PUNJAB Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s arrival at the political theatre of Mandi Bahauddin was but an episode of ‘sick humour’. He came like a bullet, mocked the citizens’ patience and vanished like a ghost.

I wonder why he insists on being called with his ironically superficial title of ‘Khadim-i-Aala’ (chief public servant). How can he make such an unjustified assumption of so humble a title with little consideration to the plight of the ordinary people in his ‘kingdom of protocols’?

We suffered every moment on the last day of 2012. Many lost their belongings, while several hundred could not reach their destinations because of roadblocks and transport unavailability.

The public transport went into official hands to transport hundreds of ‘purchased’ attendees, many dozens were humiliated by the policemen to clear their boss’s route, thousands of labourers could not make their daily wages for having been pushed away from the city, as well as from roads.

Every 10 metres of the route was covered by the policemen and one could not even park one’s car or motorcycle on the roadside to buy some grocery. No patients could make to the hospitals in spite of critical condition. What truly our city was on Dec 31. It was a sickly jeering ending indeed.

Poor residents of Mandi Bahauddin have perhaps no value in the eyes of the ‘mayor of Lahore’, for we remain a far-off city, abandoned and out of the chief minister’s interest circle.

S.M. WAQASMandi Bahauddin