THIS is apropos of your editorial ‘National shame’ (Dec 20). It is hard to disagree with what you have stated about the killings of anti-polio vaccine drop workers. They were doing a great service for the health and welfare of small children but were punished for doing this noble deed.

It is not only a national shame, but it is also a great national tragedy. First, it was destruction of schools for girls and the vicious attack on Malala. Now it is killings of social workers, who are working to protect the health and future of our children.

The biggest tragedy of our nation is that whatever can go wrong seems to be going wrong and, as correctly stated in the editorial, the people who are at the helm of affairs and can do something to try and correct things are not really bothered. We are facing terrorism, sectarian killings, targeted killings, security collapse, massive corruption and, above all, acute and unbearable shortages of basic necessities like power, natural gas and shelter for the common man.

Nothing is happening to improve the situation and it is a freefall. The national economy is fast collapsing. Our foreign reserves are at rock-bottom and we just cannot survive without the help of the IMF and other donor agencies and generous friends of which there is an acute shortage at present.

No leader thinks like John F. Kennedy’s who famously said: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.

ZAHEER AHMED    Islamabad