THIS is apropos of Engr Hussain's letter (Feb 20) and Shamyl Malik's letter (Feb 26).

The writers claim that Musharraf was an 'honest' and 'prudent' leader who led Pakistan out of the morass it was in.

Mr Musharraf had seized power unconstitutionally and hired technocrats answerable to no constituency who ran rampage with the economy, resulting in the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer and causing numerous crises the wheat crisis, the power crisis, the worsening of the situation in Balochistan, not to forget the judicial crisis.

And, of course, there was the nepotism of packing the courts with his chosen judiciary, muzzling the media when it started questioning his policies and dawdling with the likes of PML(Q) and other equally inept quasi-feudal political groups.

The icing on the cake was achieved with the infamous NRO which wiped the slate clean of all the crimes committed over the past 20 years.

All this just so that he could stay in power and cling to his seat and not to 'save' the country that he claims to love so much.

It's about time we rose above personality-based politics and concentrated on making our national institutions stronger.

Reliance on individuals, whether civilian or even worse, military, is never going to solve our problems.

SHAHRUKH RAJA
Warwick, UK