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Casestudy Local Government System and Citizens Complaints Management
Casestudy Local Government System and Citizens Complaints Management
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Local Government’s Policies and Citizens’ Complaints Management: The Case of Karachi
The concept of strong and robust governance in cities and urban dwellings is considered to be of
pivotal significance because governments and related governing bodies are responsible for
meeting the needs and requirements of the citizens. The concept of good governance goes
beyond the concept of serving specific needs of selected groups as it focuses on every citizen
within the country. It is a complete process that supports public organizations to deliver success
through the formulation of polices needed to improve public services. Characteristics of good
governance framework includes improved responsiveness to cater the needs, problems, and
complaints of the general public. The existing case study reflects the local government’s
polices’ pertaining to good governance and citizen’s complaints management using Karachi,
While in Pakistan, the concept of good governance had been in scrutiny. According to Cheemaa,
Mehmoodb and Khana (2019), local governance in Pakistan has a very chaotic history. This is
because of political instability and alternating changes in governments between democratic and
military regimes. As a nation that came out from British’s rule in 1947, the old feudal system is
still intact to control lands that are in the power of the elite class, while the rural class is
controlled through institutionalized powers. The feudal system coupled with governmental
agencies, businesses, and civil society has further led to weak governance. In Pakistan, the
provincial legislation is responsible for implementing the local governance. As a result, power
structures and governance mechanism are based on political interests and associations, which are
responsible for influencing the key political decisions (Cheemaa, Mehmoodb and Khana, 2019),
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problem that is prevalent in Pakistani governmental agencies that have hindered the
In order to meet up the citizens’ needs and requirements, the Pakistan Citizens Portal (PCP) had
been established by the existing Prime Minister, Imran Khan, in October, 2018. This step had
been undertaken as a strategy to improve the efficiency of the public organizations and to allow
Pakistani citizens to register their complaints online. Furthermore, the portal supported
management of complaints of both local and overseas Pakistani. Using information and
communication technology, the PCP application was also developed that allowed Pakistanis to
register their complaints through the use of their smart phones and smart devices. The app gave
them access to them to more than 7000 governmental offices. The system had been designed in
such a manner that the complaints would reach to the intended departments. Through this
system, citizens were able to provide evidence in the form of audios, images, and videos files for
their complaints. Within the period of 10 days, the head of the concerned departments were
obliged to resolve the complaints. The PCP system also comprises of a dashboard, which is
ministries and departments through this dashboard. The system also comprises of a feedback
system, which allows the citizens to give their feedback on it and to rate the quality of their
services. The objective of installing such a system was to control the hierarchal powers of
The project has been undertaken by the PTI government to address the complaints of the citizens,
services delivered by the public organizations. For citizens without smart devices, the local
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government has placed an inter-departmental conflict system that ensures that public complaints
are handled and managed effectively through the adoption of good governance practices. Since
the inception of the system, it has been efficient in managing public grievances. It was able to
managed 1.23 million complaints and has successfully resolved 1.05 million. This demonstrates
that its success rate was 86%. In terms of federal government, success rate for Punjab was found
to be 92%, for KPK it was 88%, for Federal Capital it was 87%, for Balochistan it was 89
percent, for GB it was 79%, and for Sindh it was 72%. Statistics demonstrate that areas where
PTI government was in power has higher success rate as compared to the Sindh, which had a
lower rate. Complaints made by citizens were related to services such as education, health, land
In Karachi, the Citizen Complaint and Information System (CCIS) has been undertaken to handle
complaints made by citizens. The CCIS project has been undertaken by Karachi Metropolitan
Corporation (KMC). The duties of the organization is to maintain roads, bridges, storm drains
management, medical colleges and specialized hospitals, zoological gardens, solid waste
management, traffic engineering, fire fighting, and municipal watch and ward. The CCIS project
departments or individuals. Through this system, the complaints can be registered by citizens of
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Authorized personnel are responsible for managing the complaints starting from its inception till
its resolution. The system is considered to a fully integrated and operational system, which uses
client and server, and relationship database management technology. Through this project, the
following areas were improved for service delivery and complaint management:
The CCIS network is based on 4-Tier complaint network. The four tiers are listed as follows:
The second tier comprises of the data center located at Civic Center, Karachi.
The third tier comprises of complaint cells installed in different towns. They are located
This system has been designed to manage and resolve problems for citizens based on federal and
provincial levels. Complaints have been categorized based on district, town, and city categories.
Previously, KMC only had manual walk-in complaint system. Through CCIS, complaints can be
filed online or through calls made to the call center to register them. Because physical complaint
systems were manual, the overall service delivery was slow. Through this system, the complaint
system at KMC has become more centralized, where the data is stored in data and can be
accessed only by authorized personnel. Overall, the system has improved quality of service
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For the citizens of Karachi, this system is considered to be significantly beneficial.
Firstly, complaints can be made online through the web-portal or through call centers
without the requirement of visiting the center physically. In this way, resources such
as money, time, and fuel are saved. CCIS supports efficiency and focuses on making
The following characteristics of the system are discussed and outlined as follows:
It has different walk-in complaint centers that are established all over the
Karachi city. Primary centers are at Civic Center, KBCA, and KW&SB.
Quality Control Center has been established to verify and manage complaints
CCIS is fully operation 24/7. Complaints are categorized based on town in Karachi, KWSB,
KBCA, or senior director. The City Mayor is responsible for monitoring and supervising the
complaints that are lodged. The heads of the organizations of KW&SB, KBC, and Town Mayors
are responsible for monitoring complaints based on categories of town and departments. Their
duty is to formulate directives based on the complaints to resolve problems for the citizens based
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For KMC, resolving complaints in timely manner is essential. KMC workforce are provided with
training to ensure that they focus on meeting the needs and requirements of the users.
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References:
Cheemaa, A.R., Mehmoodb, A. and Khana, F.A., 2019, Challenges to citizen-driven local governance:
Dahri, A.S. and Maitlo, A.A., 2020. Usability of eGovernance application for citizens of Pakistan.
Shaikh, A.Z., Shah, U.L. and Wijekuruppu, C., 2016. Public service delivery and e-governance: The case
Saud, A. and Khan, K.A., 2016. Decentralization and Local Government Structures: Key to Strengthening
Schöberlein, J., 2019. Strategies to tackle corruption in local government procurement in Asia and Africa.
Transparency International..