RECENTLY, I travelled on Qatar Airways Flight# 605 from Karachi-Doha. Reaching the immigration counter, I saw that the senior citizens’ and special people’s counter was already occupied by young people.

My wife was in a wheelchair and I am a septuagenarian. We waited and crawled to the immigration counter. After being cleared, I approached the duty in-charge who looked mature and wore three pips. When I complained, he said I should have informed him earlier.

Amazed, I asked how I could have penetrated the security cordon of immigration authorities. They told me there was a paucity of staff, hence they could not keep the disabled people’s counter blocked only for them.

I kept quiet. But I want to remind readers that in the civilised world space in rest rooms and parking lots remains reserved for disabled people even though they might not turn up for hours. If the parking lot‘s reserved space is violated, the transgressor is heavily fined and on second offence has his driving licence confiscated.

Ahmad Siddiqui

Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2018