I DON’T think there will be any significant outcome of the investigations into Panama leaks. Those involved look relaxed.

However, they forget there will be reckoning on the Day of Judgement. While they have been depriving the nation of millions of dollars, the masses lived in poverty without regular nutrition, basic living conditions, education and medical care. According to Islam, the rulers will be responsible for even a dog dying of thirst.

A naughty thought had come to mind — that it should be mandatory for every public office-holder to go live in the low-income housing communities in exactly the same conditions as the people there live. Preferably during summer months. No frills, no security. Perhaps then they’ll be jolted into the miserable reality that is the life of the masses.

I once saw a very profound statement written on the back of a rickshaw — kufan mein jaib nahin hoti. (There are no pockets in the burial shroud) — something for these people to remember.

Rifaat Jafari
Karachi

(2)

IN the civilised world, democracy needs democrats but in Pakistan it is our people in the corridors of power who are called democracy, fed on ill-gotten money.Iin the prevalent circumstances nothing will change because we have democracy of those who are not democrats in any manner, exceptions here and there.

Had the ‘Maaliks’ of this country been sincere with democracy, then even after decades democracy would not have remained only a form of government; it would have become a way of life with us.

Hashim Abro
Islamabad

(3)

CORRUPTION has globally tarnished the image of democracy, because corruption and democracy cannot coexist.

South African President Jacob Zuma is facing allegations of spending 123m dollars on his residential palace in the name of security and causing a huge loss to the state coffers. Brazilian president Dilma Rouseff is facing impeachment, and the charge-sheet consists of receiving a huge amount of bribe from the state oil giant. Furthermore, her detractors claimed that she used this money in her election campaign.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razzaq was accused of receiving $700m in his account and falsely claimed that he had received this amount from Saudi Arabia as a donation and is still facing the opposition’s massive protests.

And now the names of our prime minister’s children have been mentioned in the Panama papers, alleging that they own offshore companies.

This means graft allegations against elected leaders across the globe depict a gloomy picture of democracy -- an internationally recognised political system.

Safiullah Bhayo
Karachi

(4)

WHAT an irony to see billionaires reciting poetry of revolutionaries, men who travel only by chartered aircraft, living in palatial houses, shedding crocodile tears for those who do not have even a tent, to protect them from summer touching 43 C, with no clean drinking water to quench their thirst.

In this battle between beneficiaries of offshore account-holders, there will be many losers, prominent amongst them are poor people of Pakistan whose economy is being bled of its last drops of blood and the ever-expanding columns of unemployed masses, while the winners are Western economies which are being rejuvenated by a steady flow of finances from Third World countries like Pakistan.

Does it matter which political party they are affiliated with or whether they belong to civil or uniformed bureaucracy, or traders enjoying endless tax amnesty schemes, or they are members of religious parties excelling in exploiting faith for financial benefits etc? They all have one thing in common, which is they have no stakes in this country.

For them Pakistan is an ideal safe haven where they can operate without any fear and perhaps one of the few countries where individuals are free to transfer their tax-evaded incomes to foreign countries, because almost every state financial regulatory body, including the office of the Auditor-General, is headed and dominated by dual nationals.

Aneela Chandio
Sukkur

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016