Senator Raza Rabbanis opposition to privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills is only justified if he and his party are also seen to be vocal in opposing the appointment of corrupt cronies in PSM that have driven it to bankruptcy. If Senator Raza Rabbani is a socialist, he must understand that in socialist societies like China there is no tolerance for corruption. China today is a key economic world power where the state exercises strict regulatory control on all industry and maintains both administrative and financial discipline. Even as Beijing recently allowed some limited leeway to free-market economic system, it continued to maintain strict regulatory control over state and public sector businesses. The most pertinent example of their unforgiving response to corruption is a recent death sentence handed down to the male owner of a company producing milk containing melamine. His partner, a female, was sentenced to life imprisonment with fines exceeding $6 million. Compare this to Pakistan where the state has failed to punish those guilty of contaminating not just milk but virtually every other consumer items. The appointees to PSM, PIAC, PASCO, etc were all involved in plunder by design but nothing happened to them. Senator Rabbani cannot justify the systematic pilferage of taxpayers funds in these concerns. How does he explain the Rs 22 billion loss by PSM which was not due to any vagaries of market forces but a manufactured loss by design so that owners of Abbas Steel could reap a fabulous bonanza of profits? Why is Islamabad not too keen to punish Hamesh Khan and others involved in the Punjab Bank robbery? What about the 1,100 missing In-Flight Service trolleys, which have conveniently been declared lost by PIA. Over Rs 350 billion of the taxpayers money has gone down the drain every year funding the white elephants of state sector and another Rs 550 billion has been pilfered by the FBR while men like Rabbani feel satisfied because a few thousand cronies have been given employment in state sector in violation of merit in over-employed, loss-making corporations. The Rs 880 billion could have been used to provide education, healthcare and welfare to millions. -ANEELA CHANDIO, Sukkur, July 7.