Media Coverage S for Both Seminars

Glimpses OF ACTIVITIES

Media Coverage’s for Both Seminars: Right to public services law to improve governance Bureau Report

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a seminar here on Monday said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Public Services Act, 2013 would bring noticeable improvements in public service delivery.

The seminar was organised jointly by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Services Commission and Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA).

Adviser to Chief Minister Arif Yousaf, who was chief guest on the occasion, said that it was a success of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government to legislate for bringing improvement in public service delivery and good governance. He said that it was the main agenda of the provincial government to legislate such laws to improve transparency and accountability in the functioning of departments. He said that provincial government had passed 30 laws so far which was a record in the legislative history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Adviser to CM says provincial govt has made record legislation

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Amjid Ali Khan said on the occasion that the law would bring accountability in district government departments that would also ensure accessibility of citizens to services in an easy and fastest way.

He said that access to public services was the basic human right and government was committed to providing the required services to people at their doorsteps.

He also explained the automatic system for performance review as per the right to services law, which could determine the state of service delivery by public service providers.

Chief Commissioner Right to Services Commission (RTS) Azmat Haneef Orakzai gave a detailed presentation on the law. He said that the law was enacted in January 2014 to ensure delivery of public services to the citizens of the province within the stipulated time. He said that RTS Commission had designated 15 RTS district monitoring assistants to monitor performance of public service providers at the district level.

Mr Orakzai said that five public services had so far been notified as essential services, which included obtaining documents of land; domicile certificate; building plan; birth and death certificate; and registration of FIR. He said that rules of business under the law had already been notified.

The executive director of CGPA, Mohammad Anwar, said that improvement in public service delivery was pre-requite to improve law and order.

Published in Dawn, September 09th, 2014