I WOULD like to request the new government to introduce a ration card system. This will go a long way in curbing waste while ensuring the poor get essential commodities at reasonable rates.

The advances made in information technology in the last decade will ensure that the implementation of a nationwide ration card system is done without any hiccups.

The National Database and Registration Authority already provides citizens computerised identity cards and is maintaining the people’s database. These skills can easily be utilised to implement a ration card scheme.

The country also possesses a strong telecommunication set-up. This can be used for the exchange of the proposed ration card data to a centralised data base. There can be small terminals in stores with a scanner and a modem. The terminals can scan the customer’s NADRA identity card and then access the central repository to update and retrieve the monthly ration quota.

The technology and expertise already exists in Pakistan owing to the existing credit card POS (Point of Sale) systems of banks which are already implemented and massively used around the world. The proposed system can be designed to ensure that no citizen receives goods in excess of the assigned quota.

Nasser Marwat

Canada

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2018