ISLAMABAD: Terming the Pakistan Citizens’ Portal (PCP) — an e-complaint system set up at Prime Minister Office — a successful endeavour of the government, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday that the portal’s app had been declared second best government mobile application in the world.

“The Pakistan Citizens’ Portal app launched in October last year was declared the second best government mobile application in the world at the World Government Summit,” he said in a tweet.

According to the prime minister, 4,646 mobile applications of different categories were submitted by 87 countries in the competition held in Dubai at the World Government Summit earlier this week. Indonesia came out on top while the United States stood at the third spot.

He said that creating a direct link with the people to provide for solution of their problems had led to the incredible success of his complaint cell at the PM Office.

4,646 mobile applications of different categories were submitted by 87 countries in competition at World Government Summit

The PCP’s app, Mr Khan said, was developed by a team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa free of cost in a record time of 45 days. “This is the first time any government-owned mobile application has reached this level in Pakistan,” he added.

Prime Minister Khan claimed that so far around 250,000 out of the 420,000 complaints registered through the app had been resolved, with 55 per cent satisfactory feedback from the people.

The application had a 4.5 rating on Google Play and a 3.5 rating on Apple Store, he said.

The World Government Summit (WGS) is a non-profit organisation that holds an annual event in Dubai. According to its website, the WGS is a “global platform dedicated to shaping the future of governments worldwide”. The organisation aims to “set the agenda for the next generation of governments” to tackle both global and local challenges with the help of technological innovations.

The annual event organised by the WGS serves as “knowledge exchange platform” by bringing together governments and private entrepreneurs. Leaders, entrepreneurs and experts from over 150 countries are invited every year.

The Pakistan Citizens’ Portal is available to people in the form of a mobile phone application, but they can also approach the portal with their complaints and suggestions through telephone, email and other sources of communication.

The prime minister, at the time of launching of the portal in October last year, had claimed that such facility was not available even in some European countries. Through this system, he said, he would be monitoring the working of the ministries and departments and hiccups in governance could be removed at fast track.

He said that he would be receiving a weekly report from the portal and would have a clear picture of the functioning of the government.

Under the system, the prime minister said, public complaints would have to be replied in a specific timeline and each and every complainant would be duly replied.

The idea to launch such a web portal is first of its kind in the country’s history, interconnecting about 4,000 government offices, and it is expected that the portal will also help the government make policies based on public feedback and suggestions and their opinion would serve as springboard and thrust for such policies.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2019