IN one of the provinces of Canada the electricity bill is delivered after every two months. Owing to the use of the central heating system the bill charges rise three to four times in winters as compared to the rest of the seasons.

As my semester was to conclude at the end of June 2009, I returned to Pakistan. Since my electricity bill for May and June wouldn’t have been delivered before the first week of July and my flight back home was at the end of June, I decided to make the bill payment in advance.

I wrote the cheque for an amount exceeding even that of our last bill for (winter) months of March and April, though there was no need for showing such generosity as I had not used the central heating system in May and June). I did that as I did not want our host country authorities to have the slightest idea that we had cheated them.

On the same note, like my university, bank, insurance, Internet and telephone company and mobile phone service provider, I had also apprised the electricity company about my address in Pakistan in case a need arises to settle the bills.

However, to my surprise and delight, in August and then in November 2009 I received two cheques from our electricity company.

I have personally known a number of people, including doctors and engineers who got loans worth thousands of pounds from banks abroad, never to return the same, before going back to Pakistan.

On the other hand, there are institutions like our electricity company in Canada which gladly returned almost 100 Canadian dollars to me without any demand and that too to an ex-consumer who is not even residing in Canada.

I feel pity for the West bashers, the majority of whom might not have even gone beyond their provincial territories but feel it their birthright to condemn the West for their say one per cent evil deeds and very conveniently overlook 99 per cent of their traits like honesty, justice, fairness and, above all, respect for humanity without any discrimination.

Lastly, I pity this mob of most ignorant hooligans who burn down their own abodes just to condemn sheer acts of stupidity committed by some lunatics thousands of miles away.

MAKHDOOM SAIF
Islamabad