National Assembly Committee Calls For Improved Postal Services In Rural Areas

National Assembly Standing Committee on Communications on Friday directed Ministry of Communications to improve postal services in rural areas as extra departmental branch offices, which were being run by part time employees were not performing well

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Oct, 2020 ) :National Assembly Standing Committee on Communications on Friday directed Ministry of Communications to improve postal services in rural areas as extra departmental branch offices, which were being run by part time employees were not performing well.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Ibadullah Khan, MNA.

The Director General Pakistan Post briefed the committee regarding working and functions of Pakistan Post Office Department.

He informed about the historical background, organizational structure, establishment, services, functions and new initiatives of Pakistan Post.

He further informed that the Pakistan Post was providing services throughout the country with the help of its 1523 urban and 8666 rural post offices.

International postal services provided by the department include letter mail services, parcel services, surface air lifted mail, surface mail and express mail service.

The committee directed to submit a comparison of performance prior to 2018 and after 2018.

The committee also desired detail of revenue earned (source wise), expenditure incurred, number of employees in 2018 and number of employees in 2020.

The committee also directed to submit detail on post offices closed, employees retired and vacant posts (district wise).

The member Engineering and Coordination, National Highway Authority briefed the committee about projects which were initiated during the tenure of previous government along with latest status of each project, budget allocation and amount released and utilized during the financial years 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The committee was informed that there were 20 projects that were started during the last government's tenure and 11 projects were completed. The committee directed the Ministry to submit compliance on the previous recommendations relating to projects in Balochistan and Chitral.

It was pointed in the meeting that the NHA was collecting tax at the Jamshoro toll plaza and then again at the M9 plaza. The two plazas were approximately two kilometres apart and it did not make sense to collect toll tax from the travellers twice. Similarly in Mansehra, NHA was collecting toll tax twice within a distance of five kilometers. The committee directed to stop collecting double toll tax from public in both areas.

The committee was briefed about the Mansehra to Naran road. The NHA informed that the Mansehra to Mahandri road was 82 km and was in fair condition. The Mahandri to Larri 14 km road is in poor condition and from Larri to Naran 27 km road is in bad condition due to the heavy loaded machinery of Suki Kinari dam project. The NHA is maintaining this section through available routine maintenance but the damages are beyond the scope of routine maintenance.

In this regard, the NHA is preparing emergency engineering estimates which are being submitted for approval.