The National Assembly Standing Committee on Communication on Wednesday approved the draft Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 2005, authorising the Postal Department to issue postal orders having their value up to Rs 5,000 for the use and benefit of the general public.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Brigadier Zulfikar Ahmed Dhillon (Retd) in the Parliament House to discuss the bill that was earlier referred by the Lower House. The National Assembly body unanimously approved the draft bill that seeks amendment in Section 45 of the Post Office Act, 1898.
Briefing the committee members, Post Office director general said that the proposed amendment in Section 45 of the original Act will authorise the Postal Department to issue postal orders having their value up to Rs 5,000 for the use and benefit of the general public.
He informed the committee that earlier the Postal Department was authorised to issue postal orders up to the value of Rs 50 only that certainly overburdened the post offices in terms of preparation and issuing postal orders of small denominations, accounting work, wastage of time, stationery, and more importantly, inconvenience to the public.
He said that the amendment would be very beneficial both for the general public and the postal departments as well.
The committee was also briefed about the functioning and performance of the Pakistan Post Office.
Members of the committee asked the director general to intensify the pace of computerisation of postal services in other cities of the country, apart from providing postal services on international standards.
Syed Gulzar Sibtain Shah, Rao Mohammad Ajmal Khan, Mohammad Akhtar Khan Kanju, Dr Rozina Tufail, Dr Ghulam Haider Samejo, Afsar Begum, Maulana Mohammad Gohar Shah, Shahid Hussain Bhutto and Arbab Zakaullah attended the meeting.