THE NRO beneficiaries list is finally out and is worse than what one could have imagined. There are over 8000 beneficiaries, of which a minority are politicians and senior bureaucrats. The political elite feels that that somehow puts the whole NRO in perspective in terms of the "few" politicians that figure in the overall list of over 8000 people. However, it is not an issue of how many beneficiaries are politicians and their bureaucratic cohorts; the issue is the large amounts of money, and the major tally of murders, that fall into this small category of people. Of course these are not the only people guilty of embezzlement, murder and other such crimes. The rich and the politically powerful, along with the entrenched bureaucracy, have always been indulging in questionable activities while considering themselves above the law. Cases of corruption are difficult to prove while murder charges also tend to go unproven legally when the strong terrorise possible witnesses. But never before have we had to see such a whitewashing of crimes still to be decided by the courts. What message goes out to the people about their ruling elite? That they can have themselves pardoned without due process of law while the poor go undefended and often punished wrongfully? Worse still, the vast amounts of money involved could have saved this country the trials and tribulations of going to the IMF and the World Bank. Clearly, if one looks at the potential amounts involved in the alleged corruption and embezzlement, this is a rich country which has remained undeveloped because of the successive loot and plunder by its elite. For all those who had a hand in underwriting the NRO, they should also shoulder the responsibility of circumventing justice for the elite. They have done the nation a great disservice by making this backroom deal. The brazenness with which the NRO beneficiaries are strutting about claiming that nothing was proven against them is shameful. If they really were innocent, as they claim, why did they need the NRO? They should have allowed the legal process to clear their names, as Prime Minister Gilani did. But there is a more basic point here: The leadership should not even have a suspicion of blemish in terms of suspected corruption or murder. Only in Pakistan can a political elite sustain itself in power despite being so heavily tainted with allegations of corruption and murder. Anywhere else, even a hint of such allegations would have led the political leadership to resign or opt out until their names had been cleared through due process of law. But today the NRO and its high profile beneficiaries are a nation's disgrace - a nation that has defiantly held its head high in the face of many adversities, today has had to hang its head in shame because of its NRO-tainted leadership.