WASHINGTON: Pakistan is fighting one of the largest inland wars on terrorism alone, says Senator Sherry Rehman.

`I don`t see anyone else stepping up to resource this battle, although this is hardly strategic justice,` she said at a seminar here at the School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University.

Senator Rehman, who is also a former Pakistani ambassador to the US said that after the bloodbath in Peshawar and Charsadda where students were targeted, the international community `cannot just watch as terrorists continue to kill` innocent Pakistanis.

Speaking on `Building Pakistan`s Peace and Security,` she said, `We are not laying the blame on other countries, nor do we get into finger-pointing about whose ungoverned spaces provide sanctuary for which high-value target` `But terrorism is now a global epidemic, and the international community needs to build a lasting multi-lateral coalition against it,` she said.

Ms Rehman said violent extremism was not something that could be containe d by `kinetic means alone. It must be addressed as a hearts-and-mind challenge`.

She said this meant facing up to the reality that had caused policy miscalculations both at home and abroad.

`Pakistan is now in a serious long-haul battle pitched between Jinnah`s Pakistan and Zia`s Pakistan,` said the PPP leader while pointing out that the mainstream Pakistan still `votes for Jinnah and his vision`.

`We do not vote in religious parties to the PM`s office, and we are now looking to reverse the extremism that has crept into society at the hands of a dictator we neither chose nor coddled, she said.

Her host, Dean Vali Nasr, who is also a former adviser to the US State Department, appreciated Pakistan parliament`s decision to stay out of the Middle East`s sectarian conflict.

Noting China`s enhanced role in the region which Ms Rehman saw as a net positive for economic stability, especially with the growing need for jobs in a large youth cohort.

`I hope a political settlement for Afghanistan is not just a bumper sticker, and that Pakistan will not be left with the fallout of this long war next door again,` she said.

She noted that 30 years ago the US-led coalition won the war in Afghanistan, but lost the peace.

`This time it looks like nobody is winning the war or the peace, which is unsettling for all stakeholders in inclusive, progressive societies,` she said.

Ms Rehman said Pakistan was not treating Afghanistan as its strategic backyard anymore, but its `refugee issue always becomes a niche conversation, while the rest of the globe closes its borders, we have kept our border and our cities open for all those ravaged by wars.