RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: The Punjab Information Technology Board’s (PITB) project in collaboration with the Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC) is redressing the overseas Pakistanis’ complaints being faced by them in various inland departments through an online complaint portal developed for effective communication in the shortest time. PITB chairman Dr Umar Saif said while chairing a progress review meeting here on Tuesday.

The meeting was informed that a number of 7,814 complaints have been received so far and among them 3,579 have been resolved while remaining are under process and 132 have been rejected.

The online portal has decreased workload and made the complaints tracking process easier, which was facilitating the labor force in the middle-east countries who couldn’t access the online portal, by enabling them to call the helpline +92 42-111-672-672, which runs parallel to the Overseas Complaint Portal. The OPC call representative enters all the information into the system on behalf of a user, briefed the meeting.

The meeting was informed that during the last two weeks Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC) Punjab retrieved 17 properties of overseas Pakistanis, worth Rs 93.3 million from the illegal occupants in Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Narowal, Pakpattan, Jehlum, Sahiwal, Okara, Toba Tek Singh Mandi Baha Ud Din and Jhang Districts.

The online web based portal allows overseas residents to lodge their complaints without visiting Pakistan. All they have to do is sign up on the website and enter the complaint regarding matters such as family disputes, property disputes, travel agents and airline related issues, criminal cases, financial disputes, and issues related to cooperative society claim.

It also includes lodging a complaint for problems related to utilities i.e. water connection problems, telephone bills, electricity bills or sui-gas connection problems. The applicants can also have follow-ups on their complaints through OPC helpline or via directly commenting on their complaints.