The morning after

Pakistan went to its collective bed with a smile on its face on the night of March 5, 2017. For a few hours a single cricket match was transformative. Tens of thousands filled the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore to watch a match that in truth was far from being a cricketing classic but scored off the scale for symbolism. Everything worked. From the security to the arrival of the parachutists to the match itself — everything worked. Even the police received plaudits for the way they handled fans and traffic management, and deservedly so. A thousand clichés were born but one will forever stand out — ‘Pakistan was the winner on the night’ — and it was.

The morning after the revels there is always a reckoning. Whilst the successful staging of a single cricket match is to be applauded, the fact remains that it could only be staged at a vast cost in terms of security — and the conditions that necessitated that security have not changed one iota. The country as a whole is no less prone and vulnerable to terrorist attack than it was in the days before the match, which is, whether the state likes it or not, a neon-sign example of how badly failed is the National Action Plan (NAP).

If there are to be other matches, an opening up to truly international competititon, then there has to be a broadening and deepening of the safe-security environment such that it does not require a vast army to secure the safety of a single game. Security incidents need to become the exception rather than an expectation.

What the match in Lahore signified was that a push-back is at least possible, however limited, but a pushback is not a developed counter-terror plan or narrative. That can and must be developed if there are to be more nights when the national smile accompanies us all to our beds. For now, a brief bask in some welcome light. Now get on with the heavy lifting.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2017.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.