The meeting was informed that since inauguration of citizen portal by Prime Minister on October 28, 2018, which was also linked to all provincial governments and over 7,000 government offices, 1.173 million users have registered themselves on the portal with 1,003,000 inland users, 103,000 overseas Pakistanis and 4,000 foreigners.
Province-wise data reflects 568,000 users from Punjab, 284,000 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 137,000 from Sindh, 35,000 from Islamabad, 12,000 from Balochistan, 7,000 from AJ&K and 1,000 from Gilgit-Baltistan are registered themselves on the Portal. The report presented to the federal cabinet maintained that the federal government resolved 509,153 complaints out of 553,125, achieving resolution rate of 92 percent. In Punjab 392,292 complaints were resolved with 88 percent redressal rate.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa secured 87 percent on the score card by resolving 100,635 out of 116,050 complaints. In Islamabad 9,909 complaints were resolved out of 11,137. Balochistan government resolved 6,166 complaints out of 7,782 securing 79 percent redressal rate. The Sindh government, however, lagged behind all other governments with merely 40 percent redressal rate and could only resolve 38,268 complaints out of 95,894 received at Pakistan Citizen Portal.
While briefing the cabinet about the number of super-escalated complaints, it was informed that out of 37,029 complaints which have been pending for more than 90 days, 84 percent complaints pertain to Sindh government.
The cabinet was apprised that on the basis of the feedback received from the citizens, various policy initiatives were taken by the government to facilitate the people of the country. These policy initiatives include; (i) enforcement of SOPs for facilitation of persons with missing finger prints, (ii) exemption of overseas Pakistanis from withholding tax, (iii) payment of outstanding stipends to over 29,000 interns who were hired by the previous government but were not paid their stipend, (iv) and facilitation of females and persons with disabilities etc.
The federal cabinet was informed that on the basis of the complaints, strict action was taken and senior level officers were taken to task for neglect of duty. A DG of CDA was suspended on a complaint filed by a citizen at federal level whereas in Punjab, high ranking police officers were either suspended or made OSDs (officer on special duty). Chief Secretary Punjab issued show cause notices to two (02) deputy commissioners, warning letters were issued to three (03) deputy commissioners, three assistant commissioners were suspended, 20 ACs were issued displeasure letters and explanations were sought from other senior officers of various departments.
The success stories included the provision of assistance to the citizens in cases of non-cooperation from government officials and offices, action against high-handedness of police officials, recovery of abductees, taking action against police officials who had colluded with culprits involved in rape of a girl, and bringing back of a Pakistani citizen who was stuck in Saudi Arabia due to bankruptcy of the company.
The cabinet was informed that efforts are afoot to institutionalize the system and create greater awareness among public about the facility. The prime minister and the cabinet members acknowledged that performance of Pakistan Citizen Portal and directed that greater awareness should be created about the Portal so that the government could serve the people in a better way and improve governance structure in the country.
The Prime Minister observed that the initiative was taken to reach out to the people of Pakistan and to connect them directly with the government which has the responsibility to serve them.