I AM a 68-year-old citizen. Recently I happened to visit the regional passport office in Rawalpindi to get a new passport. I reached the passport office before 9am in the hope that I may not be required to wait too long.

I had already paid the required fee a day earlier. To my horror, there was already a queue of about 200 people. I stood at the end of the queue. We were told that the proceedings would start at 9am.

About five minutes before 9am, a couple of gentlemen came out and asked all the senior citizens to follow them. We did that. I happened to be the first among a group of about 20 or so people.

To my utter surprise, I found myself standing at the first counter. The entire procedure was over in about 30 or 40 minutes. The whole thing came as an extremely pleasant surprise.

The aim of writing this experience is two- fold. One is to admire the thoughtful attitude of the officers concerned and appreciate their gesture. The second is to request and remind the officers and heads of all such places where they have to handle a large number of people to be thoughtful and kind to the older lot.

Hats off and many thanks to the officers and staff of the Rawalpindi regional passport office.

Col (r) Shahid Mahmud

Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2015

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