Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has issued invitations to all major party heads to an All-Parties Conference on National Security to be held on July 12. Though the APC is to be addressed by Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz, who will put before it the national security policy to be presented to Parliament, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement, made while talking to newsmen on Sunday in Guangzhou, which he was visiting during his visit to China, that the whole nation would have to act against terrorism gives an extended dimension to the APC. It must not merely be an exercise in developing a consensus on the national security policy, as was originally intended, but to examine all the contours of national security, including how secure the ordinary citizen was. It is right that the military leadership will also be attending, and will brief the APC about the security situation. It has been encouraging that political leaders have all agreed to attend, to the extent that PTI chief Imran Khan has decided not to go abroad on that day, which shows that the concern about the state of national security is shared by all, but a precision about the agenda by the hosts would help the participants make the APC more meaningful. The fasting of Ramazan is not being made an excuse even by the religious political parties, which indicates an anxiety to deal with the subject.That the ordinary citizen must be kept in everybody's mind first and foremost, should be made clear by the gang war in Lyari, which has made thousands of families flee, some taking refuge in other areas of Karachi, others in coastal towns. According to press reports, some 30,000 people have migrated to coastal areas of Thatta and Badin districts. It would be shameful if the APC did not pay attention to their plight. Though this has nothing to do with extremism or militancy, the same cannot be said about the blast on Saturday night in Lahore’s Old Anarkali Food Street, and a national security policy must ensure the security of all citizens, as well as set the role and affix responsibility with the various institutions involved.While every APC has come at a crucial juncture, this one is important because of the immediacy and magnitude of the problem to be considered. Pakistan has spent more than a decade since 9/11 at the receiving end of the USA’s war on terror, whether because of the economic losses it has suffered, or in terms of the human loss, both of military personnel and civilians, to militants. Apart from anything else, it is more than time for Pakistan to put its house in order, and look after all its citizens.