Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has appreciated the performance of the state Ombudsman’s secretariat for dispensing prompt and inexpensive justice to the people and protecting their rights.
He was talking to the AJK Ombudsman Zafar Hussain Mirza who called on him on Friday and presented the report of the performance of his institution for the year 2019 to the state president.
While hailing the setting up of special implementation cell under the supervision of the ombudsman, the AJK president said that implementation of 80 percent pending judgments was a highly encouraging development and a proof of the ecellent performance of the ombudsman.
“The appointments made by the ombudsman in his institution purely on merit and through a transparent process, are precedence for other institutions, and this is also a good omen that the AJK ombudsman’s institution had established its credibility on the national and the international levels during the last two years,” he added.
He said that in 2018, the AJK ombudsman hosted the 19th annual session of the Mohtasib Forum Pakistan which was attended by the Federal and Provincial Ombudsman from all over the country.
Similarly, he maintained the incumbent ombudsman Zafar Hussain Mirza appreciably represented Jammu and Kashmir state at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and international ombudsmen’s associations.
The state president also expressed the pleasure that the ombudsman’s secretariat had planned to digitize its system to ensure implementation of its judgments.
He expressed the hope that the digital system will go a long way in redressing complaints of the people and ensuring implementation of the Ombudsman’s judgments.
On this occasion, the ombudsman Zafar Hussain Mirza apprised the AJK president of salient features of the annual report for the year 2019, and said that besides representing Azad Kashmir on the international forums, he was thinking to establish regional offices of the ombudsman’s secretariat in the state in order to provide justice to the people at their doorstep.
The ombudsman’s report says that on January 1, 2019, a total of 66 complaints were under process in the registry department and 282 in the process of investigation, while 315 new complaints were received during the year. In this way, a total of 663 complaints were scrutinized, and 151 were not found maintainable.
However, 160 complaints were investigated, and relief was provided to 115 complainants during the year. Similarly, different government departments submitted 200 compliance reports to the ombudsman’s secretariat, while 191 complaints were pending for implementation.
