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Welcome to our Success Stories section.
Here you will find true stories about victims of corruption, their struggle and their eventual triumph. The names have been changed to protect the identity of the people involved. We hope these stories help to inspire you to stand up to corruption.
Excess billing due to incorrect
meter reading
On 7th July 2010, ALAC received a call from Mr. Shahnawaz from Karachi. He made a complaint against the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC). He was being continuously overcharged for electricity since May 2003. The complainant told us that he received a bill in the month of May 2003 for 18,062 units – this was 8,000 units more than the actual reading. He informed the concerned authorities and requested them to re-check his meter. Upon his request, the meter reading was re-taken and a corrected copy of the bill, showing the reading 10,062 units instead of 18,062 units for the same month, was given to him. He paid the revised bill. However, the excess units
had not been deleted from the system and showed as arrears in the next month’s bill. The situation was the same every month, for 7 years. He had to visit the KESC billing centre each month to get the bill rectified. He communicated the matter to various KESC authorities but no attention was being given and the matter was unresolved. ALAC suggested that he write an application to the advisory centre and send the related documents.
Upon receiving his formal complaint, along with copies of current and previous bills and the number of complaints which he wrote to the authorities, ALAC scrutinized the matter. The complainant had been sending various letters to different KESC officials including Controller of Billing, Chief Controller of Billing (he sent five reminders to him), Manager Business Operation KESC and the CEO of KESC.
In one of his letter dated 12th May 2010 to KESC’s CEO, he explained the matter and made an appeal in the following terms: “During the last 7 years, my old father (a handicap person of 70 years) and I have had to visit the area office many times. We have written many reminders, but there has been no response from KESC and the arrears have not been removed. I now appeal to you, again, to consider this case sympathetically and to accord justice based on the ground realities.”
In one of his letters to the CEO dated 12th March 2010, he wrote: “I am at a loss to understand why the approval of high-ups is required to correct a minor human error.” On 28th July 2010, ALAC wrote a letter to the CEO of KESC explaining the entire situation on the behalf of the complainant and requested him to look into the matter and take appropriate action to resolve the complaint. On 12th August 2010, ALAC received a letter from KESC informing us that the action had been taken, and the subject meter was rechecked by their staff and reviewed by the CEO Task Force. They also mentioned, “Upon reviewing the billing history, it was noted that an allowance is processed in July 2010 for 8,785 units and a revised bill is issued for 785 units.” The KESC told us that an estimated time of 3 weeks would be required for the allowance to get processed and updated in the billing. The KESC welcomed ALAC’s effort and requested us to keep sending our feedback on cases like these which would help them become a better customer-oriented organization. On 17th August 2010, ALAC sent a copy of the letter received from KESC to the complainant for his information. On 7th September 2010, we called Mr. Shahnawaz for his feedback. He told us that the matter had been completely resolved and that he was now receiving bills without any additional charges. This has been another success for ALAC and its mission.
Man faces corruption in passport office
The common person faces a lot of hardship when he goes to the Passport Office for acquiring a passport. They have to face a lot of hurdles, which are placed in their way so that they would have to bribe unauthorised agents, to get their work done on time. Omar, a complainant from Jhelum Punjab, called us to report his experience of getting a passport issued without paying bribe. We are quoting his experience: “On 19th September 2009, I went to the Passport Office to get my passport renewed. There were a lot of touts (agents) sitting in the vicinity of the office. They charge Rs. 600/- per passport (this amount is shared between the agent and the passport personnel) for
issuance of a token. The token allows entry to inside of the passport office. Those persons who do not pay the bribe will have to stand for hours to get inside. The system that has been set up is that after every 25 person paying the bribe 3 persons not paying it are allowed entry. Similarly, the National Bank of Pakistan’s deposit slip (for the passport fees) are usually not available at the Bank’s counters but are available from the touts on payment of Rs. 50/- or more.” The complainant alleged that this practice was going on in a very systematic way in all the regional passport offices and requested ALAC to do something to stop it. The ALAC wrote a letter to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and requested them to look into this matter and if found correct to take action under the law. The FIA took notice of it and directed Immigration and Passport Office to take the necessary action to redress the issue raised by the complainant.
* The name and addresses mentioned in the Success Stories in this website, are not real.
Problem in Getting Computerized National
Identity Card
TI-Pakistan received a complaint from Mr. Ahmed* who was a retired Army person. He was 48 years old and had applied for a Computerized National Identity Card in 2002, but had not received one as yet. Whenever he went to inquire about the progress regarding his card, NADRA kept saying that verifications were taking place. In the meantime, his wife had received her CNIC which showed him as her husband. Moreover, all of his children had been registered under Form 'B' which showed him as their father. However, he himself did not have his own identity card, and so, needed our help.
He wrote an application to ALAC and forwarded the matter. The application and the related documents were scrutinized by ALAC first, and then a letter was written to the Chairman of NADRA for sorting out this matter.After a few days, the complainant informed us that he got his CNIC and also sent a letter thanking TI-P for helping him resolve his matter.
*Actual name is changed
Property case being adjourned by one or
another pretext
Ms. Sarah lives in Lahore. She previously referred a case to ALAC about the illegal installation of powerful, noisy gas generators in residential areas. The case was successfully handled by ALAC and the complainant got relief in the end. The same complainant referred another case to this department. The matter was one related to her inherited property, where a civil suit had already been filed by her uncle against other members of the family. In that particular suit, he did not make her a defendant/party to the proceedings deliberately so that he could usurp her due share in the property.
When she came to know of this, she moved an application in the court in the same suit for becoming a party/defendant so that she might obtain her due share left by her grand father and mother. After filing such an application, and even attending the court and visiting Karachi, her matter kept on getting adjourned on one pretext or another. Hence she could not obtain the proper hearing of the case. She approached ALAC with this grievance, with the hope of solving the matter as soon as possible. On 6th November 2010, ALAC wrote to the Human Right Cell of Supreme Court of Pakistan - Grievance against application of decision of cases under National Judicial Policy, 2009 - Case#1405/1998, Sind High Court. The Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court took notice of this department’s letter and directed the Sindh High Court to expedite the hearing of Ms. Sarah’s case. Now, the hearing of the case is taking place as per schedule in the Sindh High Court.
Hence, Ms Sarah’s grievance was solved by ALAC’s intervention.
home Previous NextA policeman asking for a bribe
On 26th March 2011, Saeed called to inform us that a policeman had stopped him (he was riding a motorcycle) and wanted to check his documents. Even though his documents were in order, the police man demanded a bribe. Saeed resisted the officer and asked him to issue a ticket (challan) if he had violated any law. However, the police man kept on insisting that the complainant give the money. When the police man did not back off from his stance, Saeed called the ALAC hotline. He wanted the police man to talk to us. While speaking to the policeman, we asked his name and the reason he was asking for the money. He gave his name but denied asking for the money.
We informed the policeman that if the person had broken any laws he should be issued a challan which the policeman assured he would. A little while later we called the complainant and asked him what had transpired. He said that after speaking to us the policeman allowed him to leave without issuing any challan, as no offence had taken place. The complainant was very thankful for the immediate help given to him.
*Actual name is changed
home Previous NextTeachers of Basic Education Community
School Education
Advocacy & Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) received a joint complaint from 90 teachers of Basic Education Community School (BECS) Teachers from province of Punjab. These BECS teachers stated that they were the employees of the National Education Foundation, Ministry of Education and working on its project named Basic Education Community School Education since long.They further stated that they had not received their salaries for six to eight months, while the education allowance of some teachers had not been paid either. They stated that even the books and floor mats had not been provided to the students of their school (BECS).
They stated that they were not considered as government employees. They wrote various letters to the concerned authorities, but no action was taken. They then wrote and requested ALAC to help them with these issues.After receiving this complaint, ALAC first scrutinized and verified this compliant. Thereafter, on 13 May 2011, ALAC sent a letter to Director (Projects) National Education Foundation Islamabad, with a copy to Director BECS and Federal Minister for Education with a request to look into this complaint/matter.The National Education Foundation sent a letter to ALAC stating that at the moment they had no funds for the teachers’ salaries but assured us that they would get them in the fourth week of June 2011. (The government was expected to release the funds on the 20th of June 2011.)After checking up on the complainants, we were informed that one of the teachers had gotten her salary. The rest were hopeful to get theirs soon as well.This is another success story for ALAC, since after our involvement and efforts, the relevant authority assured the aggrieved poor teachers that they will receive their due salaries soon.
*Actual name is changed
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