DAWN Editorials 1st January 2026

The year ahead

PAKISTAN enters 2026 with problems it is well aware of but has failed to resolve. Three alarm bells in particular are sounding off: resurgent terrorism, economic fragility, and a steady squeeze on fundamental rights.

None of these is new. What is new is the growing sense that the state is treating each as a problem to be managed, not solved, and that habit is becoming unaffordable.

Terrorism remains the most immediate danger. Suicide bombings on police and security installations in Bannu and North Waziristan, the deadly blast near Islamabad’s district courts, and continuing violence in Balochistan demonstrated the capacity of terrorist networks. These incidents showed how violence is no longer geographically contained, nor confined to symbolic targets.

Yet our counterterrorism efforts value force rather than reform. Policing capacity, prosecution, local governance and political engagement in conflict-affected districts remain weak. Unless these gaps are addressed, 2026 risks becoming another year in which attacks are condemned, investigations announced and root causes ignored.

The economy presents a slower-burning crisis. The sale of a majority stake in PIA was hailed as a major breakthrough after decades of delay. It also highlighted how rare decisive action has become. One transaction, however, cannot substitute for the harder work of broadening the tax net, fixing other loss-making state enterprises, and building credibility through predictable policy. Without that, 2026 risks repeating the cycle of short-term fixes, periodic external support, and long stretches of stagnation.

The more corrosive issue is the steady narrowing of civic space. Over the past year, prolonged internet shutdowns, restrictions on public assembly, pressure on journalists, and legal action against dissenting voices became routine. Media outlets faced censorship, digital platforms were blocked, and human rights organisations reported intimidation and administrative obstruction.

Such measures may silence criticism, but they also weaken accountability and deepen public mistrust, especially among younger citizens already sceptical of political institutions. A state that relies on control rather than consent reduces its own capacity to govern and invites the very instability it claims to prevent.

Institutions will therefore matter greatly in 2026. Parliament must reclaim its role as a forum for debate where laws are scrutinised before enforcement, not justified after the fact, and committees are allowed to function without pressure or haste. The judiciary must demonstrate consistency and independence, not selective urgency, by upholding due process without fear or favour.

Economic decisions need clarity, consistency and equal application if confidence is to return. Security policy, meanwhile, must rest on civilian authority rather than a permanent sense of emergency. And the executive must accept that order imposed through coercion is fragile and short-lived. The country has tried control time and again. It should now try governance.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2026

Climate resilience

THE Asian Development Bank’s latest climate resilience financing for Pakistan should reinforce the country’s efforts towards building longer-term resilience to protect its people and economy from the adverse impacts of climate change. The $180.5m funding for Sindh addresses one of the country’s most neglected climate frontiers along its coastal belt where recurrent flooding and sea intrusion have steadily eroded livelihoods, undermined food security and impacted biodiversity, forcing residents to migrate. By focusing on integrated water resource management, flood risk reduction and restoration of nature-based coastal defences, the project will embrace ecosystem-based solutions, benefiting over 3.8m people. The project will simultaneously focus on institutional strengthening and community-level strategic planning for durable impact and continuity. The $124m assistance for Punjab seeks to tackle a different structural problem. It will give small farmers access to climate-smart machinery, introduce circular agriculture practices to reduce residue burning, establish testing and training facilities and empower thousands of women to enhance farm productivity and climate resilience in 30 districts.

The ADB funding for these projects indicates growing realisation on the part of both international lenders and authorities here that climate change has emerged as one of the biggest economic and governance challenges — it is not merely an environmental issue — for a nation that has repeatedly been hit by devastating climate-induced disasters in the last couple of decades. Such projects are an investment in the country’s economic future and stability. That both projects have been structured in such a way that the provincial governments also chip in from their own resources on top of ADB financing, no matter how modest that contribution ($20m from Sindh and $5m from Punjab), will ensure their buy-in to the schemes. Their limited scale notwithstanding, the schemes underscore what needs to be pursued for climate adaptation and where money must be put for making communities climate resilient. They have rightly been described as ‘transformative’ for communities that stand to benefit. However, for these initiatives to have a durable impact, the authorities must ensure that the funds are spent prudently and transparently. Our development history is littered with well-funded projects that faltered midway due to weak execution, opacity and corruption. The challenge now is to ensure that the promise of climate finance is matched by institutional reform, transparency and sustained political commitment.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2026

Deadly drains

FROM Karachi, a familiar story: another child dead, swallowed by an uncovered manhole while playing. This Monday, eight-year-old Dilbar became the eighth child to die in an uncovered Karachi drain in the year 2025. Nineteen adults also suffered the same fate. When last a child had fallen into an uncovered manhole — just weeks earlier, in fact — there had been an outpouring of grief, as well as anger against Karachi’s civic authorities. Even then, those protesting were callously told not to ‘politicise’ the issue. This time, the Karachi mayor repeated the phrase in response to what he perceived as a needlessly hostile question. He should not have. The death of so many children to a very preventable cause is not something that can be easily overlooked or written off. There are many residents of the city who feel they have been condemned to live in misery due to the consistent failures of Karachi’s authorities. If nothing else, they deserve empathy.

A similar example from elsewhere in the country stands out. After a child similarly fell to his death in an open manhole in Lodhran the same month, the deputy commissioner of the district was ordered transferred. Both the contractor responsible for the open manhole and the senior sub-engineer of Lodhran’s district council were booked. The chief officer of the district council was surrendered to their parent department, with the recommendation that they be suspended. The provincial government announced an AI system that could use security cameras to identify civic issues like open manholes “to strengthen rapid response capabilities and advance smart city management”. In short, visible action was taken at multiple levels to iterate that the authorities cared that a life had been lost. This is close to the kind of response citizens expect and appreciate. Those responsible for people’s lives need to be empathetic and demonstrate how they intend to address public concerns, not isolate themselves from their criticism.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2026