For years, people in Pakistan have been led to believe that the representatives of their town or city or village who make promises, before the election, to champion the cause of the people. The people are often misled and give their votes to the person who makes the best case and perhaps spends a little money to improve conditions for a while. However, when the elections are done people always complain that the representative never acted on those promises. The representative falls from the good graces of the people, loses their trust and earns their anger. With the advancement in technology or the introduction of e-governance initiatives, now there is a way for people to keep track of their representatives after the election.
TrackRep is a start-up based in KPK which works to empower Pakistanis by bringing the information about their representative’s activities. According to the website ”information like bills/laws proposed, committees they are in, and their attendance of Assembly sessions” is available for every provincial assembly representative in KPK. The app has a search bar that allows the user to search for the representative they want by name, constituency and the use and function of the law or bill proposed. The app is for free and is available on Android and iOS.
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“Citizens don’t have an easy way to know who has been working for them. With information available one click away, better governance is the only way to be in the good books of the people.” — TrackReps
This app was developed by Mohsin Tariq who aimed to make such accessible to the people and by making a free app he has achieved just that. 36.412 million people in Pakistan were using 3G/4G in November of 2016 and the number has only risen higher. Perhaps with the introduction of such apps the general public can utilize the organized information and tools to their advantage to make their choices more wisely so they are represented by the people who place their faith in them.
Jhang model was another useful invention from a couple of years ago that had a similar aim was initiated by Zubair. K. Bhatti, now working at the World Bank. He initiated the plan to curb corruption using phones. Such plans have a very high chance of succeeding in Pakistan and hopefully TrackRep will expand services to the rest of country soon.
Image source: TrackReps
