Those who kill innocent people are doomed to eternal punishment (25:68-69); "whosoever slays an innocent person...it is as if he had slain humanity altogether."(5:32) Holy Quran. The world watches us with anxiety and concern living as we are with almost daily suicidal attacks killing innocent people. All those killed in these ghastly attacks, civilian or security and police personnel are Pakistanis. No wonder, we are today the most "violent" and most "dangerous" nation on earth. We should be ashamed of this new notoriety of our society. Pakistan has become the "ground zero" of the War On Terror with a full-fledged military conflict going on in its tribal areas suspected of being a "terrorist sanctuary." There has been a huge collateral damage in this on-going operation. The biggest casualty, however, is Pakistan's own credibility. It has staked everything in this proxy war, and has killed hundreds of its own people, yet it is being blamed for "not doing enough." There seems to be no end to this "tragedy of errors" and incessant blame-game. Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai is playing the comic "farceur" to divert attention from his own statecraft deficiencies and to use Pakistan as a scapegoat for all his failures and limitations. India has joined him in accusing Pakistan for the latest suicide bombing outside the Indian embassy in Kabul killing more than 40 persons. Pakistan is an easy scapegoat these days. But the question as to who did it remains valid even for hundreds of suicide bombings within Pakistan killing by now more than a thousand innocent people, including Pakistan's former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. The world has been watching us with anxiety and concern as we continue to play the "mercenary" role and receiving billions of dollars without any sign of their utilisation for the wellbeing of the people. Our involvement in this campaign against terrorism complicates our tasks, both at home and at regional and global levels. Our sovereignty is being violated with impunity. Our freedom of action in our own interest is being questioned and undermined. We are accepting the responsibility for crimes we have not committed. But this is only one side of the problem. What is most worrisome at this juncture is that Pakistan is going through one of the most serious crises of its history. It is being weakened methodically by keeping it engaged on multiple external as well as domestic fronts. It is the only Muslim country with an on-going military operation against its own people in the name of the War On Terror. Pakistan came into being in the name of Islam and democracy. We see the essence of neither Islam nor democracy in our ethos or behaviour. Muslims are killing Muslims. Even mosques have not been spared as venues of cold-blooded killings. No wonder, Pakistan's name today instantly raises fear and concern. Our image problems have been exacerbated by unrelenting wave of terrorism and violence in the country. Those of us who belong to our first generation that saw and experienced the formative phase of Pakistan and its creation as a dream of its founding fathers are agonising at the thought of what Quaid-e-Azam had envisioned this country to be and where we actually stand today as a nation and as a state. Alas We as a nation have failed his vision. What happened? A broader mix of problems caused by bad governments, gross abuse of power, political ineptitude, frequent and protracted spells of military rule, institutional paralysis, constitutional violations, poor and corrupt governance and religious militancy have not only cost us our entire independent statehood, but also left us with a dismal record of our unending failures as a nation. Unsure of our future, we are still groping in the dark with one crisis after another and have yet to figure out a common sense of purpose and direction for ourselves as a nation. Unfortunately, we are never without a crisis. Since March last year, we are going through a constitutional and judicial crisis which has taken a huge toll in terms of irreparable damage to the independence of judiciary, constitutional integrity, and political and economic stability. Pakistan is today a laughing stock of the world. What ails Pakistan now, however, is not something new. We have seen this before. Only the faces have changed. It has been a constant struggle between power and polity since the very beginning of our independent statehood. Might seen wrong everywhere has always managed itself to be considered "right" in Pakistan. Ironically, in every instance, there was someone from the judiciary to provide a legal cover to this unconstitutional power play. In recent years, we are facing new challenges emerging from the new global situation. Grave crises and acute problems within our own region have proliferated in a manner that has not only made us the focus of world attention and anxiety but also forced us to make difficult choices in our perennial struggle for security and survival as an independent state. This dismal scenario never existed nine years ago when Pakistan under a civilian democratic leadership was emerging as a "responsible" nuclear power and negotiating issues of peace and security with India and the US as an equal partner and a major factor of "peace and stability" in the region. We were not fighting wars then and were in fact building peace in and around our region. The events of 9/11 represented a critical threshold in Pakistan's foreign policy. General Musharraf was among the first foreign leaders to have received a clarion call from Washington. "You're either with us or against us," was the message. Since then, Pakistan is once again a frontline state, and a pivotal partner of the United States in its War On Terror. As a battleground of this war, Pakistan could not escape the fall out of the crisis in the form of a heavy toll on its already volatile socio-economic environment as a result of protracted violence, instability, displacement, trade and production slowdown, export stagnation, investor hesitation, and concomitant law and order situation. The sum-total of Pakistan's post-9/11 foreign policy has been its new identity on the global radar screen as the "hotbed" of religious extremism and terrorism, and a country afflicted with an incorrigible culture of violence. A proxy war is being fought on our soil. We have brought Washington's anti-Taliban war into Pakistan placing our armed forces on the wrong side of the people. Our problems have been further complicated by the complex regional configuration with Americans sitting in Afghanistan, growing Indo-US nexus, India's strategic ascendancy in the region and its unprecedented influence in Afghanistan with serious nuisance potential against Pakistan. Pakistan has been "devalued" from being a major regional power now today finding itself bracketed with Afghanistan in terms of its outlook, role, needs and problems. It is time to rethink our combative approach and to wind down baneful domestic hostilities. Force used by any side will solve no problems. Grievances need to be addressed through political and economic means. Only a steady, measured and comprehensive approach encompassing political, developmental, humanitarian and human rights strategies that focus on the underlying disease rather than the symptoms would bring an enduring solution to this problem. It is also time to understand that terrorism is not all about individuals or about a neglected country or countryside wilderness. Nabbing or killing of few hundred individuals or changing the leadership in one or two countries will not bring an end to terrorism which in its deeper sense is an ugly manifestation of a mindset " a mindset rooted in a sense of despair and despondency. This mindset will not disappear through military operations. Use of military power within a state and against its own people has never been an acceptable norm. It is considered a recipe for intra-state implosions, a familiar scene in Africa. In our own country, we have had very bitter and tragic experiences in the past and must not repeat the same mistakes. We cannot afford any more 1971-like tragedies and national debacles. We must avoid reaching points of no return. Instead of always blaming "outsiders" for our domestic problems, we should have the courage to admit that there is something fundamentally wrong with our own governance patterns. Our foremost priority is to fix the fundamentals of our governance. The writer is a former foreign secretary and political analyst