The contretemps at Pakistan International Airlines over a maid’s upgrading could well have been at Air India

The curious case of the upgraded maid and the upbraided Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) functionary throws up several questions. What was the senior bureaucrat who complained about the ‘illegal’ upgrade on the London-bound flight upset about? That a maid in the service of the Pakistan prime minister’s daughter was upgraded at all, or at she was seated next to him? As the incensed bureaucrat was allegedly also a beneficiary of the same gratis upgrade — a ‘courtesy’ that many state carriers including Air India are quite used to extending to important personages — suspending the PIA official who facilitated the maid’s case does seem rather unfair, if not downright class-ridden.

Indeed, Nawaz Sharif ’s supporters may use the incident to show that his family members are so benevolent that they wanted their staff to travel business if the circumstances allow, instead of being content with cattle class. Of course, a true expression of their egalitarianism — and clout — would have been if they had asked for her to be bumped up to First Class: next to them instead of beside freebie-availing babus. But what would the senior government official have done if he found a fare-paying maid — not unknown among the London-habituated subcontinental elites — ensconced in the adjacent seat?