Conflict of interest

It is surprising that every year Nawaz Sharif chooses to spend the last few days of Ramazan in the holy cities of Makkah and Medina. This year he even celebrated Eid in Saudi Arabia. Not just the PML-N but the PPP and the MQM leadership too celebrated Eid abroad. But those politicians who were in the country considered it irrelevant to visit thousands of who have lost their loved ones in the war against terrorism.
There is no country – either to the east, to the west or to the north of Pakistan (with the exception of Afghanistan) – where the ruling elite and public office-holders either hold other nationalities or have chosen for their families and assets to be located abroad in some foreign land. It is equally shocking that almost every chief executive of the state-owned enterprises or key regulatory and financial institutions appointed by successive governments in the recent past is a dual national. This culture has caused not just massive flight of capital from the country but also institutionalised corruption, a booming criminal economy and brain drain from our country.
Ali M Tariq
Dubai
UAE