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Pakistan: Car Flags

Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Islam-i Jamhuriya-e Pakistan

by Zeljko Heimer

Here is a story from Pakistan's Dawn (Karachi) newspaper, 14 July 2001.

Flying flags on the cars
By Hafizur Rahman

Living in Islamabad which is slowly coming to life as a metropolis, I am gradually becoming a recluse. I never go out to attend so- called "functions," except family gatherings, and am generally ignorant about the life that continues to hum around me. That is why I have never seen a cabinet minister alight from an automobile, or get into one. So, short of asking the Cabinet Division, I have no means of knowing if this breed still sports the national flag on staff cars, the little object that gives the title to this piece.

In Ms Benazir Bhutto's second coming as prime minister, when cabinet ministers and many so-called dignitaries enjoyed this privilege, there were also numerous (some say numberless) advisers and others who had been granted ministerial status. They too sported the flag on their cars, and, in the case of many of them, this was the only thing they did.

Then came Mian Nawaz Sharif, the prodigal turned spoilsport who decreed that his ministers would not enjoy the pleasure of flying the national flag on their official or private cars. What a comedown for the poor chaps! It was a pity really, depriving politicians of this joy and privilege. I mean to say, what was the harm if the practice had continued? After all, entitlement to the car flag means so much to us Pakistanis that many of us would gladly give five years of our lives for it.

I remember a federal minister (the name escapes me) who refused to drive to a public func