Once routinely in the news for all the wrong reasons, Pakistan is now a much safer place than it used to be.

The South Asian nation has seen a reduction in terrorist attacks on home soil by 86% since 2013, and between 2019 and 2020 alone there was a 45% fall.

The promising stats continue for one of the few countries to have met the UN Sustainable Development Goal for protected marine and terrestrial ecosystems, as law enforcement averted more than 50% of all terror threats last year, and suicide bombings have become practically non-existent since 2009—falling 97%.

Pakistan's armed forces spokesperson, Major General Babar Iftikhar, highlighted border security along Afghanistan, and major improvements in the security infrastructure in Karachi.

In fact, terror incidents, including targeted killings and kidnappings in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi, had reduced by more than 98%. This has led to a staggering improvement of the city's ranking on the World Crime Index: from sixth highest back in 2014, to now being 108th, just next to Spokane, Washington.

The crime index is a highly curated scoring system based on resident or visitor submissions, which has benefits over government data in some ways.

Bordering two frequently dangerous Afghan provinces, Helmand and Kandahar, the province of Balochistan was a frequent haunt of militants before the Pakistan military took steps to clear terrorist infrastructure and organizations in the southwest.

"The challenges that we overcame have now paved the way for great opportunities," Maj. General Iftikhar said, according to Gulf News. "At least 199 development projects worth [$3.75 billion] have been launched in Balochistan covering health, education, agriculture, and infrastructure sectors."

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