Perhaps in everybody’s mind the word “leader” or “leadership” conjures images of power, pelf and splendour. The quality of leadership across all spheres of activity in the past two-three decades has undergone a metamorphosis of radical change. It wouldn’t be incorrect to state that the movement has been southwards than northwards. The malaise of decline is witnessed across all characteristics.

If leader/leadership at one time was a connotation of individuals with the highest sense of integrity, nobility, honesty and uprightness, today it is viewed in exactly the opposite of such traits of leadership. The social morass of decline in manners and attitudes is highly visible, more than ever before. Global leaders are found wanting in sticking to the standards of maintaining dignity in speech, attitudes and behaviour. The uncouth language used by leaders today is an embarrassment to model leaders like De Gaulle, J.F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and M. A. Jinnah. If one leader addresses another as “Listen, you, Mr Stupid President...”, we can safely conclude that standards have changed for worse.

The decay and decline of leader (s) and leadership standards and quality is not restricted to the world of politics alone, nay, it pervades all sections of society and economy. Cultural standards and traditions have received frontal blows of modernity, which itself is housed in the artificial circle of unknown hitherto qualities associated with leadership. The expunging of elements of courtesy and respect, which were cardinal pillars of our culture, have been laid on the guillotine slab. The levels of informality are touching new heights of zenith, rendering a sober, mature and formal attitude to the mercy of winds of delusional change.

The corporate sector in Pakistan and globally has witnessed substantial decline in the maintenance of principles, codes, uniform practices and traditional customs of conducting business. The unacceptable of the past is........

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