Pakistan, that exists today, is not the state visualized by Quaid-i-Azam, or Allama Iqbal, but a nation which has been hostage to negative remnants of the British Raj. It were these very negative factors which prompted Iskandar Mirza and Ayub Khan to tear apart the legacy of our founding fathers by imposing martial law, and negate the creation of a democratic welfare state which was the goal for creation of Pakistan. Today few powerful elite within uniformed and civil establishment, through years of manipulation have created such a mess, that their short term vested interests have become sole objective and in the process the state is on verge of perpetual collapse and disintegration. How else can this establishment, with its insatiable greed for acquiring assets through grants, explain their involvement in cutting deals with men and groups known for their lack of integrity, ethics or even their commitment to Pakistan?. The failings of our political system, concocted by this establishment, have made such a big mess, that today our vital national interests and economic viability has become a casualty, because of lack of accountability and a culture where corruption is no longer considered a crime against state. The British ruled India for over two centuries with aid of a group of brown sahebs, recruited in civil bureaucracy and an army that was raised to quell any movement that posed a challenge to the Raj. The colonial masters created a wedge between these recruits by housing them in separate colonies for civil servants and cantonments for paramilitary forces in all major urban and rural centres. It bought their loyalties through allotment of vast tracts of state owned lands and titles. Such separate colonies or allotment of state lands to paid servants of the state was only confined to the colonies that the British occupied, for no such system existed within UK itself, where they were trained to be servants of the state and the people, instead of being masters. It is time that the establishment must realise that they need to reform and let the rule of law prevail, otherwise Pakistan will become another banana republic. MALIK TARIQ ALI, Lahore, November 10.