The government has opened many fronts and is fast losing ground more or less in every field. No one but it has itself to blame. Its wrong strategies, poor performance and flawed guidelines could not have led it anywhere else. The deteriorating law and order situation, limitless corruption, daily price hike, loadshedding, unemployment, target killings in Karachi and Quetta, poverty and dearth of timely justice have depressed the common man. Most surprisingly, the government has little time to worry about the people affected by floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh. Political crises or security threats can never be an excuse for leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the lurch. Fortunately, the Supreme Court has, in recent months, begun to find its own voice, thus redeeming itself in the eyes of the public. The Chief Justice and other judges of the superior courts took observers by surprise in many important cases of national interest that left a good impression of them, bringing hope for the nation. The political parties, on the other hand, failed to raise their voice against the prevailing situation of grave crises and still find themselves directionless over how to respond. The common man, burdened by a host of problems, is depressed and disappointed at the role of political parties. The benefits of whatever development that has taken place have unevenly spread, mostly accruing to the privileged classes. While the military generals have been guilty of repeatedly blocking the political process, the politicians have been guilty of treating their own electorates with contempt and of flagrant abuse of office; and the people of voting for the same incompetent and fraudulent candidates. It remains to be seen if we have learnt any lessons from the past. AMMAD ALI KHAN, Islamabad, September 29.