Like other parts of the globe, 'World Post Day-2014' was observed here on Thursday with a renewed pledge to continue efforts for raising awareness of the role of the postal sector in people's and businesses' everyday lives and its contribution to the social and economic development of countries. Ministry of Postal Services arranged a function at Lahore General Post Office to mark the day.
Addressing the function, Deputy Postmaster General Syed Shoaib Ali Jaffery said Pakistan Post traditionally celebrated the World Post Day hand in hand with Universal Postal Union (UPU) with a resolve to provide postal services, financial services, customised e-services, logistics services to the customers meeting the demands of the technology driven competitive environment.
He said Pakistan Post was emphasising in the use of new communication and information technologies to move beyond what was traditionally regarded as a its core postal business, keeping pace with the changing communications market. "We are providing cheapest postal services in present inflationary days," he said. It may be noted that World Post Day was celebrated each year on October 9, which is the anniversary of the establishment of the UPU in 1874 in the Swiss capital, Bern. It was declared World Post Day by the UPU Congress held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1969. Every year, more than 150 countries celebrate World Post Day in a variety of ways.
Giving background of the day, other speakers say, from the earliest times in history, 'postal services' existed in the form of messengers who travelled large distances on foot or horseback. In the 1600s and 1700s, many countries set up national postage systems and entered into bilateral agreements for the exchange of mail between countries. By the late 1800s there was a large web of bilateral agreements that made the distribution of international mail complicated, non-transparent and inefficient.