All is well, you know!

I saw an old illiterate woman visit a patient with an advanced-stage cancer. She held his hand and said: "Your body is not warm; everything else seems fine too, so I expect you to leave the hospital soon". I admired her optimism borne out of a lack of understanding. Messrs Zardari, Gillani and their battalion of ministers remind me of that old woman.
A new map of Pakistan is in currency, drones are mauling us even in the settled areas like Bannu, the IMF has sharpened its knives for us, suicide bombers are not even sparing our cultural shows, price-hike has broken the backbone of public. And yet, our worthy President and PM never get tired of their worn out, wearisome rhetoric of a hundred public addresses and press conference that all is well. That old lady was absolutely illiterate. What about our rulers? Are they too? -AMJAD HABIB MIRZA, Lahore, via e-mail, November 23.