The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Postal Services has directed the Postal Ministry to reopen all the small post offices, closed earlier due to less utility and high management cost in the far flung areas of the country. The committee, which met here on Saturday with Pir Muhammad Aslam Bodhla in the chair, expressed its dissatisfaction over the performance of newly created Postal Services Ministry despite having all the financial and administrative powers.
Aslam Bodhla said that the range in terms of area and delivery of postal service should be upgraded by focusing on express mail system to match private couriers in terms of time and cost-effectiveness. "Pakistan Post could not earn good name despite having immense experience as it was created way before partition, and it is disturbing to note that it can't compete with private courier companies," he added.
Member of the committee Abdul Qadir Khanzada said that Pakistan Post should upgrade and modernise its infrastructure and office environment, compete with the private sector and re-engineer its business procedures by introducing automation in running the organisation.
MNA Palwasha Khan emphasised the importance of institutional development, and urged the functionaries to reorganise and professionalise the department to come up to people's expectations for better marketing, product development and service delivery.
She appreciated the Pakistan Post for carrying out schemes like saving bank services, payment to pensioners, life insurance, payment of money orders under Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and food scheme by relying on their existing institutional framework.
It also expressed concern over the distribution of funds under the BISP through the ministry as it had been reported that some of the postmen took bribe while delivering the money. The committee directed the authorities concerned to ensure transparency and take stern action against the culprits, so that people might prefer to avail of its services.
The committee stressed the need for establishing a regulatory body so that the performance and charges of private courier companies could be monitored. The committee highly appreciated the ministry for announcing monetary incentive of Rs 2,000 for every employee as Eid package, which would help enhance his or her performance.
Earlier, Secretary of the Ministry of Postal Services Muhammad Ahmed Mian briefly apprised the committee about the objectives of the ministry and efforts, made by them in providing better services to compete with private courier companies. He also sought support of the committee in resolving their problems.