Pakistan has seen a gradual decline in education over the last few years. Only the Musharraf government spent lavishly on education and especially on higher education. I must say his reign was a period of education renaissance. That golden phase of education suddenly finished with the coming in power of the present government. Now we are living in the age of fake degrees and pseudo intellectuals. People like Dasti who are accused of having acquired fake degrees appear on TV and are quite unashamed and unabashed about their ignominious act. And why should they be ashamed when even the Prime Minister advocates that Dasti should be re-elected? We have totally lost the sense of shame as well. How many people in our all-powerful and supreme parliament are BA, MA, BSc, MSc or PhD? We are being ruled by illiterates and that includes the man on the top, the President too. What a democracy The only benefit of democracy is that if an ass is elected by the majority, he becomes the leader of the country. Under these grim circumstances, CM Punjab is the countrys hope as far as the education is concerned. The other day while I was in Lahore, I had the chance to attend convocation of the Government College of Home Economics. The CM Punjab was the chief guest. The principal of the college, while giving her address of welcome, made a number of fairly high-value demands. I was both amazed and overjoyed to see that the CM granted to the college even more than the principal had actually demanded. I am sure this college would continue to flourish under its principal, teaching staff and under patronage of the CM Punjab. -DR. NARGIS FATIMI, Sukkur, June 24.