Indeed a trait common in our leadership is its tendency to throw taxpayers money around at will. While Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik was in Karachi where he pulled off a publicity stunt by giving Rs 25,000 to a child for breaking his toy gun into pieces ostensibly as a mark of deweaponisation, Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif handed a cheque of one million to the widower of Rafi who was tortured to death by Ichra police a few days back. One wonders whether our leaders perform their duty of maintaining law and order rather than distributing public money as if it was their own. They would then no longer have to give hush money to victims of lawlessness. Our police have failed to provide protection to the public and as the extra-judicial killing of a jeweller in Ichra shows it is out on loot and plunder spree. Mr Rehman Malik must also realise that the money he gave to the boy belonged to the taxpayers who are literally going nuts because of the poor law and order situation, as their shops, houses and lives are in danger. Doling out money as compensation amounts to rubbing salt on their wounds. There should be a genuine focus on reforming the police department so that it becomes the guardian of the public in real sense of the term. And our leadership must play its due role in making that possible.