Time management in Pakistan

I was not at all surprised after reading a news item on the tardiness of Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan.


Anwer Mooraj October 31, 2011

I was not at all surprised after reading a news item which appeared in this newspaper on October 21, on the tardiness of the Federal Minister of Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan. A Chinese delegation that had arrived by appointment to express condolences on the passing away of Mrs Nusrat Bhutto was kept waiting for 90 minutes. It was an insult to an all-weather ally whose friendship has stood the test of time. It is not very clear just why the minister was late for no reason was given. The impasse, though regrettable, didn’t raise too many eyebrows, for the management of time has always been Pakistan’s most challenging problem. In fact, the only Pakistani to my knowledge who had mastered the art of efficaciously managing time was the education officer in the Pakistan embassy in London during the late 1950s. He had perfected the practice of going out for tea without coming back from lunch.

I got my first taste of time management in Karachi in the early 1960s. The dinner invitation card said 8:30 pm. I turned up at 8:35 and pressed the doorbell of the mansion. A helpful servant informed me that the lady of the house wasn’t back from her shopping and her husband was still at the office. “Come back at 10:30” he said helpfully. “That is when the guests are supposed to arrive”.

In Pakistan, people display a sublime indifference to time and invariably arrive late for appointments, dinners, marriages and even funerals. Remember two years ago when the carpenter, plumber, electrician, and mechanic who was admonished for coming late to a residence or office would say ‘Did you mean old time or new time?’ One really doesn’t have an answer to such a question or why the minister for daylight saving introduced this ridiculous concept in the first place.

The guest of honour at functions is invariably late and his degree of lateness is in direct proportion to his position in the government hierarchy. Dr Ishratul Ebad, the governor of Sindh, usually manages to arrive at diplomatic functions 10 minutes before the scheduled closing time of the reception, that is, of course, if the consulate is important enough to be graced by his presence.

A human resource manager who once interviewed 72 applicants for two vacancies over a period of 10 days passed on to me some statistics that listed the excuses that applicants made after turning up late. ‘There is too much traffic on the road’ (48 per cent); ‘I haven’t been here before and didn’t know how to get to your office’ (22 per cent); ‘The taxi driver couldn’t find your address’ (10 per cent); ‘You’ll never believe what happened to me on the way: to the office’ (two per cent); ‘I hope I’m not late’ (18 per cent). One can forgive these aspirants who, like most people, have lost their way in a country still desperately trying to come to grips with the 13th century. But the people I wanted to strangle were the civil servants in Islamabad who would get their personal assistants to telephone me and would then cheerfully disappear from their office.

Dr Awan shouldn’t worry too much if there was a Chinese rebuke for her inexcusable absence; for she was only doing what the average Pakistani federal minister thinks he or she is supposed to do and that is to keep people waiting indefinitely. Salman Rushdie had the last word. “What hope can there be for a people who have the same word for yesterday and tomorrow?”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 01st, 2011. 

COMMENTS (10)

Ishrat Salim | 12 years ago | Reply Anwer Sb....thnx for exposing our serious shortcoming...we hv to take this issue seriously if we want this country to improve...
Dr. Naeem Durrani | 12 years ago | Reply

I and my wife ,personally follow, time,for attending marriage function, just go in time. Sit there, when hose come after long wailing, just shake hand with host, and thereafter quit without any refreshment.In the near about e stop at fast food shop eat and go home, and thank God, for not staying for late night food. Those are fools, who wait wait till late night for free dinner.

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