Your obedient servant!

Arrogance of govt officers are well known and their exhibition of power are sometimes on display in excess

Swagger and arrogance of government officers — also known as bureaucrats in high-falutin language — are well known and their pomp and show and exhibition of power are sometimes on display in excess. It’s appalling and disgusting. Recently, bodyguards of an assistant commissioner of Burewala in Punjab province allegedly thrashed a school security guard for merely asking the identity of the officer. The bureaucrat has lodged an FIR with the police in which he claimed that the guard had misbehaved with him and that he was not allowed to enter the school premises even after he disclosed his identity. However, the school administration contradicted the officer saying the guard was only taking the temperature of the officer.

Perhaps, what infuriated the security guards was that a ‘lowly’ security guard had the audacity to inquire about the identity of their officer, for they thought that it was below the dignity of a government officer accompanied by armed security to be stopped at the school gate and asked to disclose his identity. Their rough behaviour shows that an officer with official protocol was automatically entitled to enter any place without revealing his identity. His pompous protocol was sufficient to guarantee him free access, in all circumstances, to any place — whether private or public. Punjab CM Usman Buzdar has suspended the officer and ordered an inquiry.

What is more surprising is that the bureaucrat, who is supposed to be an obedient servant of the people, has accused the school guard of being rude to him, instead of reprimanding his guards. This brings out the fact in the open that the ’obedient servant of the people’ treats the common people as his minions. While the so-called servants of the people make the ordinary people run around for addressing even their small problems, they consider that the sole aim of human society is to provide jobs to civil servants with all the trappings that go with their ‘giant stature’.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2020.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.