On our 62nd anniversary of existence as an independent state, we need to reflect and understand that we the people of this country have allowed the Quaid's legacy to be torn apart by corrupt adventurers in uniform or equally corrupt politicians. Pakistan was created by men of vision and integrity who wanted to give the people a modern, democratic welfare state where the constitution reigns supreme. The Quaid entrusted the Constituent Assembly to prepare a constitution on which the edifice of the state that he and Allama Iqbal had envisioned could be constructed upon. His untimely death left a void and a few ambitious politicians deliberately delayed the formulation of the constitution. It was Quaid's belief that no individual including himself had the right to prepare a constitution. He thought that this prime treatise of governance could only be prepared by the people's representatives. It is so sad that even after 62 years, people of this country fail to understand that the constitution is a very sacrosanct document because all the institutions of the state derive their power from it and everybody, including the executive, the parliament, the judiciary, civil bureaucracy and the armed forces, are subservient to it. We the people failed when Musharraf, like his other unworthy predecessors, trampled the constitution and assumed for himself the power to amend it. -MALIK TARIQ ALI, Lahore, via e-mail, August 12.