By Zil E Huma
Asadullah Khan sits on a chair outside a washed-out old building for 12 hours every day in the punishing Karachi heat. Wearing a navy blue uniform, the security guard leaves his house near Ziauddin Hospital in Clifton right after Fajr prayer to walk the 10-kilometre stretch to his workplace in Saddar. It takes him two hours every day to reach on time for a job that pays a meagre Rs25,000 each month.
By noon, the humidity forces him to take off his sweat-drenched shirt and dry it off by placing it in front of the shabby fan available in the parking area of his office building. This is also when he steals some time to cool off in front of the same fan.
At around 7 pm, it is time for him to walk another two hours back to his one-room apartment that he shares with his family of five.
鈥淚 have to pay Rs7,000 rent from my salary for the room, but we get by,鈥 he said, with a smile, a permanent fixture on his otherwise worn face.
Asadullah is not even aware that what he is earning is 33 per cent below the mini