Say THANK YOU to a robber

I went to Karachi, last month to give an interview in the US Consulate. After giving my interview, I took an auto rickshaw to go back to my flat. But what happened next was something that I will remember all my life.

It was 8:45 a.m, when I was travelling in Boat Basin, when a boy of young age sitting on the back seat of a motor cycle was saying something to me. I wondered and asked him what happened and then he said give me the bag by showing me a pistol.

I fathom that the boy is a robber and trying to rob me. Although, I am not a typical Karachite, but I have spent substantial amount of time in Karachi during my college life. I was fully aware that street crimes in Karachi are quite common, but what really astound me was the timing and place where this incident took place.

The time was 8;45 which is a peak office hour and  during this time there is lot of traffic on the road due to office going people. It was not late 1 or 2 pm of night, yet the boy was so intrepid that he didn’t care about the rush and broad day light. Secondly, Boat Basin is a part of Clifton which is the  most salubrious area of Karachi and it is considered more impregnable area as compared to areas like lyari, korangi and landhi, but this didnot affect the valour of the juvenile boy. Moreover, our inefficient and feeble police system would have further emboldened him.

  I spoke to him and told him that there is nothing in the bag except my documents and at the same time, i opened the bag and showed him the documents and he replied by saying ‘ok”  and I wave my hand and said  Thank you to him.

The rikshaw driver was amused and chuckled and told me that what is making me laugh is that you said Thank you to a burglar. I told him that there are sundry reasons for me to be thankful to him. My bag contained numerous important documents like my National Identity Card, Visa form, Academic and other supporting documents needed for the visa to be accepted.

If the criminal had snatched the bag, I would have lost all the documents. My trip to America was surely cancelled but my All Pakistan trip was confirmed. As I have given my matriculation from Rawalpindi board, intermediate from Karachi board and graduation from Balochistan University. So, I would have to visit the board offices of these cities and due to Babu culture which is common in most of our government offices, lot of my time would have wasted.

The most convenient way to save time in government offices is to give bribe to the corrupt government servants for doing their duty. I am sure in all three different board offices, I would have been looted again, but that was not enough, there were other places where I would have to go to be looted time and time again like police station and NADRA office. I think everyone knows that our incompetent police do not register an FIR without bribe. Similarly, one cannot get his new NIC from the NADRA office without showing the FIR of the police and more importantly in my city Quetta, NADRA officers are more polite and sympathetic with the illegal afghan refugees as compared to legal citizens. The reason for their hospitality with the illegal immigrants is that for the sake of getting the nationality of Pakistan, afghan refugees pay off the officers and the officers also expect the same thing from legal citizens as well, which means I would have been looted again. So, I had no option other than saying thank you to a criminal for not looting me and saved me from being looted again and again.