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It is quite certain that a decade earlier, when international organizations were still relatively enthusiastic about investing in Pakistan, they had never expected terrorism to become as huge a concern as it apparently is today.

The recent attacks on local telecom operators proved them very obviously wrong. The cold-blooded way in which some employees at one of the local franchise centers of Telenor, a leading telecom operator in Pakistan, were killed, proves that. It also goes a very long way towards showing you how terrorism can, and already is, affecting businesses in Pakistan.

Already considered a hub of terrorism and with a huge reputation to back up that image, acts such as the attack against the Telenor employees, at their franchises also, as well as similar, previous attacks at other Telco franchises across the country will definitely put off international investors. Not only that, it also goes a long way towards making the business environment in the country, and more especially from the ‘foreign investors’ point of view, not conducive to further investments. And this is where, and how, we wrong not just our economy, but also our own selves.

The attacks were allegedly by one of Pakistan’s homegrown militant organizations, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or the TTP as they are more popularly called. The attack was again allegedly, part of a plan by the said organization to scare the Telco Company into giving the organization an “extortion” fee. But aside from the cold-bloodedness of it, what was so wrong in the attack was how it affects the already weak economy of the country.

In a time when the global economic meltdown has affected Pakistan’s own businesses, the telecom sector was one which had proved its resilience and provided relief to an otherwise bleak picture. Even as early as 5 years ago, the Business Monitor International, BMI, had ranked Pakistan as a key destination, at least for telecom growth. This report, posted online then, spoke of how the ranking implied that the investment environment in Pakistan had improved to the point where it was actually better than many other countries in the region.

It stated “The BMI ranking study states that as a result of foreign investments, growth potential and good deregulation policies by PTA, the telecom industry in Pakistan has grown tremendously. A few months ago Pakistan was lagging behind Thailand but due to the political fallout of the coup in Thailand, Pakistan has move ahead in rankings. The BMI rankings take into account a number of factors including industry situation, growth potential, competitive landscape and economy and political risks etc. Therefore this ranking implies that the investment environment in Pakistan has improved to the point where it is better than many other countries in the region.” Well the political and terrorism risks in that regard have definitely increased over the years until they have now become a very real threat, excessively detrimental to the growth of this vertical.

Another report, this time by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, PTA, in 2004, spoke of this potential. Between June to December 2003 alone, the number of mobile phone subscribers in the country had increased by an amazing one million. A more recent blog stated that “according to a report issued by Websiteoptimization.com, Serbia leads the world in broadband subscriber growth with a staggering figure of 68% annual growth from Q1 2010 to Q1 2011. However, Pakistan is not far behind as we lie in 4th place behind Thailand & Belarus.” The same report also stated that the United States lies in 78th place with an annual growth rate of 5.7%.

But those rankings could only be improved upon if Pakistan continued to give interested investors, in this case the telecom operators we were talking about a safe environment in which to operate. So far unfortunately, it does not seem as though the government is making much headway in that regard. The scenario is not new either. Remember KFC and Mc Donalds. Those fast food outlets are still around. Happily for us, they continue to function, invest in the country and help provide employment to our people. But there was a time when, every time there was even a hint of trouble, one or the other of the outlets of these fast food chains would be vandalized or burnt down. Thankfully that is now at an end.

The government has tried to, obviously, “do their bit” by catching a number of people allegedly involved in the attacks, along with at least one person who was charged with having ‘headed’ these attacks. That was back in January, the last time one of these attacks took place. And yet, we have a repeat performance. We are already a third world country with a number of crisis’ including unemployment. The telecom sector is one of the few that actually helps create some jobs, and foreign investors are one of the biggest players in the field. Couldn’t we try just a little harder to give them a safer environment to work in instead of trying to chase them away?

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