IN an era where wars are fought as much through narratives as with guns, Pakistan confronts a dangerous convergence of foreign-backed propaganda and domestic political opportunism. At the centre of this vortex stands the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a group that claims to speak for Pashtuns while systematically undermining Pakistan’s security forces and along-side it, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), increasingly willing to leverage this destabilizing force for political mileage.

Pakistan’s counter-terrorism response is neither arbitrary nor vengeful. It is anchored in clear legal frameworks such as the Anti-Terrorism Act and the National Action Plan, empowered by the Constitution and guided by the moral obligation to save innocent lives. Operations are designed around precision intelligence, legal authorization and rules of engagement that pri-oritize civilian protection. Yet PTM routinely recasts these lawful and necessary measures as State “brutality,” flipping reality on its head and turning those who defend Pakistan into vil-lains in their scripted drama. This narrative........

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