The Pakistani community in New York is deeply saddened by deteriorating security situation in their country and the questionable conduct of its civilian and military leadership to deal with the worst crisis in its history.

The May 21st attack by militants on Mehran Naval Base in southern city of Karachi, in which terrorists destroyed two U.S.-supplied P3C reconnaissance planes, has shattered the confidence of the Pakistani-American community in the security forces' ability to control the situation.

Many Pakistani Americans fear that the time to save their country from a major disaster is slipping away. In separate interviews with Urdu Times, done in person and over the phone, members of the community said Pakistan's future would be bleak if its military institutions were not brought under civilian control and governance not improved by controlling the rampant corruption.

Pakistan has seen a destabilizing wave of terrorism in recent years. President Asif Ali Zardari says the country has lost 30,000 of its citizens and close to 5,000 soldiers in its war against terrorism since 9/11.

"Terrorism poses an existential threat to Pakistan," said Malik Nadeem Abid, an executive with a health insurance company. He advised the Pakistani rulers to crush the scourge of terrorism with an iron hand.

Malik Amjad Nawaz, a community activist who supports the Muslim League faction of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, accused Pakistan's secret agencies of failing to protect the citizens against terrorist attacks largely because they were involved in what he called political wheeling and dealing.

Baza Roohi, president of Pakistani American Minorities Council for Women, feared that Pakistan may not exist in world's 2012 atlas. "God forbid it does not happen, but the prevailing situation is leading us to that conclusion," she told Urdu Times over telephone from her accountancy office in Brooklyn.

Mohammad Boota, a Coney Island, Brooklyn-based Pakistani folk musician, who doesn't hide his deep anxiety at the evolving situation in Pakistan, also blamed the country's secret agencies, saying they had simply become helpless in front of terrorism.

Community activist Dr. Kamal Zafar demanded full scrutiny of the country's powerful military establishment, which he said had always exempted itself from accountability, like in the case of Pakistan's break-up in 1971 or the Kargil crisis (when Pakistan and India came close to an all-out war in 1999). "The naval base attack is a huge security failure and has left us in deep anxiety about the country's future." He said one could not expect an improvement in the alarming security situation unless security agencies and institutions were held accountable for their incompetence.

Hameem Shah, a business owner in Brooklyn, said Pakistan's internal situation was impacting his business in New York as people were hesitant to do business with him and other people of Pakistani origin. He said many Pakistani businessmen in New York had started identifying themselves as Indians to gain more credibility in business deals. Mr. Shah also complained against "propaganda" in the mainstream American media against Pakistan, which was also leading to harassment in schools of their children by class fellows.

Community activist Chaudhary Afzal Gulbahar believed that military, the last strong institution in Pakistan, was becoming weaker.

Father Ilyas Gill, a community activist representing Pakistan's Christian minority, said Islamabad needed to make serious efforts to correct the situation which, he thought, had turned alarming after reports that terrorists might have infiltrated its most sensitive institutions.

Ali Akbar Mirza, another known community activist who is currently visiting Pakistan, told this correspondent over the phone that a popular perception was taking root in Pakistan about the military's inability to defend the country against external and internal threats after the embarrassing security breaches in Abbottabad (where Osama Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. military operation) and Karachi (site of a naval base attack).

Zahid Ali Syed, Nassau County's human rights commissioner who is also of Pakistan origin, expressed his disappointment at the helplessness of a country as strong as Pakistan in the face of terrorism and lawlessness. He said Pakistan could progress well only by investing more in education, health and creation of new job opportunities for its people. To him, this was the only way to calm down the rising popular discontent and frustration.

A leading Muslim scholar Allama Shahbaz Ahmad Chishti, who described the performance of Pakistani military "surprisingly" unimpressive, sounded upbeat despite huge challenges to its security, that Pakistan would come out of the crisis unharmed.

Sania Khan, Chair at Global Initiatives & Development Association, New York, said the Pakistani-American youth was deeply worried about the country's future and longed for a youth-lead revolution in that country which could cleanse the system.

Noted writer Dr. Maqsood Jaffery said despite all odds, Pakistani Americans wanted strong bonds of friendship between Washington and Islamabad. He called for strengthening democracy in Pakistan, which he felt was the most powerful defense against terrorism.

Attorney Inayat Sheikh called for tough measures against terrorism and public hanging of terrorists who had slaughtered thousands of innocent Pakistanis. He expressed his dismay that while terrorists were killing innocent civilians, the Pakistani government failed to decide if this is Pakistan's war or Americans'. He said not much time was available to save Pakistan from a huge disaster.