DAWN Editorials - 2nd August 2025

[zarnishhayat]

Going nowhere

THE Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway seems to be paved with broken promises and not much else. No matter how many times the authorities promise it is near completion, it stays right where it has been, that is, going nowhere. Recently, there has been another announcement that construction on the long-delayed M6 project will begin in April 2026. It sounds vaguely promising, but is not something that has never been heard before. For context, the project was conceived nearly a decade ago, with construction originally expected to begin in 2017. It did not. The project was formally inaugurated in December 2022, with assurances that the M6 would be completed within 30 months. It was not. It is no wonder that stakeholders are frustrated. Traders, lawmakers and weary travellers alike have called out the government for failing to prioritise the M6, with many rightly pointing to its importance for national connectivity, trade and public safety. Their pleas continue to fall on deaf ears.

Once billed as the final link in the Peshawar-Karachi corridor, the M6 has become emblematic of Pakistan’s inability to rationalise and prioritise development spending amidst difficult financial conditions. The project is certainly not a luxury. Delays have imposed real costs: longer travel times, higher freight charges and frequent accidents on the congested N5. They have also denied Sindh’s heartlands improved connectivity with the rest of the nation. It may be recalled that in April this year, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Communications had directed the National Highway Authority to treat the M6 as a top priority and to halt all other roadworks until it was finally underway. But no structured plan was disclosed, and from what the NHA chairman told a National Assembly panel on Thursday, a lot still remains up in the air. If the government is truly serious this time, it should at least publish a project schedule and clarify funding sources. It cannot build a motorway with words alone.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2025


USC’s closure

TO many, the closure of the state-owned utility stores highlights the failure of successive governments to reform what they believe could have been turned into an effective nationwide social safety net for low-income households. Created over half a century ago to shield the lower middle-class households from market volatility and provide them with a wide range of quality essential kitchen items at subsidised rates under one roof, the network had modernised the retail sector when Pakistani consumers were hardly aware of the concept of chain department stores and supermarkets. Yet these stores lost their utility soon due to massive mismanagement, corruption and embezzlement. For more than half their life, the utility stores represented the most fraught chapter in Pakistan’s public sector management. According to the latest finance ministry’s report, the Utility Stores Corporation had posted a loss of Rs4.1bn during the first six months of the last fiscal year, with cumulative losses rising to Rs15.5bn. This underscores the structural and operational challenges in the network’s management.

In recent years, there had been some talk of official plans to restructure the stores. But no meaningful progress was made. The demand for restructuring them was rooted in the widely held view that the government could use technology to digitise inventory and plug leakages, as well as tighten its oversight of the store network. However, the fact remained that it was unrealistic to expect any government, let alone one as fiscally overstretched and under-resourced as ours, to efficiently manage and run a vast retail operation of nearly 4,000 stores without incurring significant financial losses. Retail has turned into a fast-moving, competitive sector that demands management efficiency — a quality not typically associated with Pakistani bureaucracy. More crucially, the era of blanket, untargeted subsidies is over. With the government cleaning up its stable full of loss-making state-owned enterprises, it is important for it to stop sending across confused signals about the future of these white elephants as it did in the case of the USC. The decision to wind up the stores — as well as the push for the privatisation of PIA — represents a policy shift to get rid of a big financial burden on the budget. Yet despite repeated declarations, progress on this front remains very slow due to the absence of a clear-cut policy framework.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2025


TTP footholds

SINCE the Musharraf era — that is, for over two decades now — KP, particularly the ex-Fata region, has been a war zone, suffering from terrorist attacks, as well as the effects of repeated military campaigns.

Yet despite these operations, terrorist groups, particularly the banned TTP, have yet to be completely defeated. For example, in Tirah, local tribes have apparently asked TTP fighters to leave the region. As per reports, the militants said they would ‘consult’ their leadership in Afghanistan regarding their withdrawal from the area.

This shows how entrenched the terrorists are in parts of KP, besides highlighting the fact that the TTP command structure remains intact in Afghanistan. It is because of the continued militant presence in parts of KP that the military has yet again launched an operation in parts of Bajaur tribal district.


With the launch of Operation Sarbakaf, the local people once again find themselves caught in the crossfire between the terrorists and the military. Bajaur’s people had staged protests against the latest military campaign, with the tribal population saying they were not given advance warning of the operation and the related curfew. Fear of more death and displacement haunts them.

The PTI government in KP had initially criticised the campaign, but the chief minister, in an apparent U-turn, backed the action. However, the PTI continues to oppose military action in KP’s affected areas. The tribal people’s reservations about repeated operations are understandable, and there have been large demonstrations against both militancy and military campaigns after terrorism resurfaced in KP following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021. They rightly ask why terrorism has still not been eliminated after decades of counter-insurgency campaigns.

Perhaps the main issue with counterterrorism operations in KP is that while security forces have fought hard and given sacrifices — succeeding in the ‘clear and hold’ phases — the ‘build’ phase of CT campaigns has failed to deliver. For this, both the civilian and security leaderships are responsible; the former for not building the capacity of civilian LEAs, and the latter for not completely stopping infiltration attempts from Afghanistan.


However, during a meeting of the ‘Harden the State’ committee on Thursday, the PM discussed a multipronged strategy involving operations, legislation and public outreach to combat extremism. While the issue of terrorism must be taken up with Afghanistan, local responses should ensure that this time, CT actions are thorough, so that KP’s people do not suffer endlessly.

The state must establish its writ across the country, and there can be no fiefdoms where terrorists dominate. All points highlighted in the revised NAP need to be implemented, as kinetic action alone is not enough. Moreover, CT operations should ensure that there is minimum collateral damage and that terrorist groups such as the TTP are uprooted permanently.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2025