A huge sign behind a row of benches in a corner of a park in Clifton, Karachi, used to proudly proclaim “Seating arrangement for drivers”. In a posh club in the same area a small notice besides a bench outside a club’s main facilities would say “Ayas to be seated here”.
This is the usual practice and such signage is common in the posh clubs and parks of the city. What these signs seem to be implying is that ayas and drivers should stay away from the haunts of the rich and powerful and should identify themselves by sitting in areas allocated for them. Where there is no signage there are other indications that segregate the less privileged from the well-to-do lot.
Why did we make so much noise about apartheid in South Africa when we are still practicing its crude form in our own society? This is actually more deplorable because the lines are not drawn by one politically dominant race against the other but by a group of people who, through fortunate circumstances, have somehow accumulated enough resources to be able to bar the entry and put up signs to identify the less fortunate in society. Has anyone wondered about the psychological and social damage this attitude will cause in society? Sitting alone on the lonely bench outside this posh club, what will the ayah be thinking, and how she must wonder about a place where her entry is banned.
No need to give a sermon about religious values and how Islam forbids such practices. If you look at the Western cultures you will not find such open discrimination. Once on a journey on a bus from Munich to Nuremberg we stopped at a very classy restaurant. The group consisted of executives of a large multinational company. As I sat down I saw the driver of the bus making his way to the table behind me. He was greeted by the people on the table, and no one resented his presence or attempted to move away from the table. If this was a journey in Pakistan the leader of the group would have given a paltry sum of money to the driver and told him to eat at the nearest Dhaba.
Equal and human treatment to servants happen all the time in Western society and even in Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia where no discrimination of any kind is practiced against a person because of his or her stature in society, and the drivers eat with their masters on the same table. In Pakistan, we have become a highly status conscious society where the feelings of the underprivileged hold no importance for us.
Workers in service industries like fast food outlets receive the same treatment. While giving orders or communicating any other wish customers usually behave as if these people are machines and not living breathing humans. No one feels the need to exchange pleasantries with them even though many of the young men and women working in these outlets come from respectable families and are mostly students working to pay their way through college and university. The real problem is the establishment of a culture where respect is based on the amount of wealth not honesty or any other human quality. A person with a very large bank balance but bankrupt in the areas of honesty and morality, finds much greater acceptance in our society than one who might not be materially endowed but has firm moral values and is honest almost to perfection. This also explains the no-holds-barred rat race in the country where every means is employed to rise to the top of the social ladder. This has in turn given rise to social ills that are plaguing the country and are a great hindrance to the progress of the country on solid sustainable lines.
Throughout history there have been examples where human beings have been labelled to demonstrate their position in society. The Jews during the Hitler era were forced to wear the Star of David, and women in the early days of Europe suspected of immoral behaviour were forced to wear a scarlet letter. In modern day Pakistan poverty is considered reason enough to put a label around the neck of the underprivileged and make them sit under signs that declare their less privileged position in society.
(The writer is a well-known columnist)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is a well-known columnist