What happens when citizens turn to public institutions for essential services but struggle to have their concerns heard and addressed? Rubina, a Pakistani woman who faced difficulties obtaining her CNIC from NADRA because her father’s information was unavailable, highlights this challenge. Despite her mother’s existing records, she reportedly made repeated visits to NADRA offices for three years before the Sindh High Court intervened and directed NADRA to issue her identity card. 

How can citizens trust institutions when accessing even basic services requires years of struggle? Such experiences highlight how rigid administrative procedures and a lack of citizen-centred responses gradually erode public trust in state institutions.

The gap between “closed” and “solved”

The Pakistan Citizen Portal (PCP) is the clearest example. It has registered over 6.05 million complaints since launch and marked nearly 5.97 million as resolved, a resolution rate of about 98.7 percent. On paper, that is impressive.  

The citizen-side numbers tell a different story. The same report shows 1,689,301 users satisfied with how their complaint was handled, against 1,922,472 who were dissatisfied. Satisfied users make up only about 28 percent of all registered complaints. Of 3.6 million feedback submissions, 1,837,005 remained unresolved.

A caveat: the satisfaction and resolution figures use different denominators, so they shouldn’t be read as a precise “success rate.” But the pattern is not new. In 2021 the positive feedback rate was only 45.7 percent, even as the resolution rate was above 91 percent. The system is very good at closing cases. It is much less clear that it is good at fixing problems.

This is how institutions drift away from citizens. When success is measured by closure, an official can mark a complaint “resolved” without the citizen’s problem going away. Over time, people learn the portal is a ritual, not a remedy.

Ombudsmen: demand is high, so is the strain

Pakistan’s ombudsman system shows both what works and what is overloaded. The Wafaqi Mohtasib processed a record 194,099 complaints in 2023, 18 percent more than the year before, and disposed of 193,028. Online complaints rose 47 percent, to 49,190. The office reports that implementation of its findings is around 90 percent.

This suggests a free, accessible, quasi-judicial route is something citizens will use heavily. The Mohtasib has also urged departments to build complaint mechanisms of their own, which would build goodwill and reduce the load on ombudsman offices. That point matters. A national ombudsman handling hundreds of thousands of complaints is a sign that first-line departments are not resolving problems themselves.

The right to ask, and the right to be answered

Article 19-A of the Constitution gives citizens a right to information, but the Right to Information (RTI) laws depend on whether the commissions that enforce them actually function.

Early evidence was poor. A CPDI study found KP public bodies provided requested information without commission intervention in only 76 of 328 requests, and Punjab bodies in just 39 of 596.

Recent problems are mostly about institutional capacity. In KP, pending applications reached 1,500 while the commission was missing members, and disposal accelerated, with 600 complaints cleared in two months, once a new Chief Information Commissioner was appointed. Commentators had warned that the vacancies made the commission unable to decide complaints and amounted to a violation of citizens’ fundamental right to information. At the federal level, the Pakistan Information Commission received over 2,200 complaints and appeals, disposed of more than 1,600, and still had around 400 to 500 pending.

The lesson is that a transparency law is only as strong as its enforcement body. A vacant commissioner’s seat can quietly switch right off.

Where the listening should start: local government

The most basic channel for citizen feedback is the elected local councillor, the person who is supposed to be the first port of call for garbage, drains, streetlights and school repairs. In much of Pakistan, that person is missing.

Punjab’s local government terms expired on December 31, 2021. The Elections Act requires polls within 120 days of a term ending, so elections were due by April 2022. Islamabad’s last local government term expired in February 2021, leaving around 2.5 million residents without elected local representatives. KP’s local governments’ tenure ended on March 15 this year, and the Election Commission has repeatedly warned the provincial and federal governments over delay. FAFEN notes that local functions continue under bureaucratic supervision, with governments appointing executive officials as administrators.

When no elected councillor exists, citizens are left with a distant bureaucracy, a national portal, or the ombudsman. Problems that should be solved at the street level are pushed up the system, which helps explain why central complaint systems are so overloaded.

What the evidence points to: solutions

The channels exist; what is missing is accountability for outcomes. First, close a complaint only after the citizen confirms the fix, and rank departments by satisfaction and reopen rates. Second, publish monthly complaint data by category, district and resolution time, and act on repeat complaints. Third, require each department to resolve complaints itself, with a named officer, a deadline and an escalation step, as the Mohtasib recommends.

Protect the institutions that enforce rights. Fill commission vacancies on time: KP’s RTI commission cleared 600 complaints in two months once it was complete, and a vacancy should never freeze one. Hold local elections within the 120 days the law requires.

Conclusion

An institution that listens is one where a complaint changes something. In Pakistan, citizens are filing millions of complaints, which shows they still expect the state to respond. 

Responsiveness is not mainly a technology problem. It is a question of incentives: whether officials are rewarded for solving problems or only for closing files. Fixing that is how Pakistan can turn a very large volume of complaints into improved services and rebuilt trust.

About the Author:

Ayesha Saleem is Program Associate at Accountability Lab Pakistan and can be reached at ayesha@accountabilitylab.org