Zubair Qureshi
President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday urged the Federal Ombudsman (FO) to strengthen the Institution of Ombudsman by using modern technology for effective and speedy justice and crackdown against malpractices in government agencies and departments.
The president emphasized the need for increasing the outreach of the Federal Ombudsman so as to provide inexpensive and expeditious justice to the people at their doorsteps through an efficient system of redressal of complaints against the government departments.
The president made these remarks while talking to Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz, who called on him here at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The Federal Ombudsman presented the annual report to the President about the performance and achievements of his organization during the calendar year 2020.
He informed that his office made tremendous efforts by redressing record numbers of complaints despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
He apprised that 130,112 complaints, out of 133,521, were disposed off during 2020 while relief was provided to 70,311 complainants which constituted 50% of the total disposal.
He informed that the media awareness campaign, which was launched on the direction of the President of Pakistan, led to surge in online complaints to 77,930 as compared to 11,289 during 2019.
A day earlier, Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz visited Regional Office Gujranwala.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the Ombudsman office was providing exemplary services for timely redressal of public grievances and provision of relief to the common man.
He said that thousands of public grievances had been resolved through this agency, adding that the advantage of this institution was that any complaint could be forwarded directly to him and through their regional officers without any lawyer or fee.
He said the officers concerned were bound to resolve the complaint within the stipulated time period.
Later, Regional Advisor Shahid Latif Khan briefed the Federal Ombudsman about the performance of regional office.
He said that open courts were being held in all districts and tehsils of Gujranwala division where all possible relief was being provided to complainants regarding complaints related to federal departments.
