According to the notification issued on January 25 the muavins will record public complaints against their respective departments and address them. They will start working from next week.
The notifications do not elaborate on what the qualifications and the powers of a muavin are. The chief minister is the appointing authority. According to the notification, muavins will not receive any remuneration for their services. They will receive only the “necessary” logistical support: an office, a small staff, pick and drop services and a liaison officer – who has to be a gazetted officer. Only the muavins, the department secretaries and principal secretaries to the chief minister and governor received copies.
The appointment of muavins follows a series of task forces, coordinators, political assistants, political advisers, complaint cells and open courts. Apparently none of the initiatives for grievance handling has proved satisfactory.
A secretary of one of the departments to which a muavin has been appointed said, on condition of anonymity, that there was no need for them. “A complaint cell already exists. [Such appointments] are only a waste of public money,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th, 2012.
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