The decades long bloodshed and destruction in Afghanistan now envelops Pakistan. From Lahore to Karachi to Peshawar the carnage increases. Home grown jihadi groups, with links to various intelligence agencies, set up to fight against India in Kashmir, have turned inward. After one such attack which killed more than 50 in northwest Pakistan, the Taliban claimed responsibility and declared, "Our war is to enforce sharia, Islamic law, and anyone who hinders our way or sides with America will meet the same fate." Washington carries out countless drone bombings and its special forces operate inside Pakistan. The regime in Islamabad is despised by most Pakistanis as being corrupt and not providing basic services.

Pervez Hoodbhoy is professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. He writes and lectures on South Asian issues. He appears on major news programs in Pakistan and around the world.