Process of getting documents attested is cumbersome if you don't have acquaintance with a grade 17 or above officer
ISLAMABAD: People working in the government or public service sector seem to enjoy the feeling when other people in need approach them, requesting for help and they have the power to simply tell them to come later. They often instruct peons to refuse them entry into their offices. They get annoyed and refuse to help if you go to them too frequently for tasks as simple as the attestation of documents. They sit in their air-conditioned offices and enjoy their tea parties and committee luncheons, but will not attend to the visitor — which is, in fact, their job in the first place. People belonging to the lower social strata suffer the most as they do not have acquaintances in senior positions in government offices.
People belonging to other parts of the country face a host of problems. With original documents in their hands, they shuttle from one office to another for attestation but find no one available to help them out. They are subjected to mental torture while seeking endorsement for their genuine documents. Officers have become increasingly arrogant. NADRA officials, even after examining each and every original document, hand over a form to get them attested by a government officer.
The process of getting one’s documents attested is cumbersome if you do not have any acquaintance with a grade 17 or above government officer.
Such officers will readily attest the documents of their uncle’s son’s friend without even seeing him but they will not help or attest documents of an ordinary citizen standing outside the office himself, soaking in the rain or maybe risking exhaustion and severe dehydration because of heat. These officials fail to realise that they were hired for serving the public, and that is what they are paid for.
Arooj Shabbir
Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2015.
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