Officers seek removal of 'flaws' in citizen portal.

Byline: Waseem Ashraf Butt

GUJRAT -- Procedural flaws in the Pakistan Citizen Portal's method of ascertaining the government officers' performance is said to be one of the reasons behind the show-cause notices issued to some officers in Punjab by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) last month.

A number of officers told Dawn that addressing the anonymous complainants was an uphill task, highlighting their dismal performance on the portal.Some of them, who had served in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last five years, were of the view that the Punjab officers did not take the portal as seriously as it was taken in KP.

They said it was a general perception that the Punjab bureaucracy ignored the portal by handing over the complaints to their juniors because of which the PMO had to issue them warnings and displeasure letters over their below-average performances.

In response to a report submitted by the Prime Minister's Performance Delivery Unit, the PMO had issued show-cause notices, displeasures and warnings to hundreds of government officers last month after completion of a year of the citizen portal.

The portal had been launched by the government to facilitate citizens to lodge complaints about the department concerned.

At least 833 officers were asked to improve their performance, 263 issued warning letters, seven show-cause notices and explanation was sought from 111 officers whereas the performance of 403 was appreciated.The warning letters were issued to at least 20 deputy commissioners, while 43 assistant commissioners were served with displeasure and show-cause notices.

Many of the officers, particularly in the administration and police, were of the view that around 70 to 80 per...