LAST week, when I was in Lahore, my team and I happened to visit a most-sought-after restaurant in the historical food street of the walled city.

Little did we know that the experience would dawn upon us such a strong presence of the prevailing class system in Pakistan.

On entering the restaurant, we asked the management to make room for our drivers, who drove us non-stop from Peshawar to Lahore. Their response left us stunned. They told us that ‘drivers’ were not allowed inside to have food.

At first, they struck us as auditory-challenged; ‘drivers’, we emphasised, not some wild animals. On arguing that ‘drivers’ would also pay for the food and they should be treated as customers, rather on the basis of their social class or status, the management still held its stance.

However, after a little pressure from some senior officials in our team, they agreed to let the ‘drivers’ in. How courteous!

When will our society move on? When will we learn to respect people for being humans? When will we ever learn to behave? Is there any end to this curse?

A citizen

Islamabad

Published in Dawn December 20th , 2014