Pakistan’s security ranking

When it comes to bad press, Pakistan possesses a milieu of negative stories. Every two years, the World Economic Forum publishes the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report ranking approximately 140 economies in various categories, or ‘pillars’ as it refers to — that impact a country’s travel and tourism competitive index, upon which rankings are based. In the current report, Pakistan ranks 138 out of 141 countries in the safety and security pillar, which uses five indicators to assign rank. Those indicators, specific to violence and crime, are business costs of crime and violence, reliability of police services, business costs of terrorism, index of terrorism incidence, and homicide rates. Pakistan beats out only Yemen, Colombia and Nigeria in these five aspects and sits behind the US, which ranks at number 73 of 141, courtesy of its alarming rise in gun violence. Nonetheless, we have our own heavy ‘house cleaning’ to do.

Considering the indicators on which Pakistan’s ranking as the fourth-most dangerous country in the world is based, especially business costs of crime and violence and reliability of police services, the ranking is met with accolades for its precision. We are reminded of the billions of dollars’ worth of economic loss when Karachi was shut down due to strikes. Acknowledging that the country’s economy is on a rising trend, the stakes have been higher in recent times whenever a strike or rally is called or we experience a day of mourning. This brings us to the aspect of an inept police force that has failed to protect citizens. The force lacks ethics training as well as advanced training and tools to effectively execute its role. Police politicisation is also problematic whereas it is axiomatic that a police force must be impartial. While terrorism has been reduced, the government needs to develop better security infrastructure in response to this report, so that Pakistan’s business and tourism industries can flourish once again.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2016.

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