ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has included an exclusive category in Pakistan Citizen Portal (PCP), being run under his direct supervision, to receive and pursue complaints on land grabbing.

Prime Minister Office announced on Tuesday that the federal government, apart from making efforts to improve public service delivery, was determined to curb land grabbing in the country.

Interestingly, the development came a day after doubts were raised at the credibility of the PCP in the National Assembly session that was prorogued due to rumpus on the issue that a compliant of sexual harassment filed by a woman against National Accountability Bureau chairman Javed Iqbal had been disposed of.

About land grabbing, the prime minister has ordered initiation of strict actions as per law at various tiers of the administrations both at federal and provincial levels.

It will also enable people to blow the whistle on state land being occupied or encroached upon

To facilitate the public at large, the prime minister during his live telephonic interaction with people on Sunday, had announced provision of an exclusive category on the PCP for lodging complaints about land grabbing.

Prime Minister Imran Khan launched Pakistan Citizen Portal, an online based complaint registration system, in Oct 2018, with a view to timely address problems of the people and get their feedback.

The provision of the new category will facilitate the public not only to lodge complaints regarding their lands being grabbed but also to blow the whistle about the state land being encroached upon/gabbed by the mafia, said a letter issued by the PMO.

Moreover, it will help the authorities to get abreast of the grey areas of administration pertaining to the issue, get analytics for policy formulation, evaluate performance/efficiency of the officials concerned and hold them accountable in case of negligence/laxity.

The prime minister has, therefore, directed all provincial chief secretaries to hold meetings with heads of the departments concerned, development authorities, commissioners/RPOs and DCs/DPOs and sensitise them about significance of the matter and complaints related thereto.

He has ordered that specific instructions should be issued to ensure that complaints on land grabbing are carefully examined.

The prime minister instructed that in case of private matters, the allegations levelled should be probed properly by hearing both parties rather than taking action straightaway.

Special quarterly progress review meetings will be convened on the status of complaints lodged in the category of land grabbing. However, complaints referring to the issues that involve court cases will not be entertained as per provisions of the PCP manual and complaints of overseas Pakistanis will be looked into on priority basis.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2021