With the Supreme Court decision of December 16, 2009 on the NRO, the bitter bit of Punjab-bashing has started once again. It appears as if the decision has been given by the hapless 90 million people of Punjab rather than the 17 judges of the Supreme Court. We must appreciate the ethical and moral stand taken by the MQM on NRO. The members of the National Assembly, all 432 of them, were unable to pass this bill. And they included all members of the PPP too. How come Punjab is responsible for this outcome. PPP is politicizing what are corruption cases and nothing more than that by giving the whole matter the provincial touch. Thousands of Pakistani have lost their lives in this wave of terrorism including men from the Army, Police, security agencies and the common folk. Unfortunately, Benazir was one of them. But Punjab has also received 40 dead bodies on May 12, 2009 and 200 dead bodies that fell at the Karsaz tragedy. For the last over one decade, Punjab has had virtually no role in the affairs of Pakistan government. Not a single one among the rulers in Islamabad was from Punjab except a dummy speaker of the National Assembly. In the present set up too, Punjab only has a puppet that is addressed as Prime Minister but is not much of a muchness. This has added to miseries of the people of Punjab and poor governance at the federal level. In view of the above, I request the PPP to stop Punjab-bashing in their own interest and concentrate on playing the Sindh card if they have any. -SHAHBAZ MUNIR, Lahore, December 24.