Canada’s official broadcaster ran a very interesting news in the past few days. This news was related to the Canadian Prime Minister’s House. The news was that the official residence of the Canadian Prime Minister, Prime Minister’s House at 24 Sussex Drive, had deteriorated to such an extent that its administrators feared that the entire building or part of it might one day be demolished. Apart from this, enormous problems of plumbing, electricity and security have also arisen. The condition of the Prime Minister’s House has become so critical that the current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, preferred to live in another residence instead of living in this building and still resides there.
According to 2021 report, the building is so dilapidated that $3.6 million is needed to make it usable. This amount is very small for Canada, which has oil, minerals, a large industrial sector and other immense resources, which is one of the largest and most stable global economies and where everyone wants to go through immigration.
Despite this, his prime ministers for the past several years have not repaired and renovated the official residence reserved for the prime minister, what will his opponents say about this move? What impression will this move have on the people of Canada? In all the democratic countries of the world, where government officials and bureaucrats consider themselves accountable to the people, the same attitude can be seen.
The condition of the officially allocated plane for the Prime Minister of Canada has also been very bad for a long time. Its seats are also old and its maintenance remains a major problem. This plane was bought by the Canadian government in 1987 from a Canadian airline and was still being operated with it. But in September of this year, when the Canadian Prime Minister went to India to participate in the G20 conference and he had to stay there for two more days due to the breakdown of the official plane, the Canadian government bought an eight-year-old plane for the Prime Minister from Kuwait Airlines. . The old ship was also not new but used.
This is a very interesting and surprising example of the Canadian political landscape where government officials shy away from even legitimate spending due to accountability to the public. If this situation is compared with Pakistan, the ratio of expenditure to national income will blow people’s minds. Open violation of rules and regulations is apart from this. Recently, the Secretary Aviation has issued an order to the Airport Security Force on the direction of the Supreme Court, which states that the Chief Justice and his wife and other serving judges and their spouses at airports across the country. will not be searched.
Airport security is a very sensitive issue. It is not only related to domestic flights within Pakistan but also to flights from Pakistan to worldwide. If other countries express dissatisfaction with our airport security for any reason, then Pakistan may face difficulties to go to major countries or major airports of the world. Today there is a class, tomorrow the minister, elites and bureaucrats will also ask for this exemption. When the International Aviation Authority conducts a security audit at Pakistani airports, many problems may arise due to this one issue. Already our flights cannot go to many western countries.
There are no direct flights to America from Pakistan. Currently, Canada is the only foreign country where Pakistan Airlines flies directly, but if Canada also bans direct flights from Pakistan due to this move, it will cause a lot of loss to Pakistanis and the national airline.
First of all, salute to the thinking that considers this issue so important in a poor country like Pakistan. On the other hand, people here who want VIP treatment at the airport are ‘bound by protocol’ when they arrive in other countries, they have to stand in some kind of queue, unless they are a government official. In most countries no exemption is given in that case either. Canada only grants such protocol to heads of state, heads of government and members of their immediate family when they are on official visits. No judge, minister or other person is exempt from security screening.
Even when Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was in the position of Prime Minister, he had to go through the process of security check in America. Compliance with security checks and other rules does not make one smaller and one does not become bigger. In this context, this habit of Dr. Arif Alvi is commendable that he seems to travel like a common traveler. Several pictures of him have come out in this regard, but nothing can be said with full confidence whether he actually makes such trips or the pictures of his regular trips are taken as part of a regular plan.
The aviation industry and the sector should reconsider the order exempting it from security checks at airports. This will raise security issues for domestic airlines and airports, while ordinary Pakistanis, especially the youth, will get a negative message that this country belongs only to the powerful. Here, the weaker one is, the more laws one faces. They will not consider themselves equal citizens in Pakistan. Countries like Canada are not progressing in the same way, where they think a thousand times before repairing the Prime Minister’s house and changing the Prime Minister’s plane, while we think of the people only when they have to be removed from their presence in the name of protocol.
