Abstract
Terrorism continues to challenge stability of various states across the world including Pakistan. In many modern and especially democratic states, police plays a critical role in fighting terrorism, but Pakistan’s police has not been empowered and resourced to fight against terrorists. Capacity of police in this arena is a major issue. States affected by terrorism have constructed counter terrorism policies to eliminate terrorism but Pakistan took quite a while to formulate its first National Internal Security Policy (NISP). Now, as it has been formulated, it is a remarkable achievement for Pakistan in terms of a clear roadmap to counter terrorism. However, it has strangely ignored to define role of police in this sphere. This paper discusses in detail that without an effective policing, countering terrorism may not be possible. Two variables which have been used in paper are absence of political will for countering terrorism, and lack of capacity building of police. Absence of these two ideas has prolonged war against terrorism which has resulted in huge loss in terms of property and lives of people. Political will is to be achieved by generating consensus among national political leadership. For capacity building of police, huge amount of funds are also required and political elite will have to think beyond traditional use of police.