cleared selectively while larger encroachments are regularised or ignored. It can only be hoped that before the next monsoon, local authorities would be much better prepared, with transparent, credible information about housing schemes, drainage systems and overall infrastructure