Attack counter-attack

There should be a code of conduct for public figures so that the public is saved from the spats of some leading luminaries. Just a couple of weeks back, Javed Miandad and Shahid Afridi had a verbal duel which was well-amplified in newspapers and then we heard that they had resolved the matter. Now, two figures from the world of politics and governance – Governor Sindh Ishratul Ebad and the chairman of the PSP, Mustafa Kamal – have shown us an ongoing public spat (almost like a soap opera) with new and rather exciting revelations emerging about the two, mostly on the negative side. We have also seen the prime minister and the PTI chairman indulging in a match of indirect ‘mud-slinging’ – almost like a personal vendetta.

If our country’s luminaries do not behave themselves in the public arena and keep resorting to ‘washing their dirty linen in public’, can we honestly expect our ‘average citizen’ to behave with propriety, file his/her tax returns on time, be courteous towards women, children, or the elderly, drive vehicles in traffic with sanity, etc? A nation’s behavior is a mirror-reflection of how its rulers, its elite and its well-heeled conduct themselves in society.

Abbas R Siddiqi

Lahore