Nations develop and people with varied ethnicity and faith integrate so that the national interest is served. Young men and women lay down their lives, while philanthropists donate billions to serve people, while politicians strive to protect the common man, whose collective welfare and security translates into what is termed national interest. In Pakistan, unfortunately national interest has become an excuse to deny the nation and its people of very fundamental rights and privileges the state and its institutions are required to provide. Zia and Musharraf violated the constitution and bargained the sovereignty of this country in the national interest. On 12 May 2007, Musharraf unleashed upon innocent citizens of Karachi his armed thugs to prevent the constitutional Chief Justice of Pakistan to enter Karachi. Akbar Bughti was ruthlessly murdered under the garb of much abused term national security. Land belonging to peasants, orphans and widows is being forcibly occupied to provide subsidised housing and real estate for paid servants and land mafia tycoons by our ruling elite, who are supposed to serve these very people. National assets and institutions like Steel Mills, Railways, PIA, OGRA, NHA, NICL etc have been handed over by those elected as custodians of national interest, to most incompetent and corrupt of men. It is bonanza time for land mafia tycoons, robbers and killers, because state feels no obligation to serve people. The sole priority for those elected in the name of democracy is power politics, even if this means forming a coalition with murderers, kidnappers and those who feel no shame in pledging loyalty to foreign countries when they take the oath to get their passport. Two political parties resigned from their ministerial slots in the national interest, presumably to protest against the rising unemployment and massive inflation which has resulted from a self created electricity and power shortage, by vested interests in power, who are assured that there will never be any accountability. This was no more than an excuse to hike their wages and all of this, including the leaving and joining was done for what they claim to be their distorted version of national interest. The most prominent political players in this organized plunder of Pakistan, have all their assets abroad and by coincidence hailed from Gujrat, Multan, Karachi and Nawabshah. The plunder of this nation has become so loud and acute that those who have pledged their undivided loyalty by refusing to acquire foreign nationalities feel insecure and threatened. TARIQ ALI MALIK, Lahore, October11.