THE SCO’S COUNTER-TERRORISM FRAMEWORK: A VIABLE OPTION FOR PAKISTAN TO FIGHT TERRORISM?

This paper critically examines the viability of the counter-terrorism framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as a regional platform to fight security challenges of terrorism and militancy facing Pakistan. In light of the terrorist incidents and militant activities taking a surge in Pakistan in recent years, the research debates whether the security challenge can be met through a regional platform of SCO, the origin of which lay in fighting evils of terrorism, extremism and separatism. To assess the viability of SCO’s counter-terrorism framework as an additive, the paper employs a systematic analysis through available scholarly debate and primary data obtained through experts’ interviews and official reports. The analysis argues that cross-border terrorism and militancy not only require individual effort by the affected state but a regional-level collective stand against the menace. In this scenario, the SCO’s counter-terrorism framework provides the platform since SCO’s foundational principle addresses terrorism, and its membership constitutes states regional states from where terror groups emanate. By examining the SCO’s counter-terrorism framework and Pakistan’s security challenges, the paper concludes that the SCO has not evolved as a security-centric organisation to resolve cross-border terrorism affecting the region, and Pakistan.