They say the worst democracy is better than any dictatorship. Perhaps this is what they used to say before the present government came into power in Islamabad. May be it was true before this too. This unfortunate country was dismembered when a military dictator, Yahya Khan, was in power although some say he lost half the country playing in the hands of those who were fighting for democracy back then. But look at the democracy we have today after four martial laws; never before have we had so many controversies and so many financial scams than we are witnessing today. This does not mean that the level of corruption today is more than what it was during the rule of Musharraf, or of Zia-ul-Haq-'more being too small a word to describe what we have here. The present system must reform itself from within, there being no other way. All political parties have to weed out themselves those from among their rank and file who are known to be corrupt. The irresponsible manner in which all political parties had awarded tickets is reflected in the number of people who eventually got disqualified from the Parliament on the charge of having fake degrees. Even a blue-eyed confidant of the President has a fake degree. No elected President or Prime Minister should use their discretion to give assignments to men found guilty of involvement in corruption or those who are not qualified to hold such assignments. Scams of billions of rupees have pushed all major state-owned corporations like Steel Mills, PIA, Pakistan Railways, NHA, OGRA, PSO, CAA, National Bank, NIC etc. on the verge of an imminent bankruptcy. The state, instead of spending on basic welfare of the most deprived sections of society, has sunk billions into these endless black-holes, often appointing the most incompetent, dubious and controversial persons to head these organisations. This must end now. The question is who would bell the cat? We have put vultures in a morgue full of corpses. -ABDUL GHAFOOR TANHA, Narowal, April 15.