Officials delaying action on people’s complaints to face accountability: CM Afridi

Published January 9, 2026
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi chairs a meeting of the provincial cabinet in Peshawar. — DawnNewsTV/File
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi chairs a meeting of the provincial cabinet in Peshawar. — DawnNewsTV/File

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi on Thursday said the officials delaying the resolution of people’s complaints would face accountability as such a conduct was unacceptable.

“Ensuring prompt resolution of public complaints is the top priority of our government, so the Pakistan Citizen Portal is being strengthened to enforce institutional accountability in line with the ‘Awam ka Ehsaas’ vision,” the chief minister said during a function here.

The event was held at the Chief Minister’s House to launch the reform process to enhance the functionality of the Pakistan Citizen Portal, according to an official statement.

Mr Afridi announced that he would personally and directly monitor the portal in order to ensure timely resolution of public complaints.

Says he’ll monitor Citizen Portal

He said that all citizens of the province, including overseas Pakistanis, should approach the portal without hesitation, assuring them that their complaints would be addressed promptly and effectively.

The chief minister stated that under the new reforms, special facilities were being introduced for residents of remote areas and for citizens faced issues in access to the internet, enabling them to lodge complaints manually.

He said for the purpose, 2,354 dashboards had been established across all districts of the province, providing citizens with facilities for complaint registration.

The chief minister emphasised that all relevant officials would be responsible for the timely resolution of complaints and clarified that if a complaint, that could be resolved within one or two days takes a week, would be considered negligence and those responsible would be held accountable.

He said that all applications developed under the E-governance framework would be integrated into the Pakistan Citizen Portal to ensure easy and uniform access to institutions for the public.

Mr Afridi said that online open courts had already been initiated from the chief minister secretariat. He said all other departments as well as divisional and district administrative authorities should ensure the conduct of online open courts.

He said that all complaints received during these open courts must be uploaded to the portal for effective monitoring.

The chief minister said he was moving forward in line with the vision of his leader and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf founder, Imran Khan.

He said that Imran Khan, as the prime minister, had established a practical example of e-governance through the portal, and that their objective was to ensure visible performance of government institutions at every level.

“Effective service delivery is not possible without a genuine understanding of public hardships,” he said.

Participants were briefed on the proposed reforms in the portal.

Officials said that in order to facilitate easier public access to institutions, all relevant applications were being integrated under the Pakistan Citizen Portal.

They said in order to enhance institutional outreach to the public, an effective system of online open courts would be established, while at the third level, a comprehensive and effective mechanism for automatic resolution of complaints would be put in place, the statement read.

The participants were also informed that over 0.7 million people were registered on the portal in the province and that the public satisfaction rate under the portal in the province was 54 per cent, the highest in the country.

Officials said through the ongoing reforms, further improvement in the overall performance of the portal and public satisfaction levels was expected, according to the statement.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2026

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