Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday termed his government’s innovative programme of ‘Pakistan Citizens Portal’ a medium for a quantum change by enabling the citizens to have a say in the government affairs through registration of their complaints/suggestions, highlighting the functioning of all its ministries, departments and offices. Addressing the launching ceremony of the Pakistan Citizens Portal here at the PM Office, the prime minister said it was one of the manifestations of ‘Naya Pakistan’ in which the people would get a sense to own the government. He said the previous rulers failed to change the colonial mindset and treated the people as a subjugated class. “Such trends did not change and the public expectations with the government offices ran very low, but now that trend has to change, the government offices and officers should serve the people,” he added. The prime minister said the citizens could raise their voices online and the departments and offices concerned would be bound to respond in the specific timeline to address their complaints and the PM Office would oversee the progress on those issues. He said the idea to launch such a web portal was first of its kind in the country’s history, interconnecting about 4,000 government offices. He expressed the confidence that the programme would also help the government to make policies based upon public feedback and suggestions, and their opinion would serve as springboard and thrust for such policies. He regretted that unfortunately the wealthy and influential people got their issues resolved but the ordinary man on the street had to suffer. Changing the mindset of government functionaries was vital to improve the governance system in the country, he said, adding through easy access to the web portal by all and sundry, the politicians, ministers and government functionaries had been made accountable. “The portal will make it easy for me to get details of where in Pakistan the complaints are coming from, and about which ministries,” he said. “The system will enable the government to keep track of what’s happening in various ministries and departments, and how they are performing, and subsequent policies will reflect what the public wants,” he said. “All policy-making will be done after hearing the voice of the people,” he added. “Before putting in your complaint on the system, the address and ID card details will all be asked for and this database will be connected with the National Database and Registration Authority, so we will know if a complaint is authentic or not,” the PM said. “Every week, I will receive all the details about complaints from each area, and which ministries complaints are coming from. The people in government will realise that they must serve citizens, since their salaries are being paid through taxpayers’ money.” Giving an example of Turkey, the prime minister said, “There was a change in Turkey because the prime minister solved the citizens’ issues. Naya Pakistan will be born when people realise their problems are being heard.” “Even in Europe there is no system like this. We will publish the date gathered from the complaint cell monthly,” he added. Responding to a question, the prime minister said the system will inform the citizens regarding the time needed to solve their complaints. “The system is connected to all the four provincial secretaries,” he said. “More good news are to come soon. Soon you will see that your prime minister will not have to go to foreign countries to ask for loans,” he said, while responding to another question. The portal will be used to send complaints and suggestions directly to the Prime Minister’s Office, which will oversee the process of addressing the public complaints. Deputy Secretary of Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) Adil Saeed Safi said, “After registering with the portal, citizens residing in Pakistan and abroad can register their complaints online through an application. An Android version of the application is available and an IOS version will be made available soon.” “Complaints will automatically reach the heads of relevant departments who will then take appropriate step to address the matter. The maximum time limit for addressing a complaint will be 10 days,” he said. “About 3,760 federal and provincial departments are linked with the portal. Provincial governments have already been informed about the new initiative,” he added. Published in Daily Times, October 29th 2018.