I am slightly irritated by the hue and cry raised in the Senate of Pakistan by members of a particular party on the (assumed) ethics violations by the FIA. The FIA is being condemned for having handcuffed leading moneychangers of the country for involvement in the illegal business of money laundering through Hundi. Where was the conscience of these men when Taslim Solangi was thrown to dogs before being brutally murdered by influential feudals of Shikarpur, which by the way, is in the constituency of Chief Minister, Sindh? Where were they when 60 citizens of Karachi were murdered in street mayhem on May 12, 2007? The conscientious men of Senate have had nothing to say also in the most recent incidents in which the poor have been forced by poverty to abandon their children to Edhi centres. How do these senators explain their silence when citizens of Karachi are daily subjected to worsening street crime bordering on a state of total lawlessness? These moneychangers have harmed the citizens of Pakistan collectively by indulging in Hundi through which they managed to transfer our foreign exchange abroad. Pakistan today suffers because of the shameless institutionalized plunder of state funds and assets by men like these without any conscience or loyalty to the country. Today, the elected government of our country is running from pillar to post begging for loans while powerful groups with vested interest want these plunderers to be treated with respect. -M. TARIQ ALI, Lahore, via e-mail, November 20.