According to a survey released recently by Foreign Policy magazine and Fund for Peace, an independent research organisation based in Washington, Pakistan is among the world's top ten most dysfunctional countries. It is heart-breaking to see Pakistan lined up with Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Chad, Iraq, Congo, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast and Central African Republic. Just look at the present grim picture of Pakistan; trapped in internal & external debt, we face problems like extreme poverty on one hand and threat of the American invasion on the other. Pakistani rulers should defuse these threats on urgent basis so that Pakistan can acquire a dignified status in the international community. -M.U. MALIK, via e-mail, July 24.