THE very fact that about three million people made use of Pakistan Citizen Portal during the last two years speaks of the relevance of the initiative for those who are wronged by the bureaucracy and that is why Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the masses to use the platform to help improve governance. Speaking at a ceremony held on Friday to mark completion of two years of the initiative, he said the portal was instrumental in pointing out which government departments were providing services to people and highlighted those that were not.
It is not clear whether all the complaints were pursued to their logical end and complainants got relief but the mechanism certainly has the potential to hold bureaucracy accountable. A genuine complaint against an official/officer means transgression of the rules and regulations and misuse of the authority and therefore, apart from resolution of the grievance of the complainant, disciplinary action should be initiated against the wrong-doer. That it has not so far happened is indicative of either lack of capacity or absence of necessary powers for the delivery unit at the PM Office, which looks after the entire process of lodging/disposal of complaints through the portal. We have all along been emphasizing in these columns that proper and effective use of the platform can help move towards the cherished goals of good governance. With this in view, it is appreciable that the Prime Minister is encouraging people to report cases of corruption by the district administration and police, warning that those found involved in corruption would be dismissed from service and not just transferred to some other post as is the case at the moment. This could serve as an effective deterrence against corruption and malpractices by official machinery provided complaints not just against district administration and police but also against others are entertained in the same spirit and action taken promptly. It is also praiseworthy that the Prime Minister is using the data of the platform to assess performance of ministries, divisions and departments and this assessment led him to arrive at the conclusion that the municipal services are least responsive in addressing grievances of the people. The plan of the Prime Minister to make local bodies fully autonomous and transfer funds directly at the union council levels could prove to be a harbinger of real change as most of the problems of the people relate to local government and local administration. We hope the plan would be given final shape at the earliest after proper consultation with all stakeholders.
