The British colonial administration in the South Asia Sub-Continent granted, post retirement, some additional perks/privileges to the chief and vice-chief of their forces. Citing that as a precedent, scores of Pakistan’s top bureaucrats have succeeded in getting perks over and above their normal pension. It is another thing that the British granted those perks to only two members of their vast establishment in the Sub-Continent.
 To begin with, in late 1980s, one of the retiring chiefs of the forces was lucky to get the facility of maintaining, at state expense, a house, a chauffer-driven car and a staff of four. The grant of those perks to the chief stirred many and the liberal state hierarchy bestowed those benefits to all persons retiring from 3-star and 4-star posts.
 Of late, the demand for additional benefits has caught the imagination of one and all, who matter in Pakland. Some superannuated bureaucrats from Punjab took the lead in claiming perks allowed to the retiring top ranks of the forces, maintaining that they have also retired from the ‘top-most’ bureaucratic slot in the province and hence these be extended to them as well. The political hierarchy promptly accepted the plea of the chief secretaries and extended them, post retirement, the privilege of maintaining a state-provided guesthouse, a chauffer-driven car and some staff.
 This tempted the retired Police chiefs of the province to demand perks allowed to the chief secretaries. Initially, their request was turned down. But, they mustered the support of the serving IG and met, in early 2007, the chief minister in a group, who was too obliging and granted the retired IGPs all the post-retirement benefits that they wanted.
 Of course, the politicians have to win the elections. They cannot act naïve to deny a “petty” request, if granting that could pave the way for the winning of ‘hearts’ and through that the approaching general elections!
 Like the endemic ‘avian flue,’ the virus of claiming additional perks has spread fast. Initially, the ‘epidemic’ afflicted the federal secretaries and the top hierarchy tried to cure them by administering the dose of an “additional residential plot in Islamabad and the services of a chauffer/orderly, post retirement.” A number of federal secretaries, who were allotted two residential plots each in Islamabad, had already been gifted several plots, both commercial and residential, in other parts of the country. One of them is reported to have acquired more than 20 plots, and is still looking for more.
 Initially, the added perks were allowed only to the retiring federal secretaries, but later the benefit was also extended to the contract appointees, including the re-employed secretaries. However, those who had retired before the cutout date fixed by the government, were not offered the additional perks. This has created heart burning amongst the retired secretaries. Pleading for providing post-retirement driver/orderly to all living retired federal secretaries, one of them believed their number would not be too high to overlook such a lot in a discriminatory manner.
 Last year, the federal secretaries had managed to obtain a 20 per cent raise in their pay, which was earlier increased, in phases, by three times than the pre-1999 scales. They now want to supplement these special concessions by goading the government to allow them to take away along with them their official cars on the eve of their retirement by depositing a throwaway price in the government treasury on the analogy of the practice in vogue in the superior judiciary.
 Till 1958, state officials were not allowed any perks over and above their normal salaries. The bureaucrats, including federal secretaries, had to make own arrangements for going to offices and also for meeting their social/personal obligations. They did not feel shy even using bicycles for this purpose. The list of federal secretaries pedaling to their offices included even foreigners, like Sir Edwards Snelson, who was Federal Secretary, Law and Parliamentary Affairs till the early days of Ayub Khan’s regime.
 Even the prime ministers of pre-1958 days felt at ease traveling in old models of cars. The ministers also drew clear lines of distinction between the official and private journeys and used state vehicles strictly for official duties only. The wives of cabinet ministers, who wanted to attend social/cultural functions, had to use their private cars or make some other arrangement.
 However, post-1970, the rulers started granting liberal perks, including official cars, plots and allowances, to the bureaucracy in a bid to get maximum cooperation from the ‘Baboos’, which they felt was essential to prolong their rule or to stifle the opposition. The grant of extra perks created a class of sycophants in the bureaucracy, who went out of their way to please the rulers and sought one favour or the other from them in lieu of their services. With the passage of time, it appears that the bureaucracy’s lust for favours, plots and choicest postings has become insatiable. They now demand stay in 5-star hotels during their official visits.
 In Pakland, the top bureaucrats are one of the most pampered lots of their kind found anywhere on the globe. During service, they enjoy unprecedented facilities like highly subsidized residential accommodation, free medical care, admission of kids on preferential basis in establishment-managed educational institutions and highly subsidized tuition fees. They enjoy the freedom to maintain luxury cars for themselves and their families at state expense. The joyrides of the bureaucrats and their families alone annually consume over 80 billion rupees of taxpayers’ money.
 In a country, where the majority do not even have a roof of their own over their heads, over six million children are out of schools and 30 million peasants are still landless, is it not ridiculous that some bureaucrats succeed in acquiring 8-10 residential plots, chunks of agricultural land at nominal price and other perks?
 The elite class can always fend for itself and it is not entirely dependent upon the government’s largesse; on the contrary the masses deserve attention of the government to the maximum. This is the norm in the developed countries, where the governments endeavour to provide maximum facilities to the citizens. In the West, parliamentarians, civil servants, army men, judges and members of their families commute, along with the masses, by the metro/underground trains and they don’t feel let down. Why should our bureaucrats shy of following the same practice here? If they had been following these practices here, probably, there would have been world-class coach and train services in Pakland as well. Since the elite do not make use of these services here, the ‘omni bus service’ has evaporated into thin air and the railways is in tatters.
When the general masses are not offered such sweetheart deals in Pakland, they fail to comprehend what have the bureaucrats done to deserve such largesse? Why should the overtaxed citizens subside the luxurious life styles of the bureaucrats, especially when they are responsible for the continuous all-round degeneration and decline in services? 
Even some saner elements amongst the erstwhile beneficiaries from the largesse honestly feel that the limited resources of the state cannot sustain these additional perks for long. But, only a Mard-e-Momin, they maintain, can annul these extra-ordinary favours granted to the privileged few of the land.