Zubair Qureshi
Public facilitation and quick disposal of cases have brought immense relief to applicants who earlier had to visit the court of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for many times to get their challans disposed of or affidavits signed.
Most of these applicants being shopkeepers, small businessmen, restaurant owners, food stall holders or residents were earlier at the mercy of the tout mafia for payment of their challans or renewal of their licences, etc. These touts in connivance with the reader or staff of the court fleeced them on one count or the other.
However, now quick disposal of cases due to open door policy by the CDA DC Saad bin Asad has resolved many of their problems.
After taking charge of my office six months back, the first thing I did was remove the reader and all other channels between my court/office and the applicants, said the deputy commissioner adding, “Now they (applicants) come directly to my office. They just knock at the door and come inside and don’t need to get any clearance from my staff.”
A number of applicants while talking to Pakistan Observer also expressed their joy and relief at being given VIP protocol by the CDA’s Deputy Commissioner’s office staff. Azizur Rehman who had come to get an affidavit signed by the DC for medical card of his daughter, said it was an annual requirement for renewal of his daughter’s medical card. Earlier, I had to visit the CDA DC office for three to four times and even then after paying bribe my papers were signed.
Today, I felt pleasantly surprised when a clerk of the DC court on my arrival simply took me inside the office and presented my papers before the Deputy Commissioner who asking my name and examining my papers briefly simply signed them. “Winds of change are blowing in the DC court,” said Aziz.
Not only elimination of touts from the court, security cameras (eleven) have been installed in all the sections, said Saad bin Asad pointing at the screen of his laptop on which his staff could be seen. Sitting in my office I can tell now how many patwaris are present in my office, what kind of work is being carried out and above all if the applicants are being facilitated or not.
In the past, there was a time when challans of various cases were not presented before the court even for five years. The reader simply gave them dates and returned from outside. “Now we are digitizing each and every challan and the record is being computerized. I don’t have any pending work to do nor my table is littered with files,” said he. We are also compiling sector-wise data of each zone and since I took over some six months ago, we have recovered Rs350 million under various heads. We have devised Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for quickly addressing the issues and disposal of challans, he further said.
