All the roads leading to the venue were blocked for ordinary citizens but were not blocked for the bigwigs
KARACHI: I remember when I was a child, I wanted to be a pilot like Rashid Minhas, who sacrificed his life for saving the honour of his country. He was one of my favourite personalities for the longest time. I wanted to become a pilot passionately but as time passed by, and as I was growing up, I changed my mind. After some years, that passion just died. I started studying in a university just like an ordinary student, forgot all about the passion I once possessed. However, a little regret remains in my mind.
Citizens like me have big dreams. We do not want to hurt our country; instead, we want to protect it. But those in power prefer to treat us like criminals. On the morning of December 4, 2014, I reached the venue of an international four-day exhibition that was being organised in Karachi with the help of our armed forces. I, as a civilian of this country, felt myself to be a criminal as I was treated like a suspect. All the roads leading to the venue were blocked for ordinary citizens but were not blocked for the bigwigs, including foreigners, who had come for the exhibition. I, as a citizen of this country, did not even have the right to ask why the road was blocked for us. My question is: are these bigwigs more important than us, the citizens who pay taxes?
Huzaifa Mukhtar
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2014.
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