ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Post Office Department (PPOD) continues it’s journey towards decline, with the department facing greater losses every year, documents available with Pakistan Today revealed.
The PPOD has been facing losses for the past seven years and the sum has now reached Rs7,488.925 million (2015-2016), setting immense pressure on the economy.
The structure of the Pakistan Post includes 1496 post offices across the country. The total number of regular employees is 32635 and non-regular employees amount to 15713.
The post office has a total of 6700 postmen to facilitate the public however only 1500 postmen have bikes to deliver the post and the rest still use a decades-old system of cycles or delivering the post by walking the distance.
Similarly, the department has 424 vehicles since 1990 and most of them remain out of order. Due to a shortage of vehicles, the administration has entered into an agreement with an outsourcing agency.
According to an official of the PPOD, the private outsourcing agency charges higher fares for their services.
“The amount we charge is Rs20 for the registry but a private courier’s charge is Rs150, 80 per cent of the department’s revenue is used in salaries and pension for the staff and only 20 per cent remains for all other expenses,” the official stated.
“At private companies, they give incentives to their staff for achieving targets but here it is banned and since 2009 the tickets rates have not been increased. How can any institution survive in an environment,” the official questioned.
According to the official, who wished to remain unnamed, the situation of the department is so dire that frequent request of shutting down branches in the various cities of the country are received at the headquarters.
PPOD has also allowed private companies to use their structure because according to one official, the private companies can not reach rural areas.
An approved agenda of reforms for PPOD was introduced in a bid to resuscitate the department which included Mobile Money Solution (MMS), Pakistan Post (PP) logistic company and the rebranding of post offices.
Through MMS, sending and receiving money is made possible. Similarly, PP logistic company was used to send heavy post at very low rates. The rebranding of different post offices included changing the signboards and other infrastructure.
Talking to Pakistan today, Collecting Bargaining Agency (CBA) General Secretary Pervaiz Iqbal warned PPOD of protests and stated, “We have given our suggestions for the improvement of the department but nothing is being done in this regard and the institution is spiralling towards its downfall”.
Director General (DG) Rubina Tayyab, talking to this scribe stated that “We are trying our best to set this department in the right direction. If the government uplifts the budget constraints on us, we can improve its situation.”
