Soldiers from the Pakistani Northern Light Infantry regiment march during the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad on March 23, 2022. © Reuters
_Salman Rafi Sheikh is assistant professor of politics at the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lahore University of Management Sciences._
In 2024, Pakistan's security forces conducted 59,775 intelligence-based operations targeting Islamist militants and Baloch separatists. More than anything else, the scale of these operations not only indicates the military's control of national security but also its capability to impose a military solution on issues that could be resolved through political means or by strengthening civilian institutions, such as the Counterterrorism Department.