ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan launched on Sunday a citizens’ complaint receiving system aimed at improving governance and addressing people’s problems under his own supervision as soon as possible.

The system, to be known as Pakistan Citizens’ Portal (PCP), has been established by the Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit, which is run by those who had established a similar system in Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa.

The system has been connected to 60 per cent of government offices in the federal capital and provinces through internet to receive people’s complaints and transmit them to the officials concerned.

However, it is feared that like the National Accounta­bility Bureau (NAB), the PCP could be used as a tool for arm-twisting of political opponents by punishing bureaucrats who have a soft corner for them.

In his speech at the PCP’s launching ceremony at the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Khan said it was an unprecedented complaint receiving system which none of his predecessors had.

He also expressed a hope that the system, by ensuring good governance, would attract foreign as well as local investment in the country.

“Good governance will push all departments and the system will keep me informed about the performance of various departments. If they collude (with each other), I will get feedback. The citizens will hold the government accountable, and such feedback has never been given to any prime minister in Pakistan before.”

According to the unit, complaints can be lodged by downloading the prescribed app on android phones or through its website. Every complaint has to be addressed within two weeks.

The PCP is being connected with the offices of the provincial chief secretaries. They will be pressured to give answers. “We will know what’s happening in the provinces and which departments are performing,” the prime minister said.

He hoped that the PCP will bring good governance, transparency, efficiency and accountability in government departments. “Since I am the prime minister of the whole country, the system will keep me informed about what is going on even in those provinces ruled by an opposition party,” he said in reply to a question by a journalist that how would he keep in touch with the people of Sindh, which is being ruled by the Pakistan Peoples Party.

He said those who did not have facility of e-mail or smart phone, they could lodge their complaints through a toll free phone call or a written letter. “The portal will be available to citizens in the form of a cell phone app, but they will also be able to approach the government via telephone, email or written letters,” he maintained.

The prime minister said he would oversee the process of addressing the public complaints and implementation on recommendations. “Unlike previous complaint systems, it is not the system to receive complaints only but the complainants will be informed about the action to be taken on his complaint,” he added.

The portal, he said, will make it easy for him to get details that from which part of the country most of complaints were coming and about which ministries.

“This is the new Pakistan I have promised with the nation, because the system developed by our own experts has never been created in any country. Our youth have developed this portal in-house, and it can be expanded,” he claimed.

“Naya Pakistan will come into being when the Pakistani people own the government and rely on the government to help them,” he added.

He said the system will change the prevailing mindset of bureaucracy for the first time and make the government offices and ministries accountable as it would give voice to the common man and overseas Pakistanis as well.

The system will enable the government to keep track of what’s happening in various ministries and departments, and how they are performing, and subsequent “policies will reflect what the public wants”.

He said the PCP will also help the government in policy-making after hearing the voice of the people.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said foreign investment may increase in Pakistan when barriers to investment were removed by addressing and resolving complaints lodged through the portal.

Khan recalled a visit to Turkey and said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had disclosed a secret of his success that he had a complaint cell in his office for investors.

Giving details that how complaints can be lodged in the system, he said: “Before putting in your complaint on the system, the address and ID card details will all be asked for and this database will be connected with National Database and Registration Authority, so we will know if a complaint is authentic or not”.

The minister called the system as “an all-rounder app” with every government department under it right from health to police to education.

He said he will himself monitor all details about complaints from each area so that people in government will realise that they must serve citizens, since their salaries were being paid through taxpayers’ money. “Those who are fed of corruption will be happy but those whose corruption will stop, will says one thing — Hamain Kuon Nikala (why we have been removed),” he said in a lighter vein while indirectly mentioning ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s famous narrative—Mujhey Kuon Nikala.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said all complaint data will be published so that the public could hold provincial governments accountable as well.

He said the system will also make it easy to punish and reward government officers on the basis of their performance. “The performance regarding complaints will appear on the ACRs of officers and promotions will be made on merit, thus a merit-based system will also be created,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2018

Download the new Dawn mobile app here:

Google Play

Apple Store