After a flurry of visits of top US security officials to the General Headquarters (GHQ) to meet Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif, it appears that Pakistan is set to join a soon to be announced military alliance against the global threat of the Islamic State (IS) called “Sahel to South Asia”. Pakistan is yet to take a formal decision about joining the alliance as consultations among “domestic stakeholders” are still ongoing. The spread of IS and its ideology and practices around the world is a grave concern, and the creeping incursions of IS inside the neighbouring Afghanistan should worry and alarm the aforementioned domestic stakeholders. The formulation of a global response to IS’s global threat is a welcome if belated step in curbing its advances since the anti-IS strategies of individual countries have been proved insufficient repeatedly. The threat of IS cannot be wished away, as the most troubling element of its expansion is the fact that the “concept” of IS travels very quickly and, as evidenced in Afghanistan, affiliated groups set up franchises themselves that replicate the original IS in methods and goals. The ideology of IS has immense popularity and the slogans on the walls and leaflets in favour of the organisation appearing in many cities of Pakistan should be a wakeup call to the authorities on the need to anticipate its potential rise in Pakistan. The Foreign Office (FO) has admitted this serious threat, but the Interior Ministry seems to be in denial. The Pakistani state should get on one page on the issue and not put out contradictory messages. To wait for establishing operational links of IS within Pakistan would be too late as any number of existing militant groups can pledge fealty to the leader of IS Abubakr al-Baghdadi and begin operating in an autonomous manner. Disgruntled Taliban commanders have already made a nascent South Asian chapter of IS called Khorasan and security officials have reportedly arrested a local recruiter for fighting in Syria. These details already hint at IS beginning to make its presence known in Pakistan, hence it is critical that the notion of joining the burgeoning military alliance is not shot down by conflicting domestic stakeholders. It is possible that joining in another military alliance with the US while tensions exist between the two countries and the appetite for taking part in a war against a new global terrorist threat would be deeply unpopular decisions on the political front. However, the need to put a stop to the brutal, genocidal actions of the IS from taking root in Pakistan outweighs any other concern, and the only way to achieve that goal is by a coordinated global effort with shared intelligence and resources. *