Pakistan Post continues to deliver mail across the country with all its 13,000 departmental offices operational while it has stopped the mail delivered by air and railways in line with the federal government's decision to stop aerial and railways operations as a preventive measure against coronavirus.
Speaking to Business Recorder, Chief Postmaster at the General Post Office (GPO) in Islamabad Farhan Ali Mirza said, all the operations involving the delivery of mail by road have not been disrupted and the offices of Pakistan Post in the twin cities as well as rest of the country are functioning. He said the delivery of mail from Islamabad to long-distance cities like Karachi by air and railways has been stopped which would be resumed as soon as the air and railways operation are restored.
Presently, he said, the Pakistan Post's major operation involves the delivery of pension to the retired government employees at their doorsteps. "Broadly, there are four categories of retired government employees to whom the pension is being delivered.
These are retired personnel of military, PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited), Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Pakistan Post. Adequate arrangements have been made that the retired employees (60-year olds and above) do not have to visit the offices of Pakistan Post to get pension which is being delivered to them at their homes," he said.
So far, pension to more than 1.5 retired military officials has been delivered, he said.
"From March 22 and onwards, advance pension has been delivered to the pensioners to avoid rush. The elderly persons are more prone to the coronavirus that is why proper precautionary measures are followed related to the delivery of pension to them," Mirza said. The volume of the mail in the twin cities has been reduced to one-third in the backdrop of the challenges posed by the coronavirus , the chief postmaster said.
Ordinarily, 10,000 to 15,000 articles of mail are delivered daily in the twin cities that have been reduced to 4,000 to 5,000 articles, he said.
"The situation has been tough in the backdrop of the outbreak of coronavirus but none of our offices has been closed. We are determined to deliver the mail within the stipulated deadlines. Requesting anonymity, an official at Pakistan Post said, the Pakistan Post charges half to one-third of the rates charged by the private courier companies for the delivery of inter-city and intra-city mail.
"If you send articles like documents via Pakistan Post to the districts like Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra that are 1.5 to two hours drive from Islamabad, you would be charged only Rs 50 if the weight of your consignment is less than 20 grammes.
If it exceeds 20 grams, then Rs 100 are charged. This can be compared to at least Rs 280 to over Rs 300 private courier companies are charging for the delivery of mails of the same weight-range to the same cities," he said.