Once Field Martial Ayub Khan said on TV that the rumour factories are growing fast in this country. Now it seems, the whole of Pakistan has become a rumour factory. Wherever you go in public, you see people worriedly talking about marines coming to Pakistan. The Black Water mercenaries are coming. You hear about armed foreigners moving about in Peshawar and Islamabad and about three to four hundred houses that have been taken on rent in Islamabad to house these people. This, while the largest US embassy in the world is being built in Islamabad. We also hear of lacs of acres of lands being leased to Arab countries for cultivation. No word has come from our rulers on these issues. They are requested to tell the public something. At least tell us how much of truth, if any, is there in these rumors. If these rumours are wrong, they must be quashed immediately. -COL (Retd) R.M. AKHTAR, Lahore, via e-mail, September 5.