WHILE the NFWP goes up in flames because of the military operation there, a traditional war is also playing out. There is no other report of any other traditional war breaking out, but sectarian ones are alive and well. Take for example the sectarian strife in the Kurram Agency, in the Parachinar area, where only on Thursday no less than 18 lives were lost in addition to about a score of injured. What Pakistan does not need at the moment is any sort of sectarian trouble, because it must focus its energies on the twin problems it faces, economic and that of extremism. The first problem it shares with everyone, the second only with some countries. In the second problem, any attempt to induce sectarian feeling or even to exploit old feeling, will only be counter-productive. Everyone should be familiar with the sectarian problem in Parachinar, where the Bangash tribe is divided by sectarian feeling, though this division had its origins not in sectarian feeling, but in a more mundane tribal division. However, while the traditional rivalry remains alive, now it has taken a sectarian colouring, under which all internal tribal fighting, and killing, occurs. Unfortunately, it can be spread into the rest of the country, and sectarian votaries can be given the incorrect impression that there is a sectarian problem at work. Pakistan is one of the rare examples of sectarian harmony in the Muslim world. The tensions in Parachinar can be exploited to bring this harmony to an end, and get Pakistan divided on sectarian lines, which it cannot afford. Federal Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, while addressing an Independence Day function in Peshawar, said that the government was facing an uprising in Matni and Swat. The government, whether at the centre, where Mr Bilour's ANP forms a part of government, or the province, where it rules, should take measures to ensure that no sectarian problem can be spread.