LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Punjab chapter has initiated the process of becoming the first political party in Pakistan to be ISO 9000 certified.

PTI Punjab spokesperson Andleeb Abbas has been appointed head of the governance and organisation committee.

At a ceremony at a local hotel on Thursday, Ms Abbas said the political parties in Pakistan and South Asia lacked management system and accountability that prevented them from becoming less dependent on personality and more on performance. She said the ISO 9000 was an international quality management system, which was a very effective way of creating professional organisation, quality standards and accountable governance in institution.

Under ISO 9000 certification, she said, the PTI would create transparency in its operations from top to bottom, where all structures and procedures would be documented according to the international best practices. She said the quality checks would be helpful in ensuring that these systems were being adhered to by each party member regardless of his rank and position.

Ms Abbas said this system would be a true representative of democracy as it would make the top-most leadership and the lowest rank comply with the same standards of performance and accountability. She said Malaysia had made a lot of progress because Mahathir Mohammad in 1997 had made it mandatory for all political departments’ parties and ministries to become ISO 9000 certified. Now, she said, Malaysia had become an example of progress in the world.

PTI Punjab General Secretary Dr Yasmin Raashid said the PTI was always the pioneer as it organised intra-party elections and was now trying to institutionalise its party operation by having an external auditing firm access its system procedures and processes.

MNA Shafqat Mahmood said it was heartening to see the PTI Punjab taking this initiative to set a model for all political parties in the country. He said the PTI would keep on setting new trends and change the culture of the country.

Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed said the PTI would become an institution that would show the PML-N and other parties that despite being much younger than these parties, it was ahead of them in terms of internal governance and accountability.

PTI Punjab President Ejaz Chaudhry said it was a great moment for the political history in Pakistan as the PTI was taking lead in the whole region of South Asia, where some offices of the BJP had taken limited ISO 9000 but no other party in South Asia had taken this initiative to become open to public accountability.

He said the political parties having transparent practices could bring and implement true democracy. He asked whether there was any other political party in the country that had the courage to publish their accounts on the web as the PTI did. He said the PTI was confirming its position as being a party of real change.