OUR leaders are a strange lot indeed. They don`t practise what they preach. When a PPP prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, was facing a trial in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, it was Mian Nawaz Sharif, then sitting on the opposition benches, who advised him in the strongest of words to step down and face justice.

Now that Mr Sharif is himself facing a similar situation, he is clinging to power corridors by every possible means. Perhaps he is unaware that what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.

The logic that he puts forward for -in his words unfair ouster is ludicrous. Some time he says he has been disqualified because of the atomic explosions ordered under his premiership, sometimes he says he was ousted as a punishment for putting the economy back on the track. Then he cites the CPEC deal as the cause for his removal. Nothaving taken his salary as a director of the UAE-based firm owned by his son is touted as another reason. The list is unending.

The apex court, or for that matter any other non-servile institution, all are under heavy fire from Mr Sharif and the hawks in his party.

To those who love this country and feel for it, the situation is grave. Corruption is rampant. The language used by our leaders in their speeches is disgraceful and almost everything in the country is in disarray.

Where are we headed for as a nation? Do we deserve to see a light at the end of the tunnel or is it that of an oncoming bullet (pun intende d) tr ain? Dr Shahid Qayyum Lahore