All the General Post Offices (GPOs) of Pakistan have been computerised, while PC-1 for automation of 12,000 post offices has been sent to the government for approval, a source in Pakistan said. Automation of the institution under a new initiative would provide latest and modern postal services to the customers.
Under this facility, the instant cash transfer facility will also be introduced in these offices. Under the modernization plan all post offices would be inter-connected and inter-linked and people even in remote areas would be able to transfer cash to anyone anywhere in the country where a post office is functioning. A new courier service will be opened for which a comprehensive plan has been prepared to make it compatible with private courier services. This step will greatly benefit people especially those living in remote areas. The government is also planning to open citizen information/telecentres in all post offices of the country under e-Governance plan which will enable people to access post offices from where they will have the facility to get any kind of information about public and private institutions or download application forms required for some specified purpose. Postal staff will collect utility bills from people’s residences which will spare consumers from the trouble of standing in queues. Initially, the plan will be launched in Karachi and later extended to other cities. Under micro-financing scheme, post offices will start disbursing small loans.The scheme will soon be launched in rural Sindh and southern Punjab. There is also plan to open mobile post offices in the country. Mobile post offices will provide postal and other allied services in emergency situation in areas where normal services get disrupted due to any reason, as it happened in the 2005 devastating earthquake. These post offices will be mounted on vehicles which will be immediately moved to such areas.
