MUCH to the shame of every decent Pakistani, the country's leadership continues to take Pakistan down the slippery slope of increasing corruption. Over sixty years have passed and instead of arresting the trend of corruption our successive rulers have made it worse with each passing decade. Transparency International (TI) has pinpointed the habitual handicaps we are afflicted with - from financial misdoings to lack of governance to a total absence of transparency. The TI report refers to the well-known scams and mismanagement in many public bodies like Pakistan Steel Mills, PSO, KESC, DHAs and so on. Nor are the land scams forgotten including unauthorised allotments by nazims and the well-known harassment by land mafias. The people continue to get oppressed while the elite continues to fatten up its ill-gotten resources. And no end seems in sight at all - in fact, as the TI report points out we are getting worse. Ironically, TI also points to the fact that the anti-corruption drive took a nosedive after Musharraf issued the NRO, just 56 days after the ratification of the UN Convention against corruption. Of course, Pakistanis do not need TI to point out to them the total lack of any accountability in this country. Every day living is replete with tales of bribery, nepotism and an absence of any governance. Nothing can be done in the normal course of things. Bribes must be paid and corners cut. The latter has often resulted in death and misery, especially when expired medicines are sold and rotten food finds its way to the poor. But no one in the state is bothered enough to hold anyone accountable. Environmental hazards are allowed to fester and environment protection laws lie gathering dust except in the odd case which becomes an exception. After all, from the bottom up, or the top down, whichever way one wants to call it, everyone seems to be "on the take". Commissions have become a way of life and we are probably one of the most capitalist-minded nation with everything available for a price. The nation has seen its bumper crops of wheat result in flour shortages and good sugar harvests disappear across the border as smuggled sugar, or as hoarded stocks of hidden sugar in anticipation of a deliberately created shortage to up the price of this commodity. The sugar barons have now proven they cannot be touched despite court decisions - such is their political prowess. After all, many of them are members of parliament. It is no wonder the ordinary person has effectively given up on the state and seeks to provide for himself. From education to health to security, people are learning to fend for themselves after having given up on the state. Corruption hurts the nation, not those who indulge in the crime itself and who, in most case, can simply close their briefcases and move out.