In my lifetime I have witnessed many ups and down in the political and social lives of people who in our fascination are our leaders to change destiny of the nation. Until now what has happened is no more than boasting of our past glory which never existed. Every ruler promised to purge society of all evils such as corruption and injustice by bringing rule of law and fair distribution of advantages and benefits, but those promises still have to see light of the day. The rulers treated human beings as raw material for magnificence of their souls. Our governments adopted measures to please wealthy class and subjugate poor. They decided to give civil and military awards to prominent citizens for gallantry and meritorious services in any field.
The high awards carried financial benefits which were and still are given to people from the upper strata of the society. These awards were granted by federal and provincial governments. There was another category of low awards, which were given by the divisional commissioners and the recipients of such awards were usually the lower strata of the society. Such awards were less about financial reward and more about certificates of achievements accompanied by some souvenir. The scribe was recipient of one such award, a license free revolver.
However, the semi-democratic premier after 1970 polls decided to revoke the award discriminately. The deputy commissioner Rawalpindi through his letter number 1966 dated May 31, 1974, on the subject of “Grant of Sanad” in recognition of good work done voluntarily, informed me that government had abolished the award and I could retain the revolver with a license. Consequently, I got a license and till now pay license fee as a penalty for no fault of mine. I have been paying license fee just because the “Sanad” tagged with license free revolver was granted to me apparently for good service, but it became a liability for me.
This is just one small example of our rulers’ behavior and how much they care about merit and service excellence. They seem to have two tier system even for recognizing merit and service where rich and upper class gets long lasting financial benefits and the lower segments end up with awards that carry no such perks and may even become a liability. No wonder every now and then we see athletes, teachers, and players (of non-commercial sports) trying to sell their awards and trophies to make ends meet.
RAJA SHAFAATULLAH
Islamabad
