In This Post:
– Features of Pakistan Citizen Portal
– Uses of the Prime Minister’s Portal
– Lodging a Complaint
– Follow up Mechanism
Update (Feb 18, 2022)
Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched an online portal for students studying on scholarships across Pakistan. Linked with the Pakistan Citizen Portal, the latest facility will allow users to file complaints regarding educational scholarships directly with the Prime Minister Office.
Addressing an event in Islamabad, the PM said the primary goal of the new portal is to establish an exclusive platform that will help scholarship-holders in resolving their problems. In addition, it will ensure judicious use of allocated resources.
“Currently, the federal and provincial governments, Ehsaas programme and the Higher Education Commission are giving different categories of scholarships and we are trying to centralise them to avoid problems to students and use these scholarships efficiently for the prosperity of the country,” the prime minister said during the launching ceremony. “Through scholarships, we can decide the future course of the country’s development. The purpose of the education system should be nation building. The subjects (being taught) should have a connection with nation building…considering the technological revolution,” he added.
Update (April 7, 2021)
An exclusive category on the Pakistan Citizen Portal (PCP) for lodging complaints related to land grabbing or, as it’s more commonly known as ‘Qabza mafia,’ in order to alleviate widespread–and long-standing–concerns pertaining to illegal ownership of land in Pakistan.
The announcement was made in a tweet by Prime Minister Imran Khan:
وزیراعظم پاکستان عمران خان کی ہدایت پر قبضہ مافیا کے خلاف گھیرا تنگ کرنے کی تیاریاں pic.twitter.com/7cDMhOKoLP
— Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan (@PakPMO) April 6, 2021
“During live telephonic interaction held on April 4, 2021, announced the provision of an exclusive category on Pakistan Citizen Portal for lodging complaints pertaining to land grabbing/Qabza Mafia,” read the official statement.
“Complaints involving court cases, however, shall not be entertained as per provisions of the PCP-Manual,” the Prime Minister’s Office added. “Complaints of overseas Pakistanis shall be looked into as a PRIORITY.”
Update (Jan. 28, 2021): During a review meeting in Faisalabad, Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali revealed as many as 43,068 public complaints received on Pakistan Citizen Portal had been resolved in the district.
A total of 45,080 complaints had been received on the Pakistan Citizen Portal, including 886 new ones, and officials also took feedback from concerned individuals.
Update (Jan. 1, 2021): In order to take the convenience of the users to a whole new level, the user-interface of the Pakistan Citizen Portal app has been totally redesigned. The functionalities have been grouped together and split in only three main categories: Complaints, Guidance, and Suggestions.
By accessing the recently-updated interactive environment, users will now be able to easily navigate through the application and could also play their part in the improvement of the services provided by the portal by leaving their feedback in the ‘Suggestions’ section. The updated version of the Pakistan Citizen Portal app has already been made available on the two major platforms: iOS App Store and Google Play Store.
Update (Sep. 14, 2020): Pakistan Citizen Portal (PCP) can now be accessed through any computer in the world. Pakistanis living in any part of the world can now visit the web version of Pakistan Citizen Portal and register a complaint. Previously, the service was limited to only 30.5 million people as most citizens didn’t have a smart phone to register their complaints. Now, more than 80 million people can register a complaint through PCP. According to a news source, out of 2.8 million registered complaints, around 2.5 complaints have been resolved, out of which 566,000 users had a positive response. It is also expected that PCP will be presented in the next World Government Summit which will be held in Dubai to compete against Public Service Delivery Applications.
Do you want to bring about a change in your community? Are you looking for a solution to your water and electricity issues? Have the government authorities in your area failed to carry out their assigned tasks and duties and you want to register a complaint? If the answer to most of the questions posed above is a yes, then welcome to a new form of participatory governance through a mobile application – the Pakistan Citizen Portal. It’s also popularly known as the Prime Minister’s Portal.
Features of the Pakistan Citizen Portal (PCP) App
Check out these salient features and purposes of the Prime Minister’s Portal before we explore how to register and follow up a complaint through PCP.
- Free registration on the portal
- When the account is created, it creates a direct contact with Governments’ authorities
- You can lodge complaints, identify issues and problems and also suggest ideas
- Reach the highest government official of the department you want to register your complaint against
- The best feature of the PM’s Portal is that you don’t need a reference or a middle man to do the job
- Real time tracking of the status of complaints
The purpose of the Pakistan Citizen Portal is to:
- Enable the government organisations to immediately respond and resolve complaints of the registered citizens
- Make sure that the complaints are forwarded to the relevant government offices and departments
- Respond to all the complaints in a timely manner and to update the complainant about the grievance redressal process
- Keep a check on the final solution provided to the complainant and whether that has brought some relief or not
- If the complaints and suggestions are not resolved in a satisfactory manner then they should be reopened
- Sort out suggestions and incorporate the best of them in policy making
- Establish procedures for handling confidentiality issues
- Integrate existing complaint cells of government entities with the Pakistan Citizen Portal
Uses of the Prime Minister’s Portal
Following are some of the uses of the Pakistan Citizen Portal
- Complaint Lodging – A complaint lodged on the Pakistan Citizen Portal may either be related to personal issue or any violation of laws or highlighting any social responsibility
- Information – You can also seek information regarding any government organisation
- Giving Suggestions – Give suggestions related to any administrative reform or solving any existing problem in the society
Complaint Handling through Prime Minister’s Portal
Registration on Pakistan Citizen Portal is fairly easy. First, download the Pakistan Citizen Portal from the Google Playstore on Android and IOS platforms. Once you enter the relevant details and fill out all the empty fields, you become a registered member and can now easily lodge a complaint. When you enter any grievance, be it poor service delivery, inappropriate behavior of the staff, inefficient systems, merit violation or poor administration, the complaint passes through different stages.
New Complaints
A new complaint will be placed under the icon of ‘New Complaints’ on the dashboard. The complaint will remain under this section until it is reopened for further comments and actions. The time duration of resolving the complaint will begin at this point and will be calculated accordingly
In-Process Complaints
When the complaint is opened and some action is being taken on it, then it is placed under ‘In Process Complaints.’ As a first step, the complaint is transferred to the relevant authorities for timely execution
Escalated Complaints
Initially the complaint is sent to those relevant departments and offices which usually handle citizen’s grievances. If in case the complaint remains unresolved during the assigned timeframe given by the Prime Minister’s Portal, then it is shifted under the section of ‘Escalated Complaints.’
It then passes on two levels: Initial escalation and super escalation. Once 20 days pass after the complaint was lodged at the portal, it will assume the status of initial escalation and the icon will appear red in colour. The complaint will be prompted to the next higher government official in the said department.
The initially escalated complaint will assume the status of super escalation on the 41st day of its lodging. At this stage, the complaint will be visible to all the higher authorities of the relevant government office. Moreover, the Prime Minister’s Office would also be able to view the complaint at this stage and the fact that 41 days have passed without it being resolved will be highlighted. Those government officials who were earlier involved in the redressal of the grievance would be held accountable as to why the complaint was left unattended and unresolved.
In case there was a delay in forwarding the complaint to the relevant organization or if it required further clarification and details from the complainant, which was not provided the government entity will not be deemed as inefficient. Due to litigation, fraud or misrepresentation and also if the complaint involved joint responsibility of more than one organization, then also the government office will not be held accountable.
Forwarded Complaints
A complaint is forwarded to the relevant government organisation by the focal person who handles the dashboard. The forwarding option provides a two-way communication in which the erroneously received complaints either from a registered member or from a government entity are forwarded to the concerned organisation through the system within 24 hours (excluding weekends and public holidays). The complaints sent because of an error are retrieved and redirected to concerned authorities with appropriate comments.
The focal person or the authority who handles the dashboard and forwards the complaints has to select between federal and provincial organisations, depending upon where the complaint should be forwarded to.
Complaint Resolved
One of the best uses of the Pakistan Citizen Portal is that it also tells you how effectively the complaint has been resolved. There are three options that the dashboard handler chooses from: Relief granted, partial relief granted and relief can not be granted. Although the registered citizen is looking for a complete solution to his/her problems, it is not always necessary that the complaint is resolved up to the satisfactory level of the complainant, owing to many reasons and factors.
A complaint lodged at the Pakistan Citizen Portal does not mean that your case will be solved by going above the law. The government entity will choose ‘partial relief granted’ if some action has been taken and the solution is underway. If complete relief has been granted then the government official will tick off the ‘relief granted’ box. It is mandatory for all government offices to record remarks in the comment box when marking it as resolved. Reference should also be attached showcasing the satisfaction of the complainant.
Reopening of a Complaint
A complaint if closed erroneously shall be immediately opened and resolved. A closed complaint will also be reopened by the head of organization if he finds out that the grievance wasn’t redressed properly or up to the satisfactory level of the citizen based on the citizen’s feedback.
If the government organization fails to resolve any complaint and the citizen takes the matter to the Prime Minister’s office through any means; the case will then be reopened and deemed as top priority.
Follow up Mechanism
An efficient follow up mechanism has been put in place. This helps evaluate the government organization’s performance and study the complaints received. They can be a valuable source of feedback on improving the government entity’s service delivery and processes. Every month a review meeting will be held to analyse the nature of complaints.
Moreover, all federal government organisations shall quarterly conduct detailed performance audits and citizen’s feedback surveys. Regular reports should be submitted to the head of the organisations of the trending complaints, systemic issues along with recommendations to improve it. The performance of the organization will be gauged according to:
- Time frame in which the complaints were resolved
- Number of complaints resolved
- Quality of response to the citizens
- Citizen’s feedback
So, this was all there was to know about the most popular complaint lodging and redressal system in Pakistan. You can also check out our complete guide on other government-run organisations like the Excise and Taxation Department, Islamabad and Sindh. Have you ever lodged a complaint through the Prime Minister’s Portal? Let us know your experience at blog@zameen.com. Stay tuned to the Zameen Blog, the best real estate blog in Pakistan. Subscribe to the Zameen Newsletter appearing on the right hand side of the page.
