02-04-2008, 10:38 PM
PTA as usual have denied the editorial entitled âCellular companiesâ thus technically saying the contents of the Editorial are all false and wrong. I do not remember during my 38 years working life even a single occasion when a Government agency had accepted that the complaint addressed to it or appearing in the press was correct. My experience is that the Public Relation Officers of these Governments in a vain effort to defend themselves in the name of Clarification make the things more dirty. A specimen of such an example is a last month Clarification in print shape lying before me. It says the Foreign Office denied that the Saudi Ambassador visited His Lordship Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhary on behest of the Government as was rumored then. The spokesman stated that the Saudi Ambassador visited the Chief Justice at his own and he DID NOT route his movement request through Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As is usual with these Spokesmen and public relation officers in the same statement he added that the Ambassador went to Chief Justice WITH THE permission of the Government.
The PTA Dy. Directorâs clarification is in line with same practice. In fact in 38 years practical life I have seen the citizen complainants are invariably always wrong and as our government departments never know moving even a single inch deviate from the rule regulations. The PTA PRO very proudly says that no law enforcement agency has ever complained to it. Does a Government agency ever makes a complaint to another Government agency where the cause of complaint or concern was affecting only the common man? For recent example State Bank has recently advised the banking staff working on I.I. Chundirghar Road Karachi to be careful as some good dressed educated type people were working to harass the Banking employees forcing them to use their ATM and credit cards. I have not myself read this SBP warning but came to know through a conscientious citizenâs further professional advice to the people through these columns. Had there been any tradition of a Government agency making complaint to another government agency, the SBP should had first warned the Police headquarters which is just 100 metre away from SBP rather than just to fill up the requirement ask unarmed citizens to protect themselves.
The PTA Dy. Director says that there exists a complaint cell in PTA. To show the extraordinary departmental efficiency he very proudly added that this complaint cell was working 24 hours. In simple word he wants to tell that like our leaders PTA officials likewise are so keen for the welfare and care of the people that they keep chasing the people complaints 24 hours to solve the problems in shortest possible time. Experience shows such complaint cells, special cells etc are mostly created to create new jobs for some and place orders on âsomeâ for costly modern equipment and furniture. Few years back with much fanfare a very costly hotline central complaint cell was created by PTCL at Islamabad. The Ministers on TV tried to prove that with creation of it a revolution has come. Now for the last more than a year it is not known where has this high tech complaint cells gone? Where are its modern PCs etc? The Governments keep on announcing new orders forgetting to know what was the fate of previous orders. The President and Prime Minister both ordered that every Division and Department would have a special complaint cell. Now PTCL except for 18 has no complaint cells and the 24 hour awakening PTA has never cared where has gone the PTCL complaint cell. Mid 1990s with similar fanfare on huge cost internet cafes were opened in major GPOs. For the last four years these cafes are closed. Recently on visit to a GPO I enquired from a staff where was the café. He pointed me towards empty space laughingly telling me may be some children playing games with those.
I purchased a Warid SIM properly on strength of a copy of my NIC from Ramage Stores (formally known as Mumtaz General Stores), Hashmi Building, Preedy Street Karachi. The SIM got lost. I got shock when on reporting Warid told me it was not registered in my name. Then where was the copy of my NIC? Has it been used to issuae SIMs to others? Every SIM is properly logged in record of the company namely to which agent, sales office, sub agent which numbers were provided for sale. The company is deliberately avoiding to find it from its record to which agent the SIM sold to me was given for sale and enquire from the said agent the position. The 24 hours working PTA is sitting on my complaint since February 2007 with not a single word of progress. It may be of interest that my this complaint was not registered in routine rather the Chairman PTA himself acknowledged me that he had assigned it to his staff. People are crying through letters to editor on the fleecing of public in the name of Pakistan Package, where is PTA? Where was the PTA sleeping when this package was implemented to all without advance intimation? The fact is such so called packages are in fact introduced for benefit of some vested interests and not as simply may appear for the common man.
In another usual clarification last month PTA showed its efficiency how it was always attentive and had recently closed a few outlets violating the rules (sale of SIMs without registration as required by law). To know the truth and naked facts one may switch on to the instantly an unofficially banned TV channel on which a channelâs dost Waqar Shahd from Hyderbad (a common man) hourly says SIMs are available without any registration every where which should be stopped as according to him the criminals were taking advantage of it. Last year the newspapers disclosed there was a person in whose name about 8000 SIMs were issued (surely photo copy from photo copy of the NIC).
Such clarifications from Government departments only look beautiful as far as statements are concerned. The naked facts always are different. Once a citizen complained that a junior in waiting list was provided a phone connection while he was deprived. He quoted the installed phone number in his support. The PTCL submitted before Federal Ombudsman that the complainant was wrong and maligning the Department as the said number was never allotted to any one and was still in-active unutilised. In its support the PTCL brought the heavy register of connections in the Hearing. Unfortunately for the PTCL, the man sitting on the investigation chair in Federal Ombudsman office was an honest with God gifted public spirit which breed today is almost diminishing. He had conscious and knew well he was sitting on the chair of âinsaafâ. He picked up his official telephone from the his, dialed the said number which was picked up from the other end while the PTCL record showed phone was still not given to anyone. He found the person picking up the phone was same which the complainant had quoted. The phone as per government record was ânon existingâ but practically it was. The clarifications of all PROs are mostly same worth. The new PTCL package may on the face of it look very good attractive but I am sure it is created for those whose use is much much more. About 8-10 years back a special weekly UAE-Karachi flight was introduced firing the gun from the shoulders of Overseas Pakistanis. It was a special package flight like PTCL special package. Its fare was about half the normal fare. The travel condition was the passenger would not carry any baggage except one hand bag of normal 8/10 kgs. This was a very attractive cheap flight which probably worked for 6-8 months as thereafter it came in the eyes of some and some articles appeared. Though the flight in record was baggage free but a few press articles which came at that time suggested flight was coming with full load carrying commercial khapias load for which purpose the flight was introduced under this novel label. Though then this door was closed I am sure some new door must have invented.
My limitation of express would finish but I will not fully be able to praise General Pervaiz Musharraf. The poor fellow day and night is worried and is working hard for the betterment of the people and the country but unfortunately he is not aware how deep our national ills are which he can with the present day PROs, bureaucracy and politicians not clean or cure alone even in next 25 years.
The PTA Dy. Directorâs clarification is in line with same practice. In fact in 38 years practical life I have seen the citizen complainants are invariably always wrong and as our government departments never know moving even a single inch deviate from the rule regulations. The PTA PRO very proudly says that no law enforcement agency has ever complained to it. Does a Government agency ever makes a complaint to another Government agency where the cause of complaint or concern was affecting only the common man? For recent example State Bank has recently advised the banking staff working on I.I. Chundirghar Road Karachi to be careful as some good dressed educated type people were working to harass the Banking employees forcing them to use their ATM and credit cards. I have not myself read this SBP warning but came to know through a conscientious citizenâs further professional advice to the people through these columns. Had there been any tradition of a Government agency making complaint to another government agency, the SBP should had first warned the Police headquarters which is just 100 metre away from SBP rather than just to fill up the requirement ask unarmed citizens to protect themselves.
The PTA Dy. Director says that there exists a complaint cell in PTA. To show the extraordinary departmental efficiency he very proudly added that this complaint cell was working 24 hours. In simple word he wants to tell that like our leaders PTA officials likewise are so keen for the welfare and care of the people that they keep chasing the people complaints 24 hours to solve the problems in shortest possible time. Experience shows such complaint cells, special cells etc are mostly created to create new jobs for some and place orders on âsomeâ for costly modern equipment and furniture. Few years back with much fanfare a very costly hotline central complaint cell was created by PTCL at Islamabad. The Ministers on TV tried to prove that with creation of it a revolution has come. Now for the last more than a year it is not known where has this high tech complaint cells gone? Where are its modern PCs etc? The Governments keep on announcing new orders forgetting to know what was the fate of previous orders. The President and Prime Minister both ordered that every Division and Department would have a special complaint cell. Now PTCL except for 18 has no complaint cells and the 24 hour awakening PTA has never cared where has gone the PTCL complaint cell. Mid 1990s with similar fanfare on huge cost internet cafes were opened in major GPOs. For the last four years these cafes are closed. Recently on visit to a GPO I enquired from a staff where was the café. He pointed me towards empty space laughingly telling me may be some children playing games with those.
I purchased a Warid SIM properly on strength of a copy of my NIC from Ramage Stores (formally known as Mumtaz General Stores), Hashmi Building, Preedy Street Karachi. The SIM got lost. I got shock when on reporting Warid told me it was not registered in my name. Then where was the copy of my NIC? Has it been used to issuae SIMs to others? Every SIM is properly logged in record of the company namely to which agent, sales office, sub agent which numbers were provided for sale. The company is deliberately avoiding to find it from its record to which agent the SIM sold to me was given for sale and enquire from the said agent the position. The 24 hours working PTA is sitting on my complaint since February 2007 with not a single word of progress. It may be of interest that my this complaint was not registered in routine rather the Chairman PTA himself acknowledged me that he had assigned it to his staff. People are crying through letters to editor on the fleecing of public in the name of Pakistan Package, where is PTA? Where was the PTA sleeping when this package was implemented to all without advance intimation? The fact is such so called packages are in fact introduced for benefit of some vested interests and not as simply may appear for the common man.
In another usual clarification last month PTA showed its efficiency how it was always attentive and had recently closed a few outlets violating the rules (sale of SIMs without registration as required by law). To know the truth and naked facts one may switch on to the instantly an unofficially banned TV channel on which a channelâs dost Waqar Shahd from Hyderbad (a common man) hourly says SIMs are available without any registration every where which should be stopped as according to him the criminals were taking advantage of it. Last year the newspapers disclosed there was a person in whose name about 8000 SIMs were issued (surely photo copy from photo copy of the NIC).
Such clarifications from Government departments only look beautiful as far as statements are concerned. The naked facts always are different. Once a citizen complained that a junior in waiting list was provided a phone connection while he was deprived. He quoted the installed phone number in his support. The PTCL submitted before Federal Ombudsman that the complainant was wrong and maligning the Department as the said number was never allotted to any one and was still in-active unutilised. In its support the PTCL brought the heavy register of connections in the Hearing. Unfortunately for the PTCL, the man sitting on the investigation chair in Federal Ombudsman office was an honest with God gifted public spirit which breed today is almost diminishing. He had conscious and knew well he was sitting on the chair of âinsaafâ. He picked up his official telephone from the his, dialed the said number which was picked up from the other end while the PTCL record showed phone was still not given to anyone. He found the person picking up the phone was same which the complainant had quoted. The phone as per government record was ânon existingâ but practically it was. The clarifications of all PROs are mostly same worth. The new PTCL package may on the face of it look very good attractive but I am sure it is created for those whose use is much much more. About 8-10 years back a special weekly UAE-Karachi flight was introduced firing the gun from the shoulders of Overseas Pakistanis. It was a special package flight like PTCL special package. Its fare was about half the normal fare. The travel condition was the passenger would not carry any baggage except one hand bag of normal 8/10 kgs. This was a very attractive cheap flight which probably worked for 6-8 months as thereafter it came in the eyes of some and some articles appeared. Though the flight in record was baggage free but a few press articles which came at that time suggested flight was coming with full load carrying commercial khapias load for which purpose the flight was introduced under this novel label. Though then this door was closed I am sure some new door must have invented.
My limitation of express would finish but I will not fully be able to praise General Pervaiz Musharraf. The poor fellow day and night is worried and is working hard for the betterment of the people and the country but unfortunately he is not aware how deep our national ills are which he can with the present day PROs, bureaucracy and politicians not clean or cure alone even in next 25 years.