The Senate Standing Committee on Communications and Railways on Tuesday expressed grave concern over the mal-practices in disbursement of the Baitul Mal funds through Pakistan Post Office and called for immediate revamping of the entire disbursement system.
The Senate body directed the PPO to take punitive action against the individuals involved in mal-practices to ensure that the needy is not deprived of his right.
Senator Kamil Ali Agha chaired the meeting that was requisitioned by four committee members to discuss the performance of Pakistan Post besides considering the issue of deployment of Motorway Police on Gwadar-Karachi coastal highway to arrest the increasing trend of accidents.
Agha, who is also state minister for parliamentary affairs, observed serious mal-practices and corruption in the department and directed the PPO Director General Arshad Khan to bring responsible persons to book.
He pointed out that some bogus forms were being sold at post offices offering small loans to the people. The chairman pressed the DG Post Office to take appropriate action against the individuals involved in selling of those fake forms as it is earning a bad name not only for the organisation but the government as well.
The committee recommended that the disbursement system of Baitul Mal funds through post office should be revamped.
In this connection, Secretary Communications Tariq Mehmood was assigned to co-ordinate with the Baitul Mal authorities for bringing improvement in the system. The committee members were of the view that prudent policies are the need of hour to make the organisation a hub of commercial and social activities.
Earlier, the Director General PPO Arshad Khan gave a detailed overview of the working and performance of the department and steps taken to introduce market-oriented policies.
He informed the committee that postal market situation has drastically changed world-wide and assured that serious efforts were being made to introduce service-oriented culture to make Post Office a business hub. He went on saying that more than 12 thousand post offices were being run with a workforce of about 27,000 only.
Communications Minister Shamim Siddiqui also agreed with the committee members that customers' confidence needs to be restored and serious efforts should be made to improve the infrastructure of the post offices.
The committee, while considering the deployment of Motorway Police at Gwadar-Karachi coastal highway, was informed by Inspector General Motorway Police Ahmed Naseem that the said highway was handed over to Motorway Police recently. He said that a viable plan has been chalked out to educate locals of the area about the traffic rules that would help in reducing accidents.
The committee appreciated the plan of action prepared by motorway police and recommended that the Quetta-Karachi road should also be handed over to motorway police to control the accidents.
The present status of construction of Lak Pass Tunnel was also shared with the committee members and it was informed that the work on the site is being carried out on expeditious basis whereas 17 percent construction work has so far been completed. The concerned authorities were asked to make no compromise on the quality and standard of the work.
It is worth mentioning that the Senate standing committee had already assigned the task of monitoring the project to Senator Liaquat Ali Bangalzai to ensure proper appraisal of the situation.
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