By Shakeel Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday took notice of delay in service delivery by public entities and directed the relevant ministries and divisions to dispose of applications and petitions by citizens within four weeks.
A notification issued by the Secretary to the Prime Minister dated October 1 stated that the prime minister, in order to build the public confidence on government functionaries, desired that all tiers must work out minimum timelines for case processing and display the same at their websites and notice boards within 10 days.
The notice was taken in view of several applications, petitions and references from citizens received by the ministries, divisions and provincial governments, which were either delayed, kept unattended indefinitely or filed without taken any action thereon.
“The above exercise shall be carried out by all concerned and a report shall be submitted after four weeks for the perusal of the Prime Minister (in case of Federal government) and Chief Minister (in case of provincial governments),” the notification said. The report by the heads of division, attached organizations, chief secretaries, field formations etc will certify about taking-up of the pending service delivery-related applications.
“This will help the citizens to know in advance the probable processing timeline of their cases,” the official document stated.
The reason for the delay of those cases, which can’t be disposed of in stipulated time or required further time, will be explained to the applicant in writing. The progress on cases will be constantly monitored by all federal and chief secretaries, and heads of organizations who will submit a quarterly certificate to the Prime Minister’s Office or Chief Minister’s Office.
“The measures on this account will factor into the performance evaluation of the officer concerned and laxity would deem to be considered inefficiency in terms of Efficiency & Discipline Rules and dealt with accordingly,” the notification said.
