Senators vs bureaucrats

This refers to the news report, ‘Senate starts debating public petitions’ (May 15). According to the report, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has demanded additional perks for senators on par with the bureaucracy. It is amazing the senator has compared senators – who remain absent from parliamentary sessions for most of the time and face no accountability for duties assigned to them – with bureaucrats who get promotions through years of hard work and continuous performance evaluation. It is amazing that the senator has compared mostly rich senators who are enjoying additional perks with bureaucrats whose only source of income is their salaries.
As such the comparison between senators and bureaucrats lacks any logic. The worthy barrister should have cited poverty or financial constraints or some such thing to justify his claim for more perks for the upholders of the ‘august house’. In its present shape and composition, the Upper House of parliament is a financial burden on this poor and bankrupt nation.
M Akram Niazi
Rawalpindi