The stories that are gradually surfacing about the years under General Musharraf, or the course of events that we have seen since February 18 elections, clearly demonstrate that the malaise Pakistan suffers from is absence of moral scruples within the ruling elite, lack of accountability and an altogether missing concern for the common man. The crisis that Pakistan faces today stems , not from shortage of resources, but from the abuse of power and the misuse of national assets.
  President Asif Zardari's junket to Saudi Arabia with a huge delegation of about 226  ministers and friends and families,  certainly came as a rude shock to all those Pakistanis who are struggling to survive in these hard times.
Just look at the insensitivity that the President displayed; he was a on begging mission, an attempt to convince Saudi Arabia for financial assistance to help Pakistan ride out the financial crisis.  This he did, only a day after bloating the cabinet to 55, in addition to more than a dozen roving ambassadors and an equal number of people with the status of ministers serving elsewhere.( Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan , the opposition leader reckons that the total number of ministers and advisors comes to 87).

 The large presidential delegation stunned the Saudi Protocol as well.
  Officials say the Saudis agreed to host about 40 members of the entourage as state guests, while the rest were put in hotels. We are told the president  paid for the entourage from his own pocket. There are, however, three dimensions to it; is there a proof that Zardari himself bore the expense? Secondly, even if he did so, that underlines how insensitive he is to the economic situation and its impact on the common man. And thirdly, do the president's income tax returns, if he filed some, justify this huge expense that he dedicated to his courtiers?
  Nothing can be more outrageous than turning a "mission with a begging bowl " in to a joyride for friends and their families, each persons air fare alone approximately Rs 45,000, meaning  10 million were spent by the president from his pocket in addition to the hotel and local transportation costs
  The same had happened during Zardari's and Prime Minister's  visits to the United States, and China whereby unusually large delegations accompany them – all at the state cost.
  Most probably, the rulers (ab)use the tax payers' precious money as their divine right – by virtue of being the head of state or government.
  One glaring example is the Umra journeys that these rulers bestow on their kith and kin; the information put before the senate on October 12 also comes as an insult to the nation, and raises questions on the integrity as well as the religious understanding of the people that accompany the head of the governments to Umra.
  Zardari's and Gillani's predecessors, acted in the same insensitive way and spent about Rs. 50 million on official Umras in 2004, alone.

 The Foreign Office informed the Parliament  that  former prime ministers — Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Shaukat Aziz — performed Umras with their spouses, relatives, friends, governors, chief ministers, ministers and parliamentarians at state expense.
  Jamali and his entourage of 29 persons  performed Umra at the cost of Rs 16.7 million. Ch Shujaat Hussain had taken his mother, two sons and the sons of Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to Saudi Arabia at the cost of Rs 15.23 million.
  Chaudhry Shujaat's entourage of 134 persons was the largest. He also belongs to people who often brag about their largess and insist they rarely touched the official kitty.
  Shaukat Aziz took 49 people with for umra  at the a cost of Rs 18.7 million. His entourage included the chief minister and governor Sindh and their spouses and children besides Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Humayun Akhtar, Mohammad Nasir Khan, Naseer Mengal, Babar Khan Ghouri, Syed Safwanullah, Hamid Yar Hiraj and Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.
  In his three years, Shaukat Aziz undertook more than 100 foreign trips, each time taking big delegations with him.
  Compare this with Germany for instance; barring the essential staff, all others accompanying the president, the chancellor or the foreign minister on foreign trips – journalists, industrialists, and families -  pay the air fair  equivalent to economy class. They also pay for their hotel accommodation.

 The way many of these big names live and act in politics – deceit and hypocrisy -   and their daily lives, it is quite doubtful that they would believe in a ritual that requires your own resource.
  Do people like Shaukat Aziz and Mohammad Naseer Khan, or the majority of those who accompanied Zardari and Gillani really  believe in Haj and Umra? And don't they know that a) these religious rituals must be performed with one's money and b) the money being gobbled up by these junkets comes from masses – in the form of general sales tax and other forms of indirect taxation.
  This is clearly a crisis of conscience and integrity as far as the ruling elite is concerned. Additionally, what ails Pakistan is a crisis of governance – largely the absence of governance and management capacity.
  Neither journalists, nor politicians nor businessmen  and their families seem to realize what their free of cost travel frenzy means for this country. No pangs of conscience, no remorse for squandering public money.
  Their view of Umra also seems skewed because paid journeys – for people who can afford it . Do they really believe God will accept their haj and umra this way?
  Also, former premier Nawaz Sharif , loved to perform umras. Agreed he has plenty of money, and the real estate business his family is involved in the U.K these days has made them even richer, does this really mean, they hop in and out of Mecca, together with friends most of whom can afford it? This money can also go in charity for a school or a hospital.
  Essentially, the rich leaders of a helpless nation have lost credibility in the eyes of international community, which may not be ready to finance the luxuries of Pakistan's insensitive rulers any more. The Friends of Pakistan must invoke mechanisms that ensure transparency and accountability of the money that will indebt future generations of Pakistan but leave the rulers even richer.