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ISLAMABAD, Jan 15 (APP):Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said the federal government was committed to transforming Pakistan’s public service delivery ecosystem by providing government services under one roof through a network of Asan Khidmat Markaz across the country.
The prime minister made these remarks during a meeting with an Azerbaijani delegation that visited Islamabad to attend the inauguration ceremony of the capital’s first Asan Khidmat Markaz. The delegation was led by Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Public Service and Social Innovations Agency, Alvi Mehdiyev, and included Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Khazar Farhadov, a Prime Minister’s Office news release said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani government for their full support in establishing Pakistan’s first Asan Khidmat Markaz in Islamabad and termed it a milestone in public sector reform. He said Pakistan was striving to fundamentally overhaul the governance and service delivery system to make it efficient, transparent and citizen-friendly.
The prime minister said Asan Khidmat Markaz would be expanded nationwide, with the next phase covering Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. He directed the relevant authorities to begin work immediately by setting clear timelines for establishing centres in Gilgit and Muzaffarabad, followed by their rollout across the rest of the country.
The prime minister said services at the centres would be provided in line with international standards, adding that comprehensive planning was required to ensure the effective delivery of a wide range of government services at a single location. He stressed that measurable performance targets would be set for all centres and that quarterly third-party performance audits, in addition to internal audits, would be conducted to ensure transparency and accountability.
PM Sharif also directed to facilitate overseas Pakistanis through dedicated Asan Khidmat Markaz counters be established at Pakistani missions abroad.
Welcoming the visit of the Azerbaijani delegation and Chairman Alvi Mehdiyev, the prime minister appreciated Azerbaijan’s continued cooperation, noting that the Azerbaijani government had also assured support for setting up Asan Khidmat Markaz across Pakistan. He was briefed during the meeting on the recently established centre in Sector G-9, Islamabad, and informed that it would be expanded in the near future to further enhance citizen facilitation.
The Azerbaijani delegation praised PM Sharif’s efforts to introduce reforms and innovation in governance, recalling his role in administrative reforms during his tenure as chief minister of Punjab. The Azerbaijani ambassador also informed the meeting that, in addition to three weekly flights between Islamabad and Azerbaijan, one more flight would be added from March, a move welcomed by the prime minister as a step towards further strengthening bilateral ties.
Federal ministers Ahsan Cheema, Attaullah Tarar and Shaza Fatima Khawaja, along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi, were also present.