ISLAMABAD, Nov 21: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Communications and Railways on Tuesday expressed concern over malpractices in disbursement of Baitul Maal funds through Pakistan Post Office and directed the department to take action against people involved in corruption to ensure that the poor and the needy were not deprived of their right.

The committee, which met under Senator Kamil Ali Agha, recommended that the disbursement system of the Baitul Maal funds through post office should be revamped.

It directed the secretary communications to coordinate with the Baitul Maal authorities to improve the system. The committee members said that futuristic policies were needed to make post office a hub of commercial and social activities.

Syed Kamil Ali Agha pointed out that some bogus forms were being sold at post ofice outlets, offering small loans to the people. He directed the DG Post Office to take appropriate action against the individuals involved in selling these fake forms as it was bringing bad name to the government.

Earlier, Director-General of Pakistan Post Office Department Mohammad Arshad Khan gave a detailed overview of the working and performance of the department and steps taken to introduce market oriented policies in the department.

He assured the committee that efforts were being made to introduce service oriented culture to make Post Office a business hub. He said the introduction of new technologies in the department and training of the staff would enable the department to compete in the market.

He said that more than 12,000 post offices were being run with a workforce of only 27,000.

Federal Minister for Communications Muhammad Shamim Siddiqui agreed with the members of the committee that customer confidence needs to be restored and infrastructure of the post offices needs to be improved.

IG Mmotorway Police Ahmad Naeem told the committee that Gwadar-Karachi coastal highway had recently been handed over to the Motorway Police.

He said that a viable plan had been chalked out to educate the local people about the traffic rules to help reduce accidents.

The committee appreciated the plan of action prepared by Motorway Police and recommended that the Karachi-Quetta highway should also be handed over to the Motorway Police.