Amongst the civil service cadre and political circles, the foreign service is considered the most civilized, cultured, and structured. It is saddening to witness firsthand the politics and victimization of fellow staff members deployed in sensitive countries such as America.
This article presents the personal account of a low-ranking, honest, and hardworking employee of Passport & Immigration. He worked under me at the Dawn Media Group Islamabad office as a part time system data operator, striving to make ends meet.
It was a divine reward for his honesty when he received a foreign posting at the Houston Consulate. However, misfortune followed him there as he had to leave behind his terminally ill and, sadly, deceased son. According to the rules, Maqsood Ahmed was authorized to take his family along, and a note verbale was issued and duly marked by the Honorable Hina Rabbani Khar to the DG Protocol for the necessary request to the local American Embassy for visa issuance.
Masood Ahmed comes from an underprivileged background, and it was only through his hard work that he gained recognition from his seniors in his parent organization of Passports and Immigration. Unexpectedly, his Head of Chancellory, the second-in-command to the Consul General, took offense to this recommendation and not only prevented his grief-stricken family from joining him but also quietly removed him from the diplomatic staff, rendering his stay illegal according to US immigration rules.
Today, Maqsood Ahmed has reached out to me for help, fearing being handcuffed and deported from US soil. Sadly, I have no recourse to address his grievance other than generating this write-up in his defense. It makes me wonder whether honorable Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, as an Oxford alumnus, and his staff, including the Foreign Secretary and the Pakistani Ambassador based in the United States, would tolerate such unacceptable professional conduct.
This unprofessional conduct by a Senior Foreign Service official not only causes unnecessary mental anguish to a popular employee with the highest number of positive reviews on the consulate website but also tarnishes the image of both the foreign service and the country. It is disheartening to see that no place or service remains free from dirty internal politics, leg-pulling, and victimization, leaving individuals like Maqsood Ahmed stranded on a no man’s island surrounded by a sea of problems.Long Live Pakistan The World’s Champion Of Politics In Every Field 🇵🇰
