PTI govt takes lead in citizens’ complaint resolution

Lowest rate reported from Sindh province with 40% of resolution rate

The federal cabinet has been informed that the government was leading the provincial governments in redressing citizen complaints received at Pakistan Citizens’ Portal (PCP).

The portal — inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan on October 28, 2018 — “is the first largest citizen engagement initiative in the history of the country”. The instant app was designed and developed free of charge by a local team.

The portal is linked to all provincial governments with one-click access to over 7,000 government offices, it was informed.

The cabinet was informed that the PCP was short-listed among 4,646 mobile applications of 87 countries and the portal got global recognition as 2nd best service delivery application during the World Government Summit held in Dubai on February 2019.

The cabinet was also informed that so far 1.173 million users have registered themselves on the portal with 1,003,000 (1,003k) inland users, 103,000 overseas Pakistanis and 4,000 foreigners (please check).

According to the data: 568,000 users from Punjab, 284,000 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 137,000 from Sindh, 35,000 from Islamabad, 12,000 from Balochistan, 7,000 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 1,000 users from Gilgit-Baltistan are registered on the portal.

The report presented to the cabinet states that the federal government resolved 509,153 complaints out of 553,125, at a resolution rate of 92 per cent.

In Punjab 392,292 complaints were resolved with 88 per cent of the rate. K-P secured 87 per cent on the scorecard by resolving 100,635 out of 116,050 complaints.

In Islamabad 9,909 complaints were resolved out of 11,137. Balochistan government resolved 6,166 complaints out of 7,782 securing 79 per cent rate. Sindh government, however, lagged behind all the other authorities with merely 40 per cent of the rate and could only resolve 38,268 complaints out of 95,894 received at the PCP.

Briefing the cabinet about the number of complaints, it was informed that out of 37,029 complaints, which were pending for more than 90 days, 84 per cent of them pertain to the Sindh government.

The cabinet was apprised that on the basis of nature and feedback received from the citizens, various policy initiatives were taken to facilitate the people.

Such policy initiatives include enforcement of SOPs for the facilitation of persons with missing fingerprints, exemption of overseas Pakistanis from withholding tax, payment of outstanding stipends to over 29,000 interns who were hired by the previous government but were not paid their stipend, facilitation of females and persons with disabilities, etc.

It was informed that on the basis of the complaints, strict action was taken and senior-level officers were taken to task for dereliction of duty.

The cabinet was informed that a DG of the Capital Development Authority was suspended on a complaint filed by a citizen.

In Punjab, high ranking police officers were either suspended or made OSDs (Officer on Special Duty). Punjab chief secretary sent show-cause notices to two deputy commissioners, warning letters to three deputy commissioners, three assistant commissioners (AC) were suspended, and 20 ACs were issued displeasure letters and explanations were sought from other senior officers of various departments.

Many success stories where the citizens were provided relief were also shared with the cabinet.

It include provision of assistance to the citizens in cases of non-cooperation from government officials and offices, action against high-handedness of police officials, recovery of abductee, blackmailing, taking action against police officials who had colluded with culprits involved in rape of a girl, bringing back of Pakistani citizen who was stuck in Saudi Arabia because of bankruptcy of the company.

The cabinet was informed that efforts were afoot to institutionalise the system and create greater awareness among the public about the facility. Efforts were also being made to stop misuse, blackmailing and malafide through the implementation of Citizen’s Responsibility Index.

The PM and the cabinet members appreciated the PCP’s performance and directed that greater awareness should be created about the portal so that the government could serve the people better and improve governance structure.

The PM observed that the initiative was taken to reach out to the people and to connect them directly with the government, which has the responsibility to serve them.