Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has defended the President in a press talk saying that since Mr Zardari had already spent as many years in jail as was the punishment for his alleged crimes, there was no point to pursue the cases of corruption any further. There is another aspect to the case, though. If a thief, for example, steals the buffalo of a person and sells it to butchers and is caught in the act and imprisoned, would that punishment be deemed enough for him or would he also be held liable to pay back the price of buffalo to the owner? The person who lost his buffalo, in this case, is the state of Pakistan, whose 144 billion rupees have been stolen. That amount needs to be returned before this could be called a fair deal. -DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI, December 19.