02-16-2008, 10:17 PM
March 3, 2003 surfing through the internet search for government web directory I came across Postal Division Karachi South web site. It contained usual information like introduction to services, contact us. Its mailing address was that of Postmaster General Metropolitan Circle Karachi. Amongst the services was an Online Opening of Post Office Savings Bank Account. The facility was for only opening of an account and of course not for electronic transactions which was well understood. I was then working abroad and I knew how difficult it was to open an account with any Bank or Post Office in Pakistan from abroad. It in fact gave me a proud feeling about our advancement. The online link http//kspd.gov.pk/ebanking/saving_accounts.html provided an Online Account Opening Form which same time 03 March 2003 I filled in and as usual âSubmittedâ. The auto generated receipt htt//kspd.gov.pk/ebanking/application_received.html of 3 March 2003 confirmed receipt of my application and that postal staff would revert back to me with progress. The original auto generated receipt still is with me. For any query this Receipt advised me to contact [email protected]. I waited for two three months but no progress. From that onward I kept on enquiring by airmail as well as through emails and e-letter service created by Pakistan Post specifically for Overseas Pakistanis. I wrote right from PMG Karachi to PMG Southern Circle Sindh to Director General in Islamabad but as usual never got any response. Before going further one must remember it was March 2003.
2. On my raising the matter in March 2007 with the Federal Ombudsman from whom too of course so far I have got no response and which should not be a joke, the first time January 2007 DGPRO addressed the matter to PMG Karachi advising him to look into the matter who as usual did not take any notice. However seeing my persistent reminders The Divisional Superintendent Post South purely in a bureaucratic technique to fool me ignoring the real matter that what happened to my account opening simply addressed me that postal office rule does not provide the facility.
3. Mid 80s through airmail I received under an official letter from the DG Pakistan Post Office Islamabad a 6-page coloured brochure highlighting the postal investment schemes. These schemes were Defence Savings, Special Savings, Savings Bank Account, Postal Insurance etc. Each scheme was assigned a page. One page was of a chain-money-order scheme which claimed that each member joining with just Rs. 2/- at the end would gain Rs. 1.24 lacs. The scheme further described names of some such who had thus already got different high amounts ranging from Rs. 60,000 to Rs 1.24 lacks. The contact address was of a private concern which only read Messrs Zahid Enterprises Rawalpindi with no further details. This private concern was using reply-paid envelope on which there needed no postage stamp. My investigation revealed that some postal employees with hands of seniors were operating this illegal scheme using post office official network i.e. distribution of brochure through postal counters, free return reply posting facility. Thousands of money orders daily arriving in Rawalpindi GPO from all over Pakistan were âreceivedâ then and âthereâ. The fine print-line usual Print-Reference and Date on the bottom of the brochure suggested the scheme was running then since about two years. When I raised this issue not surprising to me a very beautiful bureaucratic argument came from senior postal authorities. It stated the private printer in order to off set the high cost of printing to the Department at his own included this private advertisement âwithoutâ any prior information of the Department. Can any printer at his own include such an advertisement of a third party without any consent? If for a while it is accepted, then who was the corrupt involved upto his sleeves who âapprovedâ the âproofâ as no printer finally prints out unless the ordering party approves/OKs in writing the âdraft/proofâ. Notwithstanding however how then instead of rejecting the brochure it was being distributed using the official network and above all how/to-whom the money orders were being âdeliveredâ while there was no locational address of the recipient. The whole episode naturally showed that in the drama senior actors were hand to neck in the scandal. Had any senior levels insiders not involved in it, as soon as I raised the matter instead of defending under unconvincing logic that printer used the space, the department would had immediately thanked me for the feedback with promise for serious investigation with making public the investigation report. I sent addresses of few such named people living around Rawalpindi who as per advertisement had obtained Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 1.24 lacks each to the Income Tax Authorities to know if those people had paid income tax on those amounts. The income tax remained silent and it did not surprise me. Upto how much was the involvement can be judged that on my raising the issue, the only affect was that the name of company was changed with a new one this time with a locational address but still using postal net work. Such schemes never are without blessings of some inside hands. For example once Employees Housing Scheme used envelopes, franking machines, official monogram of Overseas Pakistanis Foundation Islamabad for sale of plots and made hundreds fool right under the eyes of OPF management.
4. Early 90s a sort of similar scheme but with changed design again started in the Pakistan Post Office. Due to passage of time, my old age and having lost my eye sight I am unable to recall details of that but vividly I remember it was something to do with sort of âemploymentâ. Daily newspapers criticized editorially and one of my analytic report appeared then.
5. It is today beyond any doubt that no public cheating scheme eg lucky installments, sale of plots/flats, finance company can be run unless some inside bureaucratic but senior hands do not extend their blessing. I know two hotel waiters who were allured by a 1993 newspaper advertisement offering cheap plots near Islamabad. The advertisement quoted an April 1993 approval/clearance reference from the Rawalpindi Development Authority. The scheme never materialized. When matter was raised the Rawalpindi Development Authority came up with a novel but a usual response that in 2000 it warned people not to interact with this housing scheme. RDA awaited 7 long years to warn the people? The Dy. Commissioner Rawalpindi submitted his investigation report before the Punjab Ombudsman that the scheme in question was a âfraudâ. The DC used exactly the word âfraudâ. But not surprising at all even after finding it a fraud the DC did not take any further legal step to book the fraudulent. What can else and why to expect more from a bureaucratic DC when the Punjab Ombudsman the protector of citizens rights so-called working under Islamic justice system too despite having learnt that the scheme was fraud closed the case without giving his further decision or directive to DC. Since RDA bureaucrats were deep involved in this housing scheme as they remained sleeping for 7 years, the ombudsman even did not order investigation about this long 7 years sleep. The poor labourers wrote several times to so publicized NAB and many times to HE the President but never got any response.
6. Now finally on my persistent following up the PMG Sindh on 16 January 2008 after about 4 years have informed me that Pakistan Post Office âisâ not maintaining above website. He further adds that âthe Department tried to locate this website on the internet so it be stopped cheating and defrauding the peopleâ. The PMG finally and in fact âvery kindlyâ, as did the Rawalpindi Development Authority after 7 years, advises me to stay away from such websites to save my precious money. The main two points to ponder for the unfortunate citizens are; namely First that the Post Office Head Office has now woke up to safeguard a citizenâs interest and the departmental name after 4 long years. The second is those who are i-tech familiar know well that âgov.pkâ is a secure Government of Pakistan domain which no outsider can access to link or attach a private sub-domain with it unless someone unofficially âallowsâ it. Leave the most important natural question coming in minds that if this website was created by some third party as a fraud, which of course I do not believe, then the point is who knows how many might have been then defrauded by this site. I do not raise a million dollar question that as and when I enquired progress on my account opening mid 2003 why the Department did not woke up immediately to protect its own name. Or when the Department first time woke up after my three continuous years follow up did the senior level as high as that of Dy. Director General PRO Customers Care did not know that there existed no such departmental website but just as a senior postman he forwarded my letter to PMG Karachi for ânecessary actionâ. I would also not raise a further billion dollar question was the Superintendent Postal South an illiterate person who first time waking up in April 2007 informed me that âyour proposal was examined which presently is not feasible due to departmental rulesâ. These words âpresently not feasible due to departmental rulesâ are worth noting if the Divisional Superintendent was really an educated person fit to hold that particular seat reason being in his same letter under a copy he directed APMG (Admin) to take up the matter with higher authorities in light of the proposal which means for consideration if proposal was worth. The point is if my so called proposal, which in fact was not a proposal but my follow up, was against departmental rules, then how a educated person, if his certificates are true, would ask his seniors for consideration of a proposal which was against departmental rule. The million dollar point is why the Divisional Superintendent then in April 2007 in his first letter to me (after 3 years) did not tell me website was his official one.
8. Pakistan Post Office personally to me still is the second best Government department in Pakistan first being Sui Southern Gas. It is my experience which I have many a times in writing repeated to which one may subscribe or may laugh at me. While a single chpati today costs Rs. 5/- the Department still just in Rs. 4/- accepts and delivers my letter from Karachi to 1800 kilo metre away in a remote Peshawar village. In 3-4 days at an average it still delivers my letter abroad to my friends. This performance is not due to these days management. It is only because like that of Habib Bank, its foundations were laid by the then yester years managements on sound footing otherwise subsequently the managements did not let any stone unturned to rune it. For example despite putting the derailed administrative efficiency back on track, subsequent managements kept on increasing the new products without increasing proportionately the resources eg recent delivery home railway tickets. One Postal Chief in recent years repeatedly desired to âbuyâ departmental planes to airlift mail. As a layman I understand the biggest commission is in aircraft purchase deals. This tendency to fool the nation today is almost in every department. For example just 3-4 days before the end of recently out gone government, Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid repeated proudly that 24 new trains were introduced by him in his two years tenure. As soon as he left the new caretaker Railway Minister the other day addressed the press conference that the Department even does not have track fault detecting machine on NWFP sector etc. The attitude of postal management had always been strange for me. For example our postal system despite constraints delivers 80-90% mail timely or late safely. Maximum 10-20% mail might get lost. Loss of mail is an international phenomena which I have seen abroad even under modernization. However very strangely bank statements âdispatchedâ every six month by each Bank/Branch does not reach to almost 80% saving account holders. Thus it is very strange that minimum 80% ordinary mail do reach safely while about 80% bank statements get loss in the mail. For the departmental prestige the postal department has never taken up this matter seriously. Sometime during 2006-07 the Department submitted before the Federal Ombudsman that a service earlier it introduced was âillegalâ hence it was stopped whereas after 4-5 months later I used the same service. Since senior postal authorities like their counterparts other places do know well there exists no practically accountability and no body can question them hence they have the courage even to speak lies before ombudsman Pakistan â they know their counter part bureaucrats are sitting there to believe their statements and not that of ordinary true civic minded patriotic citizens. PS I have hardly 20% reading visibility in one eye only. This is typed playing with key board without pre-drafting or checking hence errors of omission or commission expected.
2. On my raising the matter in March 2007 with the Federal Ombudsman from whom too of course so far I have got no response and which should not be a joke, the first time January 2007 DGPRO addressed the matter to PMG Karachi advising him to look into the matter who as usual did not take any notice. However seeing my persistent reminders The Divisional Superintendent Post South purely in a bureaucratic technique to fool me ignoring the real matter that what happened to my account opening simply addressed me that postal office rule does not provide the facility.
3. Mid 80s through airmail I received under an official letter from the DG Pakistan Post Office Islamabad a 6-page coloured brochure highlighting the postal investment schemes. These schemes were Defence Savings, Special Savings, Savings Bank Account, Postal Insurance etc. Each scheme was assigned a page. One page was of a chain-money-order scheme which claimed that each member joining with just Rs. 2/- at the end would gain Rs. 1.24 lacs. The scheme further described names of some such who had thus already got different high amounts ranging from Rs. 60,000 to Rs 1.24 lacks. The contact address was of a private concern which only read Messrs Zahid Enterprises Rawalpindi with no further details. This private concern was using reply-paid envelope on which there needed no postage stamp. My investigation revealed that some postal employees with hands of seniors were operating this illegal scheme using post office official network i.e. distribution of brochure through postal counters, free return reply posting facility. Thousands of money orders daily arriving in Rawalpindi GPO from all over Pakistan were âreceivedâ then and âthereâ. The fine print-line usual Print-Reference and Date on the bottom of the brochure suggested the scheme was running then since about two years. When I raised this issue not surprising to me a very beautiful bureaucratic argument came from senior postal authorities. It stated the private printer in order to off set the high cost of printing to the Department at his own included this private advertisement âwithoutâ any prior information of the Department. Can any printer at his own include such an advertisement of a third party without any consent? If for a while it is accepted, then who was the corrupt involved upto his sleeves who âapprovedâ the âproofâ as no printer finally prints out unless the ordering party approves/OKs in writing the âdraft/proofâ. Notwithstanding however how then instead of rejecting the brochure it was being distributed using the official network and above all how/to-whom the money orders were being âdeliveredâ while there was no locational address of the recipient. The whole episode naturally showed that in the drama senior actors were hand to neck in the scandal. Had any senior levels insiders not involved in it, as soon as I raised the matter instead of defending under unconvincing logic that printer used the space, the department would had immediately thanked me for the feedback with promise for serious investigation with making public the investigation report. I sent addresses of few such named people living around Rawalpindi who as per advertisement had obtained Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 1.24 lacks each to the Income Tax Authorities to know if those people had paid income tax on those amounts. The income tax remained silent and it did not surprise me. Upto how much was the involvement can be judged that on my raising the issue, the only affect was that the name of company was changed with a new one this time with a locational address but still using postal net work. Such schemes never are without blessings of some inside hands. For example once Employees Housing Scheme used envelopes, franking machines, official monogram of Overseas Pakistanis Foundation Islamabad for sale of plots and made hundreds fool right under the eyes of OPF management.
4. Early 90s a sort of similar scheme but with changed design again started in the Pakistan Post Office. Due to passage of time, my old age and having lost my eye sight I am unable to recall details of that but vividly I remember it was something to do with sort of âemploymentâ. Daily newspapers criticized editorially and one of my analytic report appeared then.
5. It is today beyond any doubt that no public cheating scheme eg lucky installments, sale of plots/flats, finance company can be run unless some inside bureaucratic but senior hands do not extend their blessing. I know two hotel waiters who were allured by a 1993 newspaper advertisement offering cheap plots near Islamabad. The advertisement quoted an April 1993 approval/clearance reference from the Rawalpindi Development Authority. The scheme never materialized. When matter was raised the Rawalpindi Development Authority came up with a novel but a usual response that in 2000 it warned people not to interact with this housing scheme. RDA awaited 7 long years to warn the people? The Dy. Commissioner Rawalpindi submitted his investigation report before the Punjab Ombudsman that the scheme in question was a âfraudâ. The DC used exactly the word âfraudâ. But not surprising at all even after finding it a fraud the DC did not take any further legal step to book the fraudulent. What can else and why to expect more from a bureaucratic DC when the Punjab Ombudsman the protector of citizens rights so-called working under Islamic justice system too despite having learnt that the scheme was fraud closed the case without giving his further decision or directive to DC. Since RDA bureaucrats were deep involved in this housing scheme as they remained sleeping for 7 years, the ombudsman even did not order investigation about this long 7 years sleep. The poor labourers wrote several times to so publicized NAB and many times to HE the President but never got any response.
6. Now finally on my persistent following up the PMG Sindh on 16 January 2008 after about 4 years have informed me that Pakistan Post Office âisâ not maintaining above website. He further adds that âthe Department tried to locate this website on the internet so it be stopped cheating and defrauding the peopleâ. The PMG finally and in fact âvery kindlyâ, as did the Rawalpindi Development Authority after 7 years, advises me to stay away from such websites to save my precious money. The main two points to ponder for the unfortunate citizens are; namely First that the Post Office Head Office has now woke up to safeguard a citizenâs interest and the departmental name after 4 long years. The second is those who are i-tech familiar know well that âgov.pkâ is a secure Government of Pakistan domain which no outsider can access to link or attach a private sub-domain with it unless someone unofficially âallowsâ it. Leave the most important natural question coming in minds that if this website was created by some third party as a fraud, which of course I do not believe, then the point is who knows how many might have been then defrauded by this site. I do not raise a million dollar question that as and when I enquired progress on my account opening mid 2003 why the Department did not woke up immediately to protect its own name. Or when the Department first time woke up after my three continuous years follow up did the senior level as high as that of Dy. Director General PRO Customers Care did not know that there existed no such departmental website but just as a senior postman he forwarded my letter to PMG Karachi for ânecessary actionâ. I would also not raise a further billion dollar question was the Superintendent Postal South an illiterate person who first time waking up in April 2007 informed me that âyour proposal was examined which presently is not feasible due to departmental rulesâ. These words âpresently not feasible due to departmental rulesâ are worth noting if the Divisional Superintendent was really an educated person fit to hold that particular seat reason being in his same letter under a copy he directed APMG (Admin) to take up the matter with higher authorities in light of the proposal which means for consideration if proposal was worth. The point is if my so called proposal, which in fact was not a proposal but my follow up, was against departmental rules, then how a educated person, if his certificates are true, would ask his seniors for consideration of a proposal which was against departmental rule. The million dollar point is why the Divisional Superintendent then in April 2007 in his first letter to me (after 3 years) did not tell me website was his official one.
8. Pakistan Post Office personally to me still is the second best Government department in Pakistan first being Sui Southern Gas. It is my experience which I have many a times in writing repeated to which one may subscribe or may laugh at me. While a single chpati today costs Rs. 5/- the Department still just in Rs. 4/- accepts and delivers my letter from Karachi to 1800 kilo metre away in a remote Peshawar village. In 3-4 days at an average it still delivers my letter abroad to my friends. This performance is not due to these days management. It is only because like that of Habib Bank, its foundations were laid by the then yester years managements on sound footing otherwise subsequently the managements did not let any stone unturned to rune it. For example despite putting the derailed administrative efficiency back on track, subsequent managements kept on increasing the new products without increasing proportionately the resources eg recent delivery home railway tickets. One Postal Chief in recent years repeatedly desired to âbuyâ departmental planes to airlift mail. As a layman I understand the biggest commission is in aircraft purchase deals. This tendency to fool the nation today is almost in every department. For example just 3-4 days before the end of recently out gone government, Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid repeated proudly that 24 new trains were introduced by him in his two years tenure. As soon as he left the new caretaker Railway Minister the other day addressed the press conference that the Department even does not have track fault detecting machine on NWFP sector etc. The attitude of postal management had always been strange for me. For example our postal system despite constraints delivers 80-90% mail timely or late safely. Maximum 10-20% mail might get lost. Loss of mail is an international phenomena which I have seen abroad even under modernization. However very strangely bank statements âdispatchedâ every six month by each Bank/Branch does not reach to almost 80% saving account holders. Thus it is very strange that minimum 80% ordinary mail do reach safely while about 80% bank statements get loss in the mail. For the departmental prestige the postal department has never taken up this matter seriously. Sometime during 2006-07 the Department submitted before the Federal Ombudsman that a service earlier it introduced was âillegalâ hence it was stopped whereas after 4-5 months later I used the same service. Since senior postal authorities like their counterparts other places do know well there exists no practically accountability and no body can question them hence they have the courage even to speak lies before ombudsman Pakistan â they know their counter part bureaucrats are sitting there to believe their statements and not that of ordinary true civic minded patriotic citizens. PS I have hardly 20% reading visibility in one eye only. This is typed playing with key board without pre-drafting or checking hence errors of omission or commission expected.
