Quaid-e- Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Mao TSE Tung were, perhaps the only two leaders in living memory who avoided extravagant way of life and parsimony in government spending, was their hallmark in financial dealings. Only green tea was served in official gatherings presided over by them unlike thousands of rupees spent by many in this financially impoverished country by the rulers on the snacks bought from seven stars hotels for serving the participants of official meetings presided over by them.
Once the owner of a butcher’s shop located at the corner of the street in Tehran where Imam khomeni lived and from whom a servant of the Imam used to buy half a kilo meat daily for his kitchen smilingly asked him that some day he should buy one kilo from him also. When that servant told the Imam about it he was asked by the Imam that he should have replied him that we spend only that much amount on our food which a common man in Iran can afford to spend.
Once a close associate of the Imam Khomeni suggested to him that why doesn’t he appoint his eldest son as Ayatullah as he qualifies for that title on which Imam told him that he cannot because one day he found him missing out on his Fajr Prayer.He was the same son of the Imam whose bank balance contained only that much amount on his death which was equal to Rs. 48 in Pakistani currency.
The furniture placed in the office of North Vietnamese President Hon Chin Min was made of bamboo wood. Late Prince Phillips husband of late Queen Elizabeth was a very outspoken person who never minced words and called a spade a spade by telling to the face of even his hosts if anything grated on him.
Once when he visited President House during the course of his stay in Islamabad he was wonderstruck seeing costly chandeliers hanging from its roof as well as its highly priced furniture and sardonically remarked to the protocol officer of the foreign office on duty with him, now I understand where does your government spend loans of the IMF.
Earlier on landing at Islamabad airport when he was made to sit in a big limousine having eight doors he sarcastically told the protocol officer, Oh you still use such big cars which we have stopped using long ago. Overspending national budget on non developmental items one day lands those country in extreme financial trouble which run their economic affairs on foreign loans. There is a saying in Arabic that the common people follow the way of life of the rulers so it is incumbent upon those in the saddle to set up healthy financial traditions and live within their earnings.
