CHITRAL: The provincial Right to Public Services (RPS) Commission has appointed its district monitoring officer in Chitral unaware of the fact that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Public Services Act 2014 is yet to be extended to Malakand division, which is part of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) as mentioned in Article 246 of the Constitution.

An official at the Chitral DC office dealing with the subject confirmed that the Act passed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly for the formation of Right to Public Services Commission had not been extended to the district as required under Article 247 of the Constitution.

The law is aimed at providing for delivery of public services to the people of the province within the stipulated time limit. Under the Act, district monitoring officers are appointed in the districts to ensure implementation of the law and make the services easily accessible to the public which included issuance of driving licence, domicile certificate, police character certificate and coverage in government hospitals.

Under Section 3 of the Article 247 of the country’s Constitution, no Act of the provincial assembly shall apply to a Pata unless the governor, with the approval of the President of Pakistan, so directs for its application to the area. However, in the instant case the formality has not been fulfilled.

When some councillors asked the district monitoring officer, after his briefing to the Chitral tehsil council, about extension of the Act to the district, he expressed his ignorance about it.

The official remained tightlipped when tehsil councillor Khosh Mohammad enquired the official what would happen if an officer refused to oblige an applicant on the ground that the Act had not been extended to the area.

When a senior officer of the commission was contacted for his version, he asked this scribe to talk to the commissioner (administration), but the latter could not be contacted with his assistant replying that ‘Saab was busy and would talk to you later’.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2017