THE bakery incident involving Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s daughter and son-in-law, if anything, reflects the sick and decadent mindset of the ruling elite and their beliefs that they are above the law.

This is what happens when political power is handed over to children, as if it is a hereditary family asset, which would automatically transfer to next of kin like it does in a monarchy.

We have witnessed how the so-called will of a politician was used to assume political office in Pakistan.

Perks of power being abused by family members of elected public office-holders or paid bureaucracy has become a norm in this country.

This should not happen in a constitutional democracy, but it has been happening for past 60 years and things are getting worse now. Those in power, measure their status with the ease and frequency with which laws are circumvented and made slave to their whims. No where else in the civilised world will we witness this malaise of the VVIP syndrome than in the Third World where corruption is rampant and individuals matter instead of laws.

In a democracy, no citizen is above the law. It is the rule of laws, not of men. The law-enforcement agencies, it seems, are there not to protect common citizens, but satisfy the ego of the elite, protect them from prosecution and appease them, irrespective of what the law states.

Why should police escorts be available to sons and daughters of chief ministers, federal ministers, governors, paid khaki and civil bureaucrats, most of whom do not even pay taxes?

M. ALI United States