To improve m-governance in the province, the Punjab government, with the help of Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), has launched the Punjab Facilitation Centre. The facilitation center is aimed at providing integrated governmental services and is launched under the Asani Markaz app. This app is available on Google Play Store and is slated for an App Store version shortly.
Asani Markaz is meant to integrate several governmental services including, issuance of birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate, divorce certificate, character certificate, vehicle registration, token tax collection, vehicle transfer of ownership, fard, learning driving license, traffic fine collection, domicile, issuance of CNIC, NADRA e-sahulat and route permit for the ease of the citizens under one platform.
An SMS service is also integrated into the app which sends SMS to the user about real-time status of their application. Recently, the government launched the National App Competition and Minister of State for Information and Technology, Anusha Rehman stated that the government was spending on IT, including mobile applications, to facilitate the citizens.
The government is also aiming to lessen corruption by decreasing dependency on agents and clerks. With 5 million 3G users in the country, this app is expected to benefit the general public and boost good governance.
Update
Just to alert our readers, Asani app asks for a lot of permissions. These permissions will allow the app developer to store a lot of information about you that can be (mis)used if reached in wrong hands.
It also concerns us that if database that houses all the data about citizens is hacked, it could have disastrous consequences. So we would like to urge the technical team behind the app to ensure they are using the most up-to-date security practices.