The recently reported news of an Indian former minister of information technology being awarded five years imprisonment for bribery of only Rs. 3 lacs compares favourably with a bribery of Rs. 99 lacs to a son of a top gun in the form of an expensive car. This shows the tolerance of corruption in India and Pakistan as in the latter case we have not heard as yet of any action whatsoever. The authorities that be ought to think deeply of the malady inflicting our dear country when the high and mighty enjoy a free for all impunity against any kind of accountability for their case of ill-gotten wealth. It is our fate that billions are gobbled down by the ruling families of our politicians that shake the very foundations of our society. The state of poverty is such that a poor sweeper of DHA requested me for a mere 100 rupees to be doled out to him on the 20th of month to buy flour for his family as his salary had been spent leaving him penniless. The abject poverty is the result of a sea of difference between the incomes of haves and have nots that is the bane of all evils in our society. One of the reason for this is the runaway corruption in the country. DR. MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI, Lahore, November 21.