Citizen facilitation centre yet to become fully functional

Domicile applicants still rely on stamped paper vendors for documents; token tax collection yet to be launched

ISLAMABAD: A citizen facilitation centre established by the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICTA) to streamline and simplify various public services has yet to become fully functional nearly two weeks after it was formally inaugurated.

The centre had been established at the ICTA complex in Sector G-11 and started working in January this year.

It had been formally inaugurated by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on March 17.

The centre aims to simplify the cumbersome processes for several public services such as the issuance of domicile certificates, collecting vehicle token tax, driving licences and computerisation of arms licences.

It includes a large waiting area along with a computerised, self-help token issuing system for the different kinds of services. But the facilitation centre currently offers only three services such as the domicile certificates, driving licences, and computerisation of arms licences.

The ICT administration had announced that the centre would also collect vehicle token tax, but that service has yet to be launched at the centre.

As a result, applicants have to rely on traditional methods, seeking out services of stamped paper vendors to meet necessary requirements.

The staff at the centre say they receive around 200 visitors every day with domicile certificate applicants making up the bulk of visitors.

While the purpose of the centre to simplify the process, it turns out that the only difference between the old and the new process at the centre is that previously applicants would submit related fees at the National Bank. Now, they were depositing this fee at the centre. However, to complete other legal requirements and formalities, such as preparation of affidavits and attestation of documents, applicants still had to rely on and pay stamped paper vendors and public notaries.

Assistant Commissioner Capt retd Shoaib Ali, who supervises the facilitation centre, explained that they were in the process of altering processes at the centre. As a result of these changes, the requirement of affidavits would soon be done away with to further ease the application process.

Noting that the administration’s aim was to make the processes as easy and transparent as it was at the offices of the National Database Regulatory Authority (NADRA), Ali said that the centre had received a positive response from the public.

However, a few visitors at the centre whom The Express Tribune talked to, complained that there was nobody to guide them at the gate.

Moreover, they said that staff locks the doors of the centre for around an hour in the afternoon while they  go on a break. During this time, he said, visitors have to wait outside the centre on the road.

“There is a spacious sitting area inside. They should let visitors wait there instead of making us wait out in the sun,” a visitor said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2017.