Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated Pakistan Citizen Portal in Islamabad with its main objective being to act as a bridge between the government and the general public, so that the government could address their grievances.
With this application, any person, throughout Pakistan, could file a complaint against any government department or officer. Unfortunately, the previous governments did not provide any such platform to the general public at a national level where the government could listen to the grievances of masses. Though it's still not late, but it all depends upon the effectiveness of this forum.
A similar forum was introduced by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the name of KP Citizen Portal on March 03, 2016. The forum didn't help the masses in its true spirit and was not that effective. I have experience with this forum and I want to share my ordeal with the readers.
When I installed the KP Citizen Portal application on my mobile phone and entered all my personal data, I was informed that I would receive the code for activation. I had waited for a long time and received the code after two weeks.
After filing a complaint against District Police Officer of Lakki Marwat on date 07-05-2018, I received a message after a gap of five months from the authorities on 09-12-2018 and informed me to check the status of your complaint. That five months' gap showed the government's concern for the public's grievances.
When I re-entered my name and password to the app they simply showed to me on my mobile screen that you have entered the wrong password. I tried many times but failed. Lastly, I clicked on forgot password option and they again showed that you will receive a code then you can change your password. I have been waiting for the code for the past ten days but I still haven't received the code to this day.
When I read comments on the app, a majority of the people were facing the password and registration issues. In Pakistan, it's a very common thing that we watch inauguration ceremonies on different TV channels but in real life, we're still at a standstill.
For a practical use of the forum, the government should make the registration process easier for the users so that every person could register themselves. Secondly, they must solve the issue of the confirmation code which every user receives after two or three weeks.
Thirdly, they must solve any complaint within a specific time period in order to gain the trust of the people. Fourthly, the officers who were looking to complaints must be trained sufficiently in order to guide the complainant so that it helps the general public in its true spirit.