A state does not collapse when a militant seizes a police station. It begins to collapse when ordinary citizens stop believing the state can protect them. That is the uncomfortable question Maulana Fazlur Rehman has placed before Pakistan. Speaking in Parliament, the JUI-F chief described parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan where the state’s authority has, in his words, been severely weakened. His warning may be politically inconvenient, but the right response to an uncomfortable claim is not outrage. It is verification. If even part of his description reflects reality, Pakistan is confronting something deeper than another wave of terrorism. It is confronting the slow retreat of the state itself.

The broader security picture gives that warning added weight. In 2025, Pakistan recorded 1,045 terrorist incidents and 1,139 terrorism-related deaths, making it the world’s most terrorism-affected country in the 2026 Global Terrorism Index. The violence has intensified further in 2026, with KP and Balochistan remaining the principal theatres. These figures do not, by themselves, prove Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s claim about the weakening of state authority. But they reveal the environment in which that warning must be examined. The real question is no longer simply how many attacks Pakistan can withstand, but how far the state can still reach the citizen when violence becomes persistent and authority is repeatedly challenged.

Military force is indispensable when the state faces armed groups.........

© Pakistan Observer