ISLAMABAD: The Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan addressed 227,000 complaints from 2013 to 2015, says the Annual Performance Report 2015, which was presented to President Mamnoon Hussain on Tuesday.
Federal Ombudsman Salman Faruqui presented the report to the president on Tuesday. The report says that 75,000 complaints had been pending since 2013. According to the report, 0.37 percent of the complainants challenged federal ombudsman’s decisions, while the rest accepted them. The president of Pakistan upheld ombudsman’s decisions in 90 per cent of the cases.
The report stated that the federal ombudsman proposed the Federal Ombudsman Institutional Reforms Act 2013 and parliamentarian later passed it. The law made it mandatory for the ombudsman to decide every complaint within 60 days.
Submitting the report to the president, Faruqui said that under the pilot project of Swift Complaint Resolution (SCR), complaints were being addressed within 15 days on the complainants’ doorstep. He said that designated investigation officers were visiting 36 districts to receive complaints from the people periodically.
“Grievance commissioners have also been appointed for FATA to address ordinary people’s grievances against the federal agencies, Faruqui said. He said that one-window facilitation desks had been established at eight major Pakistani airports and focal persons had been appointed to 92 Pakistani missions and embassies to liase with the Pakistanis working abroad and solve their problems.
He said that committee members visited different jails of the country and formulated recommendations, particularly for women and children. He said that on the recommendations of the committee, which had been formed to look into the causes for delay in finalisation of pensioner’s cases and pension disbursement, he directed all federal government departments to complete pension cases in one month, before his retirement.
President Mamnoon Hussain said that Federal Ombudsman’s Secretariat should continue efforts to provide relief to ordinary people and dispense them justice on their doorstep. The president was talking to Faruqui, who called on him at the Presidency on Tuesday.
Highlighting the importance of the institution of the federal ombudsman, the president said it was playing an effective role in addressing people’s grievances.
The president praised the federal ombudsman for addressing more than 55,000 complaints and showing zero pendency.
He expressed satisfaction at the fact that the ratio of appeals against the decisions of the ombudsman had been below one percent and 90 percent of its decisions had been upheld.
The president commended the federal ombudsman for addressing people’s complaints at the grassroots level and decreasing the timeframe for the decisions from 60 to 45 days.
Under a pilot project, he said, the federal ombudsman wanted to decide the cases within 15 days. He said the ombudsman’s secretariat would dispense cheap justice to people on their doorstep. He praised the federal ombudsman for paying a special attention to pensioners’ issues and directing all government institutions to complete the pension cases of government servants before their retirement.
The president praised the dedicated efforts of the members of the subcommittees of the federal ombudsman for addressing complaints in a systematic way and presenting reports on improvement in the working of various departments. He directed the federal ombudsman to take more measures to improve the performance of the institution and benefit from the experiences of other countries in this regard.
The federal ombudsman apprised the president of the salient features of the annual report and briefed him about the overall performance of his secretariat. Faruqui told the media after his meeting with the president that 75,000 complaints were pending when he assumed the charge of his office in 2013.
