Corruption, malpractice added to Citizens’ Portal

ISLAMABAD: In line with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s instructions, the Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit has added a dedicated category of Corruption and Malpractices to Pakistan Citizens’ Portal complaint lodging mechanism.

This category has been titled as Corruption/Malpractices, which has been further classified into six sub categories namely, Financial Corruption, Violation of Merit/Rules, Power Abuse, Fraud/Forgery, Harassment and Inefficiency.

The classification of these various sub kinds has been keenly devised, according to the Prime Minister Office, keeping in view the nature of complaints received on the portal. Matters regarding corruption in government funds, bribery and kickbacks fall under the Financial Corruption, whereas irregularities in recruitment, procurement and allotment processes comprise of the Violation of Merit/Rules category. Similarly favoritism, unauthorized privileges etc. represent Power Abuse section.

Harassment, having become one of gravest challenges, is a pertinent subcategory of the Pakistan Citizens’ Portal, where any issue regarding physical/sexual harassment, threatening and blackmailing will be put under this head.

Likewise, any complaint registered concerning fake documents and impersonation will be listed under fraud/mockery section.

Finally, cases of absenteeism, red-tapism and non-serious attitude will constitute as inefficiency.

The PMDU has done this categorization to facilitate public, as well as to safeguard the integrity and reputation of individuals, as majority of reported cases received through the citizens’ portal, represented mala fide and irrational content, for the purposes of achieving personal desired outcomes.

Moreover, this step will also enable the dashboard handlers/officers to systematically take up, or drop (irrelevant) matters, and hence will accelerate the redressal process. It has been further decided that the lodging of complaints in the category of “Corruption/Malpractices” by the citizens will be subject to some pre-defined system alerts of Do’s and Don’ts, which will be made part of the “User’s Guidelines Manual for Complaints and Suggestion Handling”, along with other changes and shall be circulated to all concerned departments.

As part of the Do’s and Don’ts, any complaint which does not provide authentic evidence will not be entertained, furthermore it has been prescribed to refrain from making complaints carrying baseless allegations.