05 July 2004	Monday	16 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 4: The round-the-clock outlets opened by the Pakistan Post Office late last year have received a poor public response, forcing the postal department to drop plans for opening more such outlets in the city.

The PPO had made four outlets operational round the clock last November. The outlets, tasked with not only handling incoming and outgoing mail but also receiving utility bills, were situated in Defence, Bahadurabad, Jinnah Terminal and Haidery (North Nazimabad).

The Sindh postmaster-general, Mohammad Ahmed Mian, told Dawn on Saturday that except for the Jinnah Terminal outlet,the other three outlets were not working round the clock any more.

"Contrary to our expectations, public response to the round-the-clock post offices has been very unfavourable. I think it was because of the breakdown of law and order in the city. In any case, except for the Jinnah Terminal post office, the other three outlets remain functional from 8am to 10pm," he said.

He said that plans of opening three more such outlets on Sharea Faisal, Saddar and Gulshan-i-Iqbal had been abandoned. The Pakistan Post Office, which became a regular government department through the Post Office Act 1898, runs 186 post offices in Karachi, and handles over 548,000 postal articles of all kinds.

The Sindh postmaster-general said the decision of opening round-the-clock outlets had been taken in view of the cosmopolitan nature of Karachi. "Since we had the surplus staff, required to make these post offices functional 24 hours a day, we decided to go ahead with this move in phases," he said.

PPO officials said that security of the round-the-clock post offices was a major problem, pointing out that in the past many post offices had been robbed. The Sindh postmaster-general recalled that the PPO had initiated the move of receiving utility bills after obtaining permission from the State Bank of Pakistan.

"Banks receiving utility bills have already indicated to the State Bank of Pakistan that they do not want to continue with this facility. Their complaint is that collection of utility bills engages a large number of their staff, and they do not earn a lot from the bills either," he said.

He said that like banks, the PPO would receive Rs2 per bill from the gas, telephone and power utilities. Sources told Dawn that the PPO was also responsible for the delivery of phone bills in the city. "Under a contract, the PPO distributes half of the bills of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company, paying Rs2 per bill to the staff tasked with distributing the phone bills.

At least Rs0.74 goes to postmen who distribute the bills and Rs0.25 to sorters," they explained. The Sindh postmaster-general said the PPO was in talks with the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, which might allow the postal department to distribute its bills as well.