Purse strings

Honesty in a country where corruption is rampant is a sure path to poverty. A lot of wealth necessary to participate in the big business of politics cannot be accumulated except through deceit. Politicians in our country seem to be under some kind of compulsion to accumulate wealth.

However, the game of ‘wealth for power, and power for wealth’ played by ruling families in the country has certainly put the survival of the state at stake. Our political theorists, professors and independent intellectuals owe it to the people of this country to work out a political system that can eliminate wealth as the decisive factor in an election victory. We need to break free from the shackles of a decadent political system that feeds on corruption.

Brig (r) Usman Shah

Rawalpindi