It was about six years ago (The Nation November 8, 2005) that I expressed the view that 'politics was the dirtiest game being played around the world. Not only that many political movements in the world corroborated my view, the conduct and attitude of our present day political leaders have proved without any doubt the veracity of this statement. Although one can write a long thesis on the subject I will dwell on only three points which involve the peace, stability and prosperity of our dear Pakistan. (1) The ingredients of a political bomb exploded by Dr. Zulifqar Mirza. (2) While all the political parties condemned the MQM for their alleged collaboration in a plan to divide Pakistan, President Zardari has gone down on his knees to keep the MQM as a partner of the ruling clique. He is doing so to keep his majority intact in the government against the wishes of the people of Pakistan. (3) Consequent to Dr. Mirzas tirade some members of the PML-Q the coalition partners of President Zardari also expressed displeasure about the MQMs role. Fearing that they may not leave the government if the MQM joins in, the PPP top brass has offered a huge sum of Rs. 19 billion to the PML-Q parliamentarians under the garb of 'development funds. While doing so the ruling party totally ignored the devastation caused by the floods in the province of Sindh. The calamity resulted in loss of billions to crop and property also rendered millions of people homeless. The TV channels display highly pathetic scenes of displaced people lying in the open without food and shelter. The height of misery is such that there are even news of women giving birth to children in water. Under the circumstances when every penny is required to save the lives of people and to rehabilitate them back to their broken and submerged homes, where lies the justification for giving away such a huge amount to a political party? Saving what we have is more important than building anything new. If these funds are really meant for development projects, why they are being dished out to the parliamentarians of only one political party and not others and is the time right for it? This is what we call politics no value for human life. RAFI NASIM, Lahore, September16.