President Alvi urges civil servants to focus on improving governance, service delivery

ISLAMABAD, Dec 08 (SABAH): President Dr. Arif Alvi has urged the civil servants to focus on improving governance and service delivery so as to effectively respond to people’s needs. He underlined the need for taking fast decisions by using IT tools to enhance efficiency and good governance.

President Dr. Arif Alvi gave these remarks while addressing the participants of the 115th National Management Course (NMC), National School of Public Policy (NSPP), who called on him, at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Wednesday.

Talking to the participants of the course, the President said that people had great expectations from the civil servants and they needed to be responsive to their needs. He stated that it had been his constant endeavour to set a direction for NSPP to cater to both the needs of imparting modern knowledge and techniques as well as the importance of nurturing strong values and an atmosphere of trust and cooperation among the participants of the course. Highlighting the importance of IT, the President said that using the latest IT tools could help increase the efficiency and performance of the Government. He also apprised the participants about the initiative taken by him for the digitalization of Parliament and introducing e-governance in the Presidency. He said that steps were being taken to promote the IT sector of the country which had great potential to boost our exports.

In response to a question, President Dr. Arif Alvi stated that efforts were being made to empower women financially as well as ensure the provision of their right to inheritance in accordance with the teachings of Islam. He emphasised the need to focus on the skill development and financial inclusion of women. He also appreciated the Government’ decision to provide training to youth and women, in collaboration with Amazon, to promote e-commerce in the country and provide self-employment. Regarding the high population growth, the President said that the growing population was putting enormous pressure on the country’s resources and he sought the support of Ulema and Media to raise awareness about the implications of the rising population. He also called for creating awareness among the people through media and Lady Health Workers about various health challenges, especially breast cancer in women and stunting, malnutrition and wasting in children.

Earlier, Rector NSPP, Dr. Ijaz Munir, highlighted the objectives of the course. He informed that the training regime for civil servants was being changed in line with modern needs of governance. He further apprised that NSPP had developed collaborations with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and was focusing on changing the mindset of civil servants and providing them training to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).