Federal Ombudsman M. Salman Faruqui on Tuesday presented three reports on systemic issues of different agencies to President Mamnoon Hussain. Three separate committees, to study and identify maladministration and systemic failures in respect of police stations, prisons and pension system, were constituted earlier by the Federal Ombudsman.
The committees after considerable deliberations had finalised their reports which were presented by the Ombudsman to the President on Tuesday. The committees on police stations and prisons reforms were set up on the directives of Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Supreme Court had in its order outlined the critical issues relating to conditions in prisons of the country and directed the Ombudsman to take cognisance of the systemic failures resulting in mal-administration of prisons in the country.
In pursuance of the directive, the Federal Ombudsman constituted 27 members high powered committee headed by Senator SM Zafar, former Federal Minister for Law and Justice, to examine the issue. Other members of the committee were retired Federal Secretaries, leading education experts, serving inspector generals of police of all the provinces, reputed NGOs and other stakeholders.
The report dilated on conditions prevailing in prisons in different parts of the country and recommended measures ranging from health to living conditions and food served to the prisoners to the behaviour of jail staff. The committee's recommendations in line with the jail manuals and standards of civilised societies will bring improvement when implemented. The committee on police stations reform, constituted by the Federal Ombudsman in pursuant of the orders of the Supreme Court examined the underlying issues and made recommendations to curb mal-administration in police stations of the country.
The committee was headed by former federal secretary and Inspector General of Police Abbas Khan. The other members of the committee consisted of retired inspector generals of police, retired federal secretaries and prominent personalities representing important and related sectors of the society. Some of the important recommendations of the committee relates to cognisable offences, restoration of the institution of executive magistracy, setting up of complaint authority in every district to prevent abuse of authority in police stations.
The committee also recommended setting up Forensic Service Agency in provinces and specialised investigation centres at district level for improvement in the investigation process. The committee accorded due priority to training of police in different specialised areas. The objective of the exercise is to make our police stations citizen friendly. The other important issue of which the Federal Ombudsman took notice on his own motion, is the painful delay in the disbursement of pensions which was causing considerable misery to the most vulnerable and helpless segment of the population. The Ombudsman therefore, constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the former Auditor General Pakistan Tanvir Ali Agha to examine pension system of the federal government and come up with a workable solution for ensuring timely payment of pension to the senior citizens.
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