Success Stories

Success Story # 1

 

Collecting GST on Prepaid Scratch Cards

Success Story # 2

 

Successful acquiring of Pakistan Cards

These cases relate to Pakistan Card, an initiative launched by the Government of Sindh to provide cash grants to people affected by the floods of 2011. The cash grant is to be distributed through an ATM Card, along the same lines as the Watan Card. ALAC received three complaints from Irshad Ali*, Ajmal Khan* and Kareem Ahmed* from Sindh against NADRA that had issued their Pakistan Cards to someone else, and another complaint from Imran Jamali* who did not receive the second instalment on his Pakistan Card. ALAC told them to send a written complaint and provide relevant documents. After receiving the evidence from the complainants, a letter was written to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) requesting them to address this issue, a copy of the letter was also sent to Govt. of Sindh. After a few days when the complainant confirmed that no action had been taken, ALAC wrote another letter to the same authority requesting the same.

Section Officer-I (Secretary to Govt. of Sindh) took notice of ALAC’s letter and asked the Director General PDMA Sindh, Karachi, to provide a detailed report on Pakistan Card complaints sent by Transparency International – Pakistan.

On 31-8-2012, a letter of the PDMA Deputy Director (Operations) was received enclosing a letter from NADRA which explained that the complainants are eligible to receive Pakistan Card and advised them to receive their cards from NADRA office. The case is a success from ALAC’s point of view.

Successful Compliances under the PPRA

After TI Pakistan’s intervention, following compliances have been recorded under the PPRA rules:

1. Violation of Sindh Public Procurement Rules 2010 by Sindh Bank, Karachi’s Tender Notice for the Supply of Network equipment, Computers, Printers and Note books/Laptops.

2. Violation of Public Procurement Rules 2004, Senior Admin Officer, PAEC General Hospital Islamabad's Tender Notice for Supply Sofa 3 in 1. Procuring agency restricting bidders to quote China make which is against of PPRA rules ; Rule 10.

3. News Report about the outsourcing of NADRA records blaming Minister of Interior, who was personally involved in facilitating the deal, for being reckless with the outsourcing of the data of millions of Pakistani overseas. The news report is published in daily "The News" on 14th July 2012.

4. State Life Insurance Tender Notice for Supply / Printing of Computer Stationeries published in Jang 17-7-2012 is against PPRA Rules 2004, as the bidding documents are not available on the mentioned sites. Which is the violation of Rule 23(5)

5. Cantonment Board's Karachi Tender Notice for the Supply of Allopathic Drugs/Medicine published in Dawn 12-7-2012 is the violation of PPRA Rules 2004, as it has not mentioned anything about the bidding documents. Hence Rule 23. violated.

6. Violation of Public Procurement Rules 2004, Executive Manager, Pakistan Television Corporation Limited , Islamabad's Tender Notice for Supply of Lead Acid Storage Battery. PTV is not providing the technical details to the bidders which is the violation of Rule 23(2)

7. Violation of Public Procurement Rues 2004, Project Director, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research , (PCSIR) Karachi's Tender Notice for the Up gradation of Substation and External Electrical Works. The procuring agency violated the Rule 23 (1) of PPRA 2004; the bidding documents were provided 6 days after the issuance of tender.

8. Complaint on disqualification of M/s NESPAK in KMC projects. NESPAK is a registered consultant with the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), with license No.1, and had submitted the renewal fee document to the KMC. According to the PEC by-laws, a consultant whose application for registration/renewal is pending with PEC, shall be considered for participation in pre-qualification as well as in the tendering process and submit the valid/renewed license at the time of signing the Contract Agreement.

*Actual names have been changed

 

Success Story # 3

 

The Case of Sindh Bank

In 2009, Sindh Assembly passed the Sindh Public Procurement Act, 2009, aimed to streamline the process of procurement in the Sindh province and to bring transparency in it. It extends to the whole of Sindh, covering all procurements.However, the Chief Minister of Sindh granted the Sindh Bank Ltd a special exemption from the Procurement Act and completely ignored the rules in it. Since the matter was a violation of the Act, and could have given way to major corruption, all the members of the Board of Trustees of Transparency International (TI) Pakistan decided to initiate a legal battle by challenging this exemption in the Sindh High Court. Thus, ALAC filed a petition in Sindh High Court Pakistan against the exemption given to the Sindh Bank. It is prayed in the petition that since the matter was of a grave nature, a stay order against the orders of the Chief Minister should be granted till the time the case is finally decided.ALAC submitted that the Sindh Government issued the notification for political reasons, which was in violation of the law of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Act, 2009. ALAC added that the exemption was granted to the respondent bank knowing full well that such an exemption was illegal. The Chief Secretary Sindh issued impugned notification on the direction of the Sindh Chief Minister wherein the respondent Sindh Bank was granted special exemption from the Sindh Public Procurement Act 2009. The Sindh Public Procurement Act was passed by the Sindh Assembly and contended grant of exemption to the bank from this law was ultra vires and mala fide. Similarly, it was an affront to the law enacted by the Sindh Assembly.It was also submitted in the petition that Section 21 of the Act does not permit any such exemption. The petition added that the Board of the SPPRA is only allowed to consider such an exemption of an object or class of objects in national interest and if that was not the case, it would be illegal.After that, the Sindh High Court suspended the operation of the provincial government’s notification to exempt the Sindh Bank from procurement rules and issued notices to the Chief Secretary Sindh, Sindh Bank and Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority.

 

 

Success Story # 4

 

Allotment and Possession of a Property of an Old Man 

Mr. Khan* was an old, retired man living in Karachi. His late father, an Ex Corporal Technician of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), was granted 32 acres of agriculture land under the Defense Force Quota in the year 1966-1967. His father paid the instalments up to 1987 and later expired in 1993. At the time of his death, there were some instalments left.Mr. Khan approached the concerned Revenue Authorities for the issuance of a challaan towards the payment of the outstanding instalments with respect to the land. He also approached offices of the Revenue Department for this purpose, but he was not issued any challaan. Thereafter, he filed an application to the Ombudsman for the possession of his plot. By this time, he had received the challaan which was then paid and submitted by him. Hence, all his outstanding fines were paid. However, he was still not given possession because the Revenue Officers wanted some easy money to come their way. Adamant against giving bribes, Mr. Khan kept on visiting different offices of the Revenue Departments despite his poor health.After some time, on 28 April 2008, the Honorable Provincial Ombudsman (Mohtasib Ala) Sindh passed an order in his favour and directed the Executive District Officer (Revenue) Sukkur to hand over physical possession of the land within 30 days. Even though the EDO Revenue was supposed to hand over the possession to Mr. Khan, the complainant was deprived of the physical possession of the land despite fulfilling all the required formalities and paper work.Thereafter he approached TI-Pakistan and lodged a complaint. TI-Pakistan firstly scrutinized and verified his compliant. Then, on 9th July 2010, TI-Pakistan wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary Sindh, Secretary Revenue Sindh, and Executive District Officer Revenue with a copy to the Provincial Ombudsman to look into the matter and redress his complaint.In reply to ALAC’s letter on 14-10-2010, the Honorable Provincial Ombudsman (Mohtasib) Sindh directed the Executive District Office Revenue to complete all the legal formalities to resolve the issue regarding the allotment of land and removal of encroachments in respect of the allotted land in question.Mr. Khan visited the Executive District Officer Revenue office a number of times but the Executive District Officer Revenue was unavailable despite issuance of such clear cut orders by the Ombudsman.ALAC wrote a letter to the Executive District Officer Revenue again on 13th May 2011 and requested him to look into the matter and redress his complaint; we further requested to fix a date for collecting the allotment order.Thereafter, the complainant happily informed us that he got the allotment/possession of the property and that the matter was resolved successfully.This is another success story of ALAC as after its intervention the relevant authority provided the asking relief to the aggrieved person.*Actual name is changed

 

 

Success Story # 5

 

Teachers of Basic Education Community School Education

Advocacy & Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) received a joint complaint from 90 teachers of Basic Education Community School (BECS) Teachers from province of Punjab. These BECS teachers stated that they were the employees of the National Education Foundation, Ministry of Education and working on its project named Basic Education Community School Education since long.They further stated that they had not received their salaries for six to eight months, while the education allowance of some teachers had not been paid either. They stated that even the books and floor mats had not been provided to the students of their school (BECS). They stated that they were not considered as government employees. They wrote various letters to the concerned authorities, but no action was taken. They then wrote and requested ALAC to help them with these issues.After receiving this complaint, ALAC first scrutinized and verified this compliant. Thereafter, on 13 May 2011, ALAC sent a letter to Director (Projects) National Education Foundation Islamabad, with a copy to Director BECS and Federal Minister for Education with a request to look into this complaint/matter.The National Education Foundation sent a letter to ALAC stating that at the moment they had no funds for the teachers’ salaries but assured us that they would get them in the fourth week of June 2011. (The government was expected to release the funds on the 20th of June 2011.)After checking up on the complainants, we were informed that one of the teachers had gotten her salary. The rest were hopeful to get theirs soon as well.This is another success story for ALAC, since after our involvement and efforts, the relevant authority assured the aggrieved poor teachers that they will receive their due salaries soon.

*Actual name is changed

 

Success Story # 6

 

Scooter Manufacturing Company in Residential Area of Hyderabad

Dr. Asim*, who was living in a residential area of Hyderabad, called ALAC and informed us that in his area someone had opened a Scooter Manufacturing Company, which is against the Environmental Protection Laws. He wanted to file a civil suit in the court and also had an intention to contest it in person. For this reason he contacted ALAC and wanted to get the requisite help and advice. He further asked to know which laws were actually being violated in his case, as he was a lay man and was unaware of this knowledge.ALAC’s lawyer informed and advised him that Section 278 PPC had been violated along with sections 11,12,13,14 and 16 of the Pakistan Environment Protection Act.He took this information and thanked us. The next time he called, he informed us that he had filed a civil suit in the Civil Court, Hyderabad.The complainant called again and informed that the opponent party told the court that they are ready to move his business from there but he would have to tear down Dr. Asim's boundary wall to enable his machinery to be moved. The court told him that if that was necessary he would be allowed but he would have to reconstruct this wall at his own expense. On the other hand, the complainant was of the view that machinery could be moved without tearing down the wall.When he discussed this matter with ALAC’s lawyers, they advised him to file an application for appointment of a commissioner by the court who would check out and send a report to the court and state whether it is necessary for the wall to be taken down or not so that the court may pass an appropriate Order accordingly. On the advice of ALAC’s lawyers, the complainant filed an application. Later on, he got the orders in his favour and his opponent had to remove the machinery without tearing his wall. For the rest of his matter, the complainant contacted us again and informed that his case had been fixed for final orders.After a few days, we called him back for an update when he informed us that the Civil Court had passed an order in his favour. He had won the case and paid thanks to ALAC for guidance and helping him regarding this issue.The matter had been resolved successfully.

*Actual name is changed

 

Success Story # 7

 

Problem in Getting Computerized National Identity Card

TI-Pakistan received a complaint from Mr. Ahmed* who was a retired Army person. He was 48 years old and had applied for a Computerized National Identity Card in 2002, but had not received one as yet. Whenever he went to inquire about the progress regarding his card, NADRA kept saying that verifications were taking place. In the meantime, his wife had received her CNIC which showed him as her husband. Moreover, all of his children had been registered under Form 'B' which showed him as their father. However, he himself did not have his own identity card, and so, needed our help.He wrote an application to ALAC and forwarded the matter. The application and the related documents were scrutinized by ALAC first, and then a letter was written to the Chairman of NADRA for sorting out this matter.After a few days, the complainant informed us that he got his CNIC and also sent a letter thanking TI-P for helping him resolve his matter.

*Actual name is changed

 

Success Story # 8

 

Problem obtaining a computerized NIC
Complainant: Mr. Khalid

On 5th November 2009, Khalid – a resident of Korangi in Karachi – contacted ALAC and lodged a complaint against the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), a federal department of the Government of Pakistan responsible for issuing identification cards to the citizens of Pakistan. The complainant stated that he was a bonafide citizen of Pakistan but had been deprived of his right to obtain his Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC). Although he had made several visits to the NADRA offices, he did not get a positive response from the officials.

He further informed us that he had been a resident of Korangi since birth. He got married there and his children were also born there. Moreover, his wife and two of his children had CNICs proving he was their husband/father but despite all efforts, he was not able to get his own CNIC.

Khalid said that he was an educated, law abiding citizen with a good reputation in his community. But when he applied to renew his CNIC in May 2005 (with the same particulars as his previous NIC), he was informed by NADRA personnel that someone else had already been issued a CNIC with exactly the same particulars except the photograph. Khalid made a complaint against it, after which NADRA blocked the photo-less CNIC, but didn’t issue him a new one. He made repeated attempts to obtain the computerized card but NADRA staff seemed unwilling to do much about the situation. Khalid provided them with all the documents and fulfilled all the formalities – such as verifications, personal inquiry and the Nazim’s (or mayor) certificate – but to no avail. During this time, a concerned department of the registration authority issued a letter in April 2007 with the Manager’s (Tech.) signature stating that while they believed Khalid to be genuine, they couldn’t issue his CNIC.
 
On 16th May 2009, Khalid gave a legal notice to NADRA’s Chairman and Director General (through his lawyer - a High Court advocate) giving them 20 days to issue his CNIC. He again provided the required documentary proof, but NADRA again failed to provide him with a CNIC within the stipulated time. Finally, he came to know of ALAC and requested them to formally help him obtain his CNIC from NADRA.   

ALAC scrutinized his documents and with the consultation of its lawyers, wrote a letter to NADRA’s Chairman on 14th November 2009. In this letter, ALAC presented the whole situation and requested him to look into the matter and direct the concerned authorities to act according to the law.  

On 7th December 2009, ALAC received a letter from NADRA stating that the referred case had been properly investigated. NADRA officials admitted that someone else had used Khalid’s particulars based on his Manual Identity Card. The sham card had been blocked and Khalid’s CNIC had been prepared and sent to the relevant NADRA office, from where he was advised to collect it. The letter also mentioned NADRA’s regret for inconveniencing the complainant. ALAC told Khalid to visit the NADRA office to collect his CNIC.

On 7th December 2009, Khalid visited the ALAC office to report that he had received his CNIC. He thanked ALAC for their cooperation and help.

 

 

Success Story # 9

Illegal allotment of a plot on 100-feet-wide road adjacent to Plot C-64 
Complainant: Mr. Ahmed

On 24th February 2010, ALAC received a phone call from Mr. Ahmed. He told us that he had a complaint against Sindh Industrial & Trading Estate (SITE) and wanted to visit ALAC’s office personally. He was given an appointment and was advised to bring a written application/complaint with relevant documents.

The next day, 25th February 2010, he visited ALAC’s office and shared some very interesting information. He said that Sindh Industrial & Trading Estate (SITE) had allotted a plot on a 100-feet-wide road in the industrial area at a portion adjacent to his plot, which had been serving as a major thoroughfare. He provided the copy of the Site plan. It could be easily seen from the plan that the allotment of the plot completely blocked the smooth flow of the heavy traffic, causing difficulty to the citizens. 
     

 

  

 

On 2nd April 2010, after carefully examining the complaint and related documents, ALAC wrote a letter to SITE’s Managing Director (MD) Karachi in which he was told that SITE had illegally allotted a plot adjacent to the complainant’s plot (no. C-64). ALAC also explained that Mr. Ahmed had written to the relevant office on 17th November 2009 regarding the issue, but no action had been taken by the SITE authorities. ALAC requested SITE’s MD to look into the matter and if found correct, take action and direct the concerned staff to resolve it under the law.

 

On ALAC’s request, the MD took action and on 7th April 2010 at 1:46 PM ALAC received an email from Ahmed. He informed us, with great delight, that the matter had been resolved because of our support and communication. The encroachment had been removed and the road was restored, while the traffic was back to normal. This has been a great success for ALAC and its mission.       

 

 

Success Story # 10

 

Illegal installation of powerful gas generators in a residential area
Complainant: Ms. Sarah

On 30th November 2009, at 10:01 pm, ALAC received an email from Transparency International (TI) Germany forwarding a complaint of Ms. Sarah – a resident of Lahore, Pakistan. Since it was related to a Pakistani citizen, TI Germany asked us to look into the matter.

When the matter was scrutinized, ALAC found that Ms. Sarah complained about the installation of illegal, noisy gas generators as well as gas theft by her neighbors. Due to the installation of these powerful generators, on either side of her property, the residents in the area had been experiencing low gas pressure for cooking purposes. They could also smell gas leakages all the time. Ms. Sarah stated that she had gone from pillar to post i.e. Environmental Protection Department Lahore, Sui Northern Gas Company Lahore, Environmental Tribunal Lahore, with her complaint but all of her efforts were in vain. Moreover, these departments including the ruling party in Punjab – PML(N) – and the Punjab Police, distorted facts and fully protected those who were continuously responsible for this public nuisance and the theft of the government’s gas.  

When she launched a complaint at the Environmental Protection Department (EPD), they sent notices to the thieving residents periodically and directed them to appear before them. However, the accused residents abused the inspection officials and allegedly tore the notices. According to a concerned official of EPD: “When under Section 148-B of the Punjab Local Government Law confiscated generator of one of the residents, the ASI of the concerned police station highly pressurized us and removed generator from our custody from City District Office (Town Hall). Police, favorable to both residents registered a case/counter FIR of theft and trespass (362/09) against City District Government, Lahore and Environment Protection Department. We also received favorable pressure calls from Deputy Media Coordinator of Chief Minister.”

After receiving the email, ALAC first examined the matter and then contacted the complainant and heard her grievance in detail. On 4th January 2010, based on the evidence provided, ALAC wrote letters to the Chief Minister Punjab and Inspector General Punjab Police bringing the matter to their notice and requested them to investigate it. On 19th February 2010, ALAC sent a reminder to the Secretary to Chief Minister of Punjab requesting him to look into the matter and direct the concerned authorities to take appropriate steps to resolve it.

On 23rd February 2010, Secretary to the Chief Minister Punjab wrote a letter to the Secretary Environment, with a copy sent to ALAC, in which he stated that Chief Minister Punjab desired to initiate appropriate legal actions against the complaint.

On 10th March 2010, the Environment Protection Department Lahore replied to Secretary to the Chief Minister Punjab in which he was told that the matter had been investigated and a site inspection had been conducted through the District Officer (Environmental) Lahore in presence of the parties. They were also heard personally. Upon this investigation, a direction was passed against the respondents. Relevant portion of the direction is:

“Adopt appropriate remedial measures for controlling noise pollution generated due operation of power generator installed within the premises of your residence so that the noise level should not cause discomfort to the complainant and to the satisfaction of this agency or stop the operation of pollution-generated activities.”

Thereafter, the compliance of this EPO was checked by them and it was found that the owner of the house had shifted his generator to the back of his house. However, the owner of the other house had failed to comply with the directives of EPO. Hence, a complaint against the defaulting person – namely Mr. Abdul* was filed in the Environmental Tribunal Lahore for prosecution. 

On 27th March 2010, ALAC received a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency in which it was told that the case was pending for adjudication against Mr. Abdul in Environmental Tribunal Lahore. 

On 29th March 2010, a reminder letter was sent from Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Secretariat to Secretary Environment asking to inform the CM about the action taken.

Thereafter in the month of April 2010, the complainant Ms. Sarah appeared at the hearing of this case in Environmental Tribunal and got relief in her favor. The Honorable Environmental Tribunal was pleased to direct the respondent for removal of the heavy gas generator. Eventually Ms. Sarah got justice. On 16th June she emailed ALAC:

“Here I would like to jot down a thank you note, but I am sure it will be difficult to draft. ALAC support and helped me take up this matter of corruption (Environment Protection Department) with a lot of enthusiasm. There is no longer any doubt of ALAC’s efficiency and I feel proud to have joined hands with them to fight against corruption. I send my cordial gratitude to ALAC.”

Hence, this case was resolved giving ALAC another success.

 

 

Success Story # 11 

Excess billing due to incorrect meter reading
Complainant: Mr. Shahnawaz

On 7th July 2010, ALAC received a call from Mr. Shahnawaz from Karachi. He made a complaint against the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC). He was being continuously overcharged for electricity since May 2003. The complainant told us that he received a bill in the month of May 2003 for 18,062 units – this was 8,000 units more than the actual reading. He informed the concerned authorities and requested them to re-check his meter. Upon his request, the meter reading was re-taken and a corrected copy of the bill, showing the reading 10,062 units instead of 18,062 units for the same month, was given to him. He paid the revised bill. However, the excess units had not been deleted from the system and showed as arrears in the next month’s bill. The situation was the same every month, for 7 years. He had to visit the KESC billing centre each month to get the bill rectified. He communicated the matter to various KESC authorities but no attention was being given and the matter was unresolved. ALAC suggested that he write an application to the advisory centre and send the related documents.  

Upon receiving his formal complaint, along with copies of current and previous bills and the number of complaints which he wrote to the authorities, ALAC scrutinized the matter. The complainant had been sending various letters to different KESC officials including Controller of Billing, Chief Controller of Billing (he sent five reminders to him), Manager Business Operation KESC and the CEO of KESC.

In one of his letter dated 12th May 2010 to KESC’s CEO, he explained the matter and made an appeal in the following terms:
“During the last 7 years, my old father (a handicap person of 70 years) and I have had to visit the area office many times. We have written many reminders, but there has been no response from KESC and the arrears have not been removed. 
I now appeal to you, again, to consider this case sympathetically and to accord justice based on the ground realities.”   

In one of his letters to the CEO dated 12th March 2010, he wrote:
“I am at a loss to understand why the approval of high-ups is required to correct a minor human error.”

On 28th July 2010, ALAC wrote a letter to the CEO of KESC explaining the entire situation on the behalf of the complainant and requested him to look into the matter and take appropriate action to resolve the complaint.

On 12th August 2010, ALAC received a letter from KESC informing us that the action had been taken, and the subject meter was rechecked by their staff and reviewed by the CEO Task Force. They also mentioned, “Upon reviewing the billing history, it was noted that an allowance is processed in July 2010 for 8,785 units and a revised bill is issued for 785 units.”

The KESC told us that an estimated time of 3 weeks would be required for the allowance to get processed and updated in the billing. 
The KESC welcomed ALAC’s effort and requested us to keep sending our feedback on cases like these which would help them become a better customer-oriented organization.

On 17th August 2010, ALAC sent a copy of the letter received from KESC to the complainant for his information.

On 7th September 2010, we called Mr. Shahnawaz for his feedback. He told us that the matter had been completely resolved and that he was now receiving bills without any additional charges.
 
This has been another success for ALAC and its mission.       

Success Story # 12

Property case being adjourned by one or another pretext
Complainant: Ms. Sarah

Ms. Sarah lives in Lahore. She previously referred a case to ALAC about the illegal installation of powerful, noisy gas generators in residential areas. The case was successfully handled by ALAC and the complainant got relief in the end.
  
The same complainant referred another case to this department. The matter was one related to her inherited property, where a civil suit had already been filed by her uncle against other members of the family.

In that particular suit, he did not make her a defendant/party to the proceedings deliberately so that he could usurp her due share in the property. When she came to know of this, she moved an application in the court in the same suit for becoming a party/defendant so that she might obtain her due share left by her grand father and mother. 

After filing such an application, and even attending the court and visiting Karachi, her matter kept on getting adjourned on one pretext or another. Hence she could not obtain the proper hearing of the case.

She approached ALAC with this grievance, with the hope of solving the matter as soon as possible. On 6th November 2010, ALAC wrote to the Human Right Cell of Supreme Court of Pakistan - Grievance against application of decision of cases under National Judicial Policy, 2009 - Case#1405/1998, Sind High Court. The Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court took notice of this department’s letter and directed the Sindh High Court to expedite the hearing of Ms. Sarah’s case. Now, the hearing of the case is taking place as per schedule in the Sindh High Court.

Hence, Ms Sarah’s grievance was solved by ALAC’s intervention.

 

Success Story # 13

Continuous problem with landline connections damaging business
Complainant: Khurram

Khurram, a handicapped gentleman, was running a real estate business in Clifton, Karachi. He came to the ALAC office to discuss his complaint concerning his telephone connections. 
He said that for some unknown reason his phone line had stopped working. He explained that his business relied on this line of communication and he could not afford it to not work. 
He further told us that during the last three years, he had changed his number many times, but as soon as his number became public it would stop working. He had complained to the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) many times, but they had not paid attention to this matter. He feared that his competitors may have bribed some of the PTCL employees so that he would go out of business.

His documents were reviewed and ALAC wrote a letter on 18th January 2011 to the Director Consumer Protection Dept. of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) requesting them to look into this case. When a reply was not received, a reminder was sent to them. 
On 21st February 2011, the ALAC received a phone call from a PTA official who said that after receiving our letter they took action and a meeting had been conducted between the aggrieved customer and PTCL’s Area Business Manager.  The PTA official informed us that the matter had been resolved and requested us to confirm this with the complainant. 
The complainant confirmed his meeting with the Area Business Manger and told us that his telephone line was now functioning properly.    

 

Success Story # 14

A policeman asking for a bribe
Complainant: Saeed

On 26th March 2011, Saeed called to inform us that a policeman had stopped him (he was riding a motorcycle) and wanted to check his documents. Even though his documents were in order, the police man demanded a bribe. 
Saeed resisted the officer and asked him to issue a ticket (challan) if he had violated any law. However, the police man kept on insisting that the complainant give the money. 
When the police man did not back off from his stance, Saeed called the ALAC hotline. He wanted the police man to talk to us.
While speaking to the policeman, we asked his name and the reason he was asking for the money. He gave his name but denied asking for the money. We informed the policeman that if the person had broken any laws he should be issued a challan which the policeman assured he would.
A little while later we called the complainant and asked him what had transpired. He said that after speaking to us the policeman allowed him to leave without issuing any challan, as no offence had taken place. The complainant was very thankful for the immediate help given to him.

 

Success Story # 15

Man faces corruption in passport office
Complainant: Omar

The common person faces a lot of hardship when he goes to the Passport Office for acquiring a passport. They have to face a lot of hurdles, which are placed in their way so that they would have to bribe unauthorised agents, to get their work done on time.  Omar, a complainant from Jhelum Punjab, called us to report his experience of getting a passport issued without paying bribe. We are quoting his experience:

“On 19th September 2009, I went to the Passport Office to get my passport renewed. There were a lot of touts (agents) sitting in the vicinity of the office. They charge Rs. 600/- per passport (this amount is shared between the agent and the passport personnel) for issuance of a token. The token allows entry to inside of the passport office. Those persons who do not pay the bribe will have to stand for hours to get inside. The system that has been set up is that after every 25 person paying the bribe 3 persons not paying it are allowed entry. Similarly, the National Bank of Pakistan’s deposit slip (for the passport fees)  are usually not available at the Bank’s counters but are available from the touts on payment of Rs. 50/- or more.”
 
The complainant alleged that this practice was going on in a very systematic way in all the regional passport offices and requested ALAC to do something to stop it. 
The ALAC wrote a letter to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and requested them to look into this matter and if found correct to take action under the law. The FIA took notice of it and directed Immigration and Passport Office to take the necessary action to redress the issue raised by the complainant. 

 

* The name and addresses mentioned in the Success Stories in this website, are not real.