ISAS Briefs

Pakistan is currently facing a serious political crisis. It has many dimensions – economic, political, and extremism inside and outside its western borders. It is the rise of extremism that poses an existential threat to the country. In fact, the Pakistani society is at war with itself with extremist elements challenging the writ of the state. To deal with the growing extremist threat will need progress on the economic and political fronts. That said, there is some expectation that history will not repeat itself with another military intervention that happened on several occasions in the past. Some counter forces – an independent media, a rising middle-class and civil society institutions – are likely to prevent the collapse of the Pakistani state.