The Pakistani media continues to debate the merits of democratic governments versus those of military governments led by dictators. There is talk of democracy, true democracy, educated democracy, dictatorship, benevolent dictatorship and so on. On examining the reality we find that in fact both systems have the same fundamental weakness. Dictatorship involves one man imposing his whims and desires on a nation and democracy involves several men and women, discussing their whims and desires and imposing the view of the strongest or most financially dominant amongst them, on the Nation Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear. ALAN COREN Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. WINSTON CHURCHILL, speech, Nov. 11, 1947. Even men within the champions of democracy, the western nations, understand that manmade laws that come from the human mind, whether it is the mind of one man or of many men are flawed. In Pakistan the GST, which was imposed by the dictator Musharraf, is now being continued by the democratic Zardari, and it is sucking the blood of the common man, raising the prices of basic necessities and taking them out of the reach of much of the population. It is manmade law that has led to the establishment of FBI, CIA and Blackwater/Xe services offices throughout Pakistan, resulting in the spate of bomb attacks over the past few years. It is manmade law that ensures that the Pakistani government can continue to authorise CIA Drone attacks on its own people. It is western manmade law that allows America to continue the war on terror, a war started from a lie, that has destroyed two nations and involved torture and breaking of their own International laws. It is western manmade law that allows developed nations to exploit the people in the developing world, implementing economic policies that have led to widespread poverty, famine, and a huge widening gap between rich and poor. It is the western manmade law that has allowed people to defame Islam under the guise of art, modernisation and tolerance. In short, laws made by man, whether it is one man or many men, western or eastern, are flawed and cannot be used as the source of our laws. Let us contrast this with Islam, where the sovereignty is not given to man, but Allah, the creator of man. The 1300 years of Islamic history saw the implementation of laws derived from Quran and Sunnah. It is the duty of the ruler of the Islamic State to implement only Islamic laws. The laws are not created in the minds of men or women, and are therefore not subject to the whims and desires of any one human, or groups of people. We see the practical result of the implementation of Islam through the study of the records of the Islamic State which shows us that we did not have the crime rates like we see today, crimes were few in comparison; neither was there poverty in the lands rules by Islam. Africa was such that it used to provide enough grain for the whole Muslim Ummah. Education and an advanced healthcare system were available for all. The Muslims were for a thousand years at the forefront of technology, mathematics, science, agriculture, architecture, astronomy, and more. The question may arise, how is this possible? This was all possible because Allah made man. He gave man needs and instincts that needed to be satisfied. Then He did not leave man alone in the world to fend for himself, rather he sent Prophets to every nation to guide mankind in how to live. When we follow this way we are revived, but when we abandon this we are declined. It is time that we as a Muslim Ummah reject the kufr systems of dictatorship and Democracy, and return to the implementation of Islam as a complete system in the form of the Khilafah State. We must establish the Islamic State, which will unify all the Islamic lands under one political, economic and judicial system. The re-establishment of the State, and the complete implementation of Islam, will ensure absolute independence from our enemies, and the ability to use all our wealth and resources for the benefit of the whole Ummah, and for all the citizens of the State, Muslim and non-Muslim. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) referred to the return of Islam in many hadith. In one of it, he (saw) said, "Islam started as something strange and will again return as something strange. So give glad tidings to the strangers who will revive the Sunnah after it became corrupted." May Allah help us be one of these blessed strangers. DR. SARAH SIDDIQUI, Karachi, August 27.