Response to the public

The concept of good governance centers on the responsibility of governments and governing bodies to meet the needs of the people as opposed to select groups in society.

It involves a process of decision-making and the implementation of those decisions through state institutions created for the purpose. The major attributes of good governance universally acknowledged and advocated are responsiveness of the system of governance to the public’s needs and sensitivities, participation of people in the efforts of the government or the governing bodies, transparency in carrying out their functions by the public institutions, equitable accountability, efficiency, consensus of society on what is in the best interest of the whole community and how this can be achieved, equity and inclusiveness and rule of law.

Bad governance lacks the foregoing characteristic and is corruption-ridden. Corruption is generally defined as misuse of entrusted power or authority for private gains. It usually entails embezzlement of funds, nepotism, kickbacks, bribery as well as deliberate attempts to perpetuate a system with inbuilt avenues of corruption, graft and entitlement. Corruption has many forms and the major ones are political corruption and systemic corruption which germinate other forms of corruption like in the public delivery departments of the government that eat into the social and economic fiber of a country besides generating social tensions and hampering its socio-economic progress.

Political corruption occurs at the highest level of the political system, usually at the policy formulation level when politicians and state agents entitled to make and enforce laws in the name of the people use their position to sustain their power, status and wealth leading to misallocation of resources and perversion of the process of decision-making. Systemic or endemic corruption is an integrated and essential aspect of the economic, social and political system prevalent in a country, embedded in a wider situation that helps sustain it.

If we apply the foregoing touchstone to judge the quality of governance and review the permeating situation, we can safely infer that over the last seventy years the people of this country have endured bad governance. While it is imperative to eliminate avenues of political and systemic corruption what matters the most is the eradication of corruption among the public delivery departments which are supposed to promote the well-being of the people and address their complaints and grievances on an expeditious basis. The situation in our country has been just the opposite and people are tired of corruption.

It is however encouraging to note that the PTI government has shown unflinching commitment to not only bring reforms to plug the avenues of political and systemic corruption but also work with unruffled focus to make the lives of the people comfortable by ensuring that their complaints and grievances against the government departments are taken care of without any loss of time.

In this regard, the Pakistan Citizens Portal was launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan. It was the first positive move that marked the beginning of the country’s march towards good governance. This arrangement for online registration of complaints by Pakistanis whether living in Pakistan or abroad was the first of its kind in Pakistan. Citizens were able to register their complaints through an App.

The arrangement ensured one-click access to 7000 government offices of the federal and provincial departments through the portal. The system ensured that the complaints lodged by the citizens automatically reached the heads of the concerned departments. Citizens could also upload videos, audios and picture files in support of their complaints. The heads of the departments were bound to settle the complaints within ten days of their receipt. A complaint registered by a citizen also became immediately available at the dashboards of the ministries and departments.

The system also enabled citizens to provide feedback to the government and rate their complaint resolution. The prime minister has been personally monitoring the whole exercise as all the departments and ministries were required to send regular reports to him to keep him abreast about the working of the system. Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that the system would make bureaucrats, ministries, government employees and MPs accountable besides addressing concerns of investors. He said that the citizens would also be able to lodge complaints about private institutions.

An incisive look into the structure raised for handling the online complaints reveals that the system has worked with great efficiency. During the one year since the system became operational it handled 1.23 million complaints and resolved 1057334 of them – showing success of 86 percent. The break up of the percentage of complaints resolved by the federal government, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federal Capital, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh is 92 percent, 88 percent, 87 percent, 89 percent, 79 percent, 72 percent and 40 percent respectively. The major complaints pertained to the police, land revenue, education and health sectors.

It is pertinent to point out that government officials responsible for showing indifference to the public complaints were also held accountable for their inaction. A number of high ranking police officers in Punjab were suspended. Five officers of the rank of deputy commissioner were issued warning letters, three assistant commissioners were suspended while 20 were conveyed the displeasure of the government. More than 60 officers of the local government department and 22 functionaries of the education department were issued show-cause notices.

According to the figures compiled by authorities, in the civilian domain the registration of 47000 citizens was suspended on the provision of invalid ID cards and there was also a drop of 1,21000 complaints pertaining to court matters, political issues, domestic matters, service matters, classified matters, and sensitive issues during the last one year.

The foregoing facts surely testify to the fact that the system put in place by the government has shown very encouraging results not only in addressing the public complaints but also with the accountability of the government officials. Hopefully, with further envisaged improvements in the system including web-access to citizens having no android phones, putting in place an inter-departmental conflict system and ensuring transparency and openness of the government through an Open Government Portal-Strategy Document, it will become even more effective in dealing with public complaints and improving governance.

The writer is a freelance contributor. Email: ashpak10@gmail.com