ISLAMABAD: Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi said, Monday the office has received 110,398 complaints and disposed of 106,732 of them during 2021, and 92.7 percent findings were implemented by the agencies.

He was addressing the media in his first press conference after taking over the charge as Federal Ombudsman and on the eve of the 39th anniversary of the establishment of the institution of Wafaqi Mohtasib.

The Federal Ombudsman stated that his institution was working for the support of the poor in the country. He urged that media should highlight the positive image among the society as it was vital to uplift the moral of the society. He said Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat had disposed of 1.7 million complaints since its inception.

He paid rich tribute to the previous leadership of Wafaqi Mohtasib and dedication of Advisors for making that institution unique with the highest service record.

He said he served that institution for over a decade, now he wanted to take the performance of that institution to new heights by using its power of informal resolution of disputes for small and petty cases of the lower strata. The services of the Wafaqi Mohtasib would be free of cost and speedy in manner and without the services of a lawyer.

He said that major issues of public interest would be taken up by taking suo motu notice and grievances of large section of population would be addressed.

He said he had constituted an Advisory Committee comprising ex-Federal Ombudsmen, senior civil servants, from judiciary and personalities from law to be members to advice on more efficient activities and performance.

He said the Federal Ombudsman had prepared 28 study reports on systemic issues of various agencies e.g. jails reforms, pension, National Savings, Overseas Pakistanis, Pakistan Post, Margalla Hills National Park, Thana reforms, Kasur child tragedy, and education sector reforms etc.

The Ombudsman has decided to prepare more study reports on systemic issues of agencies. The Federal Ombudsman has re-notified the National Committee on Children to resolve children-related issues in the country. He said his office had taken a number of measures to prevent and control cyber crimes against children and had introduced an amendment bill for the protection of children’s rights.

He said his office had received 110,398 complaints and disposed of 106,732 complaints during 2021.

He said that 92.7 percent findings were implemented by the agencies. The Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat on the advice of the president has initiated a number of innovative techniques through traditional and social media to increase awareness among the general public about the use of services being offered by the Wafaqi Mohtasib.

He said that 42,240 complaints were received through the online system with 67 percent increase.

He further said that another Regional Office of WMS has recently been established at Sargodha and Kharan to facilitate the people of the area for the redressal of their grievances and three more new regional offices are being opened at Swat, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Khuzdar.

He said that 940 review petitions against 106,732 decisions were filed either by the complainants or the agencies concerned against the findings of the Wafaqi Mohtasib.

The review petitions constituted only 0.88 percent of the total complaints decided. He said that only 719 representations were filed before the president, which is only 0.67 percent of the decided complaints in 2021.

He said his office was considered as a poor man’s court, which dispensed free of cost justice in a speedy manner.

He said that now the complainants had been given the option to appear in the proceedings of the hearings in person or through Whatsapp video link.

He said to improve the redressal mechanism; the officers of that secretariat visited the remote areas under Outreach Complaint Resolution (OCR) to provide relief at the doorsteps of the common man and 8,200 complaints were disposed through this system.

Under Integrated Complaint Resolution Mechanism (ICR), 178 Agencies (Federal Government Departments) have been taken on board for better monitoring and expeditious resolution of public grievances.

In the year 2021, 16,420 cases were registered through ICR system, in which, the agencies had failed to resolve these cases within 30 days.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022