It is really sad and shameful that Pakistan has witnessed the rule of four military dictators during a short life span of only sixty three years. As many as thirty three of these sixty-three years we have spent wilting under the jackboot. Each dictator left behind scars of his rule, a myriad tally of social, political, religious and economic gores whose effects have stayed with us even after his departure. Self-assumed Field Marshal, Ayub Khan, started the rot with a military coup in October 1958 by overthrowing a civilian government and was emulated thereafter by his other three military successors who each destroyed our polity their own way. Yahya Khan caused the dismemberment of East Pakistan. General Zia left us with Kalashnikov culture, heroin, ethnic and sectarian divides and religious fundamentalism, each an enduring malaise capable of killing the society decades later. Pervaiz Musharraf left us with war on terror and its bitter harvest of suicide bombers that are still rocking our cities everyday. Some scars have septic matter underneath that keeps malignant for a long time. -ABDUL SAMAD SAMO, Karachi, February 25.