In every country I’ve visited—be it the orderly lanes of the United Kingdom, the fluid decency of Dubai, the civic discipline of the United States, or the deeply structured Saudi cities—one principle stands unshaken: public roads belong to the people. Authority flows from service, not superiority. But in Pakistan, particularly in Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi, our roads have become arenas of humiliation—daily reminders of how far we’ve drifted from the ideals of dignity, equality, and public order.

A culture has taken root that is as grotesque as it is dangerous: the culture of protocol. Four-by-fours scream down main boulevards, headlights flashing, sirens howling, traffic lights overridden with the flick of a switch by lower-ranking police officers deputed as modern-day Pharaohs. The common citizen—on a motorbike, in a small car, a child walking to school—is made to wait, to fear, to shrink before a passing motorcade, the purpose of which is often nothing more than a lunch meeting or a photo op.

Let us call it what it is: a systematic humiliation of the people, disguised as security or officialdom. The very officers who enforce this mockery—CCPOs, CTOs, SHOs, assistant commissioners—carry no constitutional right to bypass civic order. They switch off traffic lights not in response to any credible threat, but to manufacture an aura of authority. Their subordinates treat road users with disdain, harass motorcyclists as if they are criminals, while elite convoys glide past in........

© The Friday Times