While growing up, I have encountered the use of the following axiom quite frequently, and I have had the horrific displeasure of meeting living, breathing personifications of this axiom quite often, some of whom I know phenomenally well.
Power Corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
Despite having met the horrendously behaving individuals quite often, I have also had the pleasure of meeting another type of person, as well, an individual who was resolutely declining to abuse his authority. Although I do not know Dr. Khaver Zia on a personal level at all, however, based on my interactions lasting over a period of 3 years, I would like to write a few words about him. As people around are always talking about truly disgusting, revolting people with diabolical academic records, we should occasionally write a few words about adorable and charming people in Pakistan, too.
Despite being a phenomenally uninterested student in computer science when I was forced to enroll for the degree program in 1997 and who remained that absolutely uninterested party till the July of 2002, I had the profound pleasure of meeting the dean of FAST, Dr. Khaver Zia, a competent and spectacularly well-read person in an authority role at FAST, Lahore. Despite being a competent person with an excellent grasp of various subject matters and holding a position of power, Dr. Khaver Zia never denigrated or belittled anyone ever in front of me. Dr. Khaver Zia — during all my interactions with him, while out and about in FAST, and as a teacher of various courses — used to be a perfect personification of humility and modesty. When it comes to properly talented, extremely well-read people holding positions of power, I had never met nor have I since met a more polite and humble person in life. An endearing individual whose behavior has left a lasting impression on me as a person. Esteemed Dr. Khaver Zia could have done more for the students and institution rather easily; however, he did not and that would remain a disappointment. However, to err is human, and history would prove that even the best of us on rare occasions miss out on critical details.
Another aspect of spending time at FAST, Lahore, that would forever remain etched in my brain after watching this spectacularly well behaved, intelligent, and impressively well-read person is the tormenting fact that in a country where people like Sheikh Rasheed, Raja Afzal (ex MNA from Jhelum, matric fail), Aitezaz Ahsan, and the likes roam the streets of Pakistan in Toyota Landcruisers and Honda Accords, our beloved dean with a BS in electrical engineering from esteemed UET, Lahore and a PhD in electronics from UMIST, Manchester was commuting to and from FAST, Lahore, in a 1972 Datsun. He eventually got a Toyota Corolla thanks entirely to the generosity of his elder borther and not because the horrific government in Pakistan ever felt that this remarkable individual who had been assigned the task of managing the affairs at an engineering institution in Lahore was worthy of an excellent reward. One of the many reasons I loathe the state of democracy and governance in Pakistan. A person who truly deserved an excellent pay package was traveling in an antique, whereas extremely dumb folks like Aitezaz Ahsan, Zia Mehmood Mirza, Farah Zia get to enjoy luxuries. The treatment of the esteemed dean and the rest of faculty has left me scarred for life.
It would forever remain a source of profound, boundless sadness that owing to gross, gross abuses of my human rights, I was not able to follow in his footsteps, and I was left with no option but to use certain statements that can only be termed derogatory in nature. Alas, the outcomes of abusing talented people. It would also remain a source of disappointement that the finest authority figure that I have ever had the chance of meeting so far turned out to be quite a flawed article.
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